Moving In, Standing on the Edge

While a hotel lobby filled up with older Spanish women dressed nicely, both myself and the other kids in our program sat and sort of stared and ignored, even though one of these women was inevitably our homestay mothers, or Senoras. After an awkward 25 minutes our program coordinators finally showed up and we went down the adoption line of calling out a name and then kissing both cheeks of a woman whom you would be staying with for the next 3 months. My home-stay moms is Melina, who does not speak much English at all, and has 2 very cool dogs which I sadly still cannot remember the names of. The first moments living with someone in a different country were a bit difficult because you are doing your best to understand them, but a lot of the first conversations are about some of the rules they have for their houses, essentially all the things you really need to know. But after that was out of the way and I was situated, I got a first taste of having homemade meals all the time when I was greeted at my first meal by a plate full of French fries, a hamburger patty, a giant salad and an episode of the Simpsons on the TV. Doesn’t get much more American than that. Although its very early, I’m starting to realize that the home stay is where the tedious stuff in the classroom pays off.
Before our first day of class on Thursday, we went to la playa Salobrena in the south of Granada on the beaches of the Mediterranean. There is this enormous rock there that we got to check out for a little bit and the view of both the city and the ocean was unreal. You could get right up on the edge and be looking probably 80-90 feet down and bright blue water. They are not lying though when they tell you the Spanish sun is powerful. Both the people in my group and myself all got toasted. But a very good day to have before language intensive courses begin tomorrow. First day of school, and I’ve got a 20 minute walk to my building, which is good since I’m having a plethora of food presented to me at every meal which I yet to finish one so far. Also attempting to get a gym membership tomorrow, should be an interesting episode…