Well after a lot of waiting I've finally made it to Spain! For those of you who don't know, I had a lot of trouble getting my visa and long story short my departure was delayed a month because of it. But I'm here now and I've decided to write this blog so you can experience Spain with me!
I'll start with my plane rides. They were really long and I got lost in the Madrid airport. I managed to make it to a train that took me to the other side of the airport but after that I had no idea what to do. I was able to find somebody who told me that you have to exit the airport to go through security again. So I went through the process of taking off my shoes, belt, removing my laptop and all the general security hassles all over again. But after that I was fine and I explored the airport for 3 hours.
The flight to Pamplona was really short and 40 minutes later I was finally there. I was greeted by my host mother and sister, Cristina and Camino, and two of the other exchange students here, Rebecca and Julia. The first thing we did was walk around the area where I live (Everybody walks EVERYWHERE here, I walk many miles EVERY day) and I think we pretty much did that the whole day. I remember being very tired (I didn't sleep at all on the plane) and I finally went to bed after about 30 hours of no sleep.
The NEXT day I started school. We decided that I would be in Letras (Arts) and not Ciencias (Science) so I would have an easier time. I don't remember much of it, everyone was talking really fast and I would just say "No entiendo" and they would repeat it at the same speed. Apparently half of my class was on a field trip to a Convent so I didn't meet everyone, but I was still hammered with questions that I didn't understand. The kids would come up to me and say, "sañlk dfjief jfdkjsle eityuewo dsfncs," and I would't know how to respond. Luckily a couple of them spoke English (I mean they spoke it well, they all start learning English when they're young but not many speak it very well) so they were able to help me out. So I was basically extremely tired the whole day and understood nothing.
As I'm writing this I still don't understand very much, but I definitely understand people a lot better. My most used words are Vale! Sí! Qué tal? and Bien. Here in Spain they say Vale A LOT, it basically means okay and I'm pretty sure only Spaniards use it. Also words are pronounced very differently in Spain, for example ciencias (science) would be pronounced thee-ehn-thee-uhs instead of see-ehn-see-uhs. And cinco (5) is think-o instead of sink-o. They think that Mexicans and other Spanish speakers pronounce things weird (but I think it's the opposite).
Well I think that's it for now. I'll add more about a wobbly drunk guy chasing us and my trip to Zaragoza later, so look forward to that.
¡Adiós!
Travis
(P.S. feel free to leave comments so I know people are reading)
I'll start with my plane rides. They were really long and I got lost in the Madrid airport. I managed to make it to a train that took me to the other side of the airport but after that I had no idea what to do. I was able to find somebody who told me that you have to exit the airport to go through security again. So I went through the process of taking off my shoes, belt, removing my laptop and all the general security hassles all over again. But after that I was fine and I explored the airport for 3 hours.
The flight to Pamplona was really short and 40 minutes later I was finally there. I was greeted by my host mother and sister, Cristina and Camino, and two of the other exchange students here, Rebecca and Julia. The first thing we did was walk around the area where I live (Everybody walks EVERYWHERE here, I walk many miles EVERY day) and I think we pretty much did that the whole day. I remember being very tired (I didn't sleep at all on the plane) and I finally went to bed after about 30 hours of no sleep.
The NEXT day I started school. We decided that I would be in Letras (Arts) and not Ciencias (Science) so I would have an easier time. I don't remember much of it, everyone was talking really fast and I would just say "No entiendo" and they would repeat it at the same speed. Apparently half of my class was on a field trip to a Convent so I didn't meet everyone, but I was still hammered with questions that I didn't understand. The kids would come up to me and say, "sañlk dfjief jfdkjsle eityuewo dsfncs," and I would't know how to respond. Luckily a couple of them spoke English (I mean they spoke it well, they all start learning English when they're young but not many speak it very well) so they were able to help me out. So I was basically extremely tired the whole day and understood nothing.
As I'm writing this I still don't understand very much, but I definitely understand people a lot better. My most used words are Vale! Sí! Qué tal? and Bien. Here in Spain they say Vale A LOT, it basically means okay and I'm pretty sure only Spaniards use it. Also words are pronounced very differently in Spain, for example ciencias (science) would be pronounced thee-ehn-thee-uhs instead of see-ehn-see-uhs. And cinco (5) is think-o instead of sink-o. They think that Mexicans and other Spanish speakers pronounce things weird (but I think it's the opposite).
Well I think that's it for now. I'll add more about a wobbly drunk guy chasing us and my trip to Zaragoza later, so look forward to that.
This is Duffin Dagels a wannabe Dunkin Donuts. There are always huge lines and each doughnut costs €1.60
¡Adiós!
Travis
(P.S. feel free to leave comments so I know people are reading)
I'm reading it! :)
ReplyDeleteI am exchange student in Northwest Spain! Please read my blog!
ReplyDeletejethroylee.blogspot.com.es
Gracias