riding the wave

It’s been an interesting few days here. In every study abroad orientation they talk about the highs and lows of this sort of experience. Sometimes I make a grammatical error or commit a cultural faux pas and it feels devastating and then sometimes I celebrate small victories. One of the most exhausting parts comes from the rapid fluctuations in my emotions. Yesterday my host dad and I had a very minor miscommunication about food that made me want to hide out in my room and then I had to go to class at the university (and I made it to class this time), which was terrifying because I was clearly the only foreign student in the class and was the only person to be sitting alone. Since we will be working on a major group project this semester I had to ask a few different groups if I could work with them before I found one. Ok now, this was probably the most difficult thing I’ve had to do this trip, going up to groups of students my age trying to conjugate verbs in a form they don’t teach in American Spanish classes the whole time hoping desperately that they will be generous enough to let me work with them. Thank goodness though my moment of courage paid off and when my group members asked where I was from they seemed just thrilled to meet an American student. It turns out not all foreigners hate Americans after all. After we all exchanged email addresses I talked with my professor, who is a very happy, laid back guy who was thrilled to talk to me, for which I’m very appreciative, we will be talking often as he has a very thick accent and I think I will have lots of questions. We ended up talking for quite awhile about his life (he showed me picture of his family on his camera phone), a relative of his who studies biology, his experience with biology, what we will be doing in class, etc. I’m so grateful to be in class with such a patient and gracious professor. So this was the high point of my day and I walked home with very high spirits.

Because it is just impossible to find spicy food here I made salsa this afternoon, though by my standards it is still a bit tame, my roommate and I decided to make a Mexican style lunch tomorrow and I’ll have to share salsa with Spaniards who have an incredibly low tolerance. My host mom is just thrilled that we are cooking and hopefully she won’t be too disappointed, cooking was never my strong point, but I miss American food.

bss