Trials

Although my whole trip has been amazing, there have been some things that are just...different. Here is a fun list of some of my more stupid mistakes or funny situations in which I find myself.

The hallway to the apartment has light switches because the lights turn off after awhile to save electricity. Trying to get home at 2 am, I could not find it, and walked square into a wall.

The door nobs are in the middle of the door to my apartment. They do not turn. You use them to push or pull the door open/closed. Trying to leave discreetly (during siesta, everyone was sleeping) I did not want to turn the light on. I forgot that you open the door with a little latch on the right side. Instead I groped all along the side of the door for the handle, finally found it in the middle of the door, and spent a minute or two trying to find it, before I finally remembered the little latch my host dad had told me about.

The host father seems to understand me fine (despite my terrible grammar and odd words) but the host mom stares as me like she has never seen something quite like me. Mind you, these people host American students all the time. She cannot understand a word I say. Also, she won't say things in different ways. If I don't understand her, she repeats herself, just as quickly, and in the same words.

The key to the door to the apartment building hardly turns at all: maybe an 1/8 of a turn, before the door is unlocked and you can pull it open. First I spent a long time trying to make the key turn further, and was thoroughly confused because it simply would not move, and second I spent even more time trying to push the door open (there is no door handle so it looks like you should push it). Finally I figured both out. It took a grand total of 2 minutes standing on the street looking marvelously intelligent.

This morning my host mom tried to explain laundry to me. As stated earlier, she did not slow down or change her word choice. She simply repeated everything, louder and louder and louder. Eventually I figured out that I had to put the colorful clothing in one bag and the white clothing in another. What I do from there is anyone's guess.

There will continue, I am sure, to be interesting happenings. I will add more to this list as time goes on and I find myself in ever more interesting situations.

Love, from Spain!