Arriving and Settling In

Well, right when I left my mom, the twins, Michael, Alayna, and Rachael I knew i was in for an adventure. I have been extremely excited to go to Spain since I signed up for the program. I never thought I would be saying its my tenth day here. 

As soon as I stepped off the plane in Frankfurt, I could tell that I was someplace different. Similar advertisements, but with German written where the English was “supposed” to be. The rest of the Intrax group and I waited for three hours in the airport trying to make time fly by so we could finally arrive in Barcelona. As soon as we got to Barcelona, we took a bus to the hostel and went to our rooms. There were eight people to a room, and about 60 other people doing foreign exchange through InterHispania.  Right after we dropped our stuff off in our rooms, we immediately went out to explore Barcelona. The malls, the streets, the shops, the supermarket, and the parks… (plazas) I never thought this time would come, for me to actually be here. The weekend went by in a flash. We went sightseeing and saw many structures designed by Gaudi, many churches and parks. 

After the weekend in Barcelona, everyone said goodbye and we all went our seperate ways. Only one other girl was going to Valencia… but with a different group. She was German and I didn’t know her. She didn’t speak English. When I first got to Valencia, I went to my local coordinator’s house for about six hours. They were a host family too, hosting a girl from Germany who spoke English quite well. She was staying for a year.

Soon after, my host father, mother and one sister picked me up. I went to my host family’s house. I was so surprised. It was awesome, it was beautiful! My host father is an architect, and he designed his own house. It has a courtyard with a pool and views from all the windows. I love it! The next day, I went with my host father and dropped off his daughters, Claudia, 14, and Patricia,10, at school. Driving here is crazy.

The next day, I went to school. After walking up four flights of stairs, already being nervous, when I entered the classroom with the director I could seriously feel my heart pounding in my chest. Everyone got really loud. They seemed excited. I got there in the middle of their second hour. Then during the five minute break everyone came up to me talking to me, asking if I spoke Spanish and then trying to talk to me in Spanish. It was crazy, but that’s when I met Carmen, my friend here. She is the only one who can speak English decently. She teaches me common words and leads me around the school. During school I just sit there and try to listen. It is very difficult most the time. Unless it is a one-on-one conversation.

I also take the bus, which isn’t like a school bus. It’s a bus that everyone uses. I had no idea where to get off… so I guessed and it ended up being the right one, but that was extremely scary because I wouldn’t have been able to understand directions in Spanish.

Yesterday,  I went on their family´s boat. It was a huge sail boat, with four small rooms, a dining room, a kitchen and two bathrooms. In the middle of our trip it started pouring rain and thunder-storming.  When we were headed back to the boat docks, we accidently ran into a child in a little boat. Luckily, he was alright. He was part of a sailing school,and  after everyone was dried off my host father went to talk to the boy and the family. He was alright and thankfully everything was okay.

Afterwards, my host family and my host mother’s sister and husband went to a resturaunt where I had Paella, which is most common here because rice is so easy to grow.  I have never had so much food served to me in my life. First, bread, then something fried (I didn’t know what it was), then squid, then some pizza stuff, then the main dish, Paella. After we ate, we went to their third house right on the sea, before heading back to Valencia.

So far, all is going well. It’s not at all what I expected. And my trip has just begun!