Lost? I'm not lost!

And I’m not. Really. I just took the long way.

Hmm trying to remember this morning. I woke at 5:45 when the little devilish alarm clock beside my bed went off. Then I went back to sleep til 9. With my blinds closed my room is pitch dark, even when the sun is bright and shining. Well, it wasn’t really shining. It was raining. But u get the picture- it was dark even though it was morning. Tried to do something with my hair, that didn’t turn out so well without a hairdryer. Went out and said hi to Conchi, who was making something delicious smelling. Breakfast?! No, food for Ramon’s birthday party later in the day. But I did have coffee and some galletas, which are supposedly cookies but more like graham crackers. I then got ready and went in search of a bank, a place to buy a cell and modem, and the university to pay for my orientation program. I found the bank quite easily but realized that I forgot to bring my dollars to exchange for Euros. Oops. At least I know where the bank is. Then I stopped in Movistar to try to get a phone and she said that I needed a residency card, that I couldn’t prepay things with only a passport. Since I have no idea how pre-paid anything works, I didn’t really question this. However, it seems to me that u should be able to pre-pay whatever u want, regardless of where u live or how long u are living there, because you are only using services that you have already paid for. But whatever. Then I happened across the tourism office and thought hmm they probably have a map and maybe speak English so that I can find my university. Well they did have a map, but did not speak English.

(FYI, no one speaks English. And my Spanish is just barely good enough to get by. So dear Penn, when you tell people that they need not speak Spanish for this program—lies, all lies. If I didn’t speak Spanish I would probably still be in Bilbao.)

Anyway, I followed the path on the map. Which was the aforementioned ‘long way’. I walked about a mile and then found a tunnel. I walked another 20 minutes through the tunnel, don’t worry, there’s a sidewalk. At the end of the tunnel, I took the long way around the back of the university. Not because I can’t read a map of course, but I just wanted to wander through a parking lot, follow a bike path and climb a random gigantic set of stairs through an un-kept field.  When I finally found the actual university buildings, I asked inside for the office of international relations and she told me it was the building farthest away. Of course. So I walk to that building, and ask for the ORI and they tell me to go outside, in the bank and up the stairs. Now, since banks are everywhere, I went outside, across the street, and into the bank. There were no stairs. Since this was the second time I entered Banco Santander looking like an idiot (the first without dollars to change, and the second time looking for a university office that didn’t exist) I felt pretty retarded. Anyway there was another bank and I went to that one and in fact, you could go upstairs. SO I finally found the ORI. Now, you would think that at the very least, someone in the office of international relations would be bilingual. Not so. (I’m telling you, you MUST KNOW SPANISH). I managed to register and get the information for my orientation. Then I went downstairs to the bank and paid for it. Then back up. And met a group of other exchange students. They were speaking English and one had an American accent. So I asked him where he was from. In English, in my own American accent. And he responded “I’m from the United States of America.” Duh, dude, so am I. So I said, “haha yea, what state?” He said “Florida, where are you from?” Me: Pennsylvania. Him: OH so you are American too?! Me: (facepalm)how do u not recognize the ENGLISH accents of your fellow countrymen? I knew he was American from across the room. But he turned out to be relatively nice and was with a group of people who invited me for coffee. So I went with them and everyone was nice. I forget their names. There was a British guy, a Slovakian guy, two Spanish guys and a Slovenian girl, Alexandria, I think. Many of them still didn’t have places to live and were ‘couch surfing’ which made me very glad for my cozy little room. They all said that I was very lucky to live on ‘calle del sol’ because there’s lots of great bars and stuff nearby. Awesome. Turns out one of the Spanish guys was in charge of the whole Erasmus club thing and the orientation, and he offered to drive those of us who had homes to our respective places. Since Alexandria and 2 of the other guys were going and seemed like decent people, I decided it was probably safer to go with him than to take another long stroll around the city by myself without knowing the way. So he dropped me off. When I arrived, preparations had been made for the aforementioned birthday party. Ramon turned 4 today! He is a very adorable child, and has a precious 6 day old new sister, Julia. His parents are also nice. Laura also came, and we had a VERY GOOD lunch. Don’t remember what it was called, but it might be my new favorite food. There was also cake, and a piñata, which Ramon failed to break, but was valiant in his attempts. I talked a bit with Laura, who seems very friendly, and did nothing for a few hours. Then I left to figure out the cell/modem thing. I talked to Ramons dad, who helped me figure out what to ask for, and went to a different Movistar place than this morning, just in case. However, that girl told me the same, that I need this residency card. So I came back and Ramons dad called and talked to the other phone place and they said I didn’t need the card. But I had to walk there. Another long walk later, and a slightly nonfunctional conversation with the sales girl and I now have a cell and internet. But I don’t know how long the internet will last as it is only 1 GB, and that means nothing to me. Hopefully for a good while because it was kind of expensive. Now I am just waiting for dinner, and looking forward to orientation tomorrow, which I had assumed would be in English, but since my schedule is in Spanish, I really don’t know. So while I am mildly confused most of the time, I think my Spanish will improve a lot, necessarily. However, I am kind of sad that all of the exchange students seemed to prefer English.