Saturday, August 30
After being out with a fever for the entire week leading up to my trip, changing my plane ticket, and skipping an overnight layover in favor of a train ride from Madrid to Alicante, I'm finally getting settled in with my host family. Of course, not getting on that last leg of my flight apparently invalidated my return ticket, but my parents have been chatting with United and it turns out I won't be stranded in Alicante until the end of time. Looks like instead I'll be getting myself up to Paris and then flying home from there sometime before or on Christmas day. So a little time lost at home before people start leaving; a little unexpected time gained in Paris. Any interest in yet another French tutee, Johan? I figure I'll probably need to know how to say a little more than just "I'm sorry but I don't speak French" if I want to get around for a few days. Although I guess there's always the much-used option of going to a foreign country and expecting everyone to speak my language even though I don't speak a word of their's. People don't get annoyed with that or anything, right?
More adventures awaited me when I got to the Madrid airport, of course. Turns out ATM cards linked to savings accounts instead of checking accounts aren't accepted at most ATMs in Spain. Which my bank forgot to mention when I called them to tell them I'd be going to Spain for 4 months. So, instead of arriving at the airport, getting some cash, and taking the metro to the train station, I spent an hour running around the airport trying every ATM I could find (there are 5, in case you're curious). One of them finally gave me a cash advance via credit card, so I grabbed a taxi to the train station in order to make my connection. Then I slept for a much needed 4 hours before arriving in Alicante.
The next afternoon we got picked up by our host families. It was pretty cute - everyone was nervous about meeting their host parents, and some of the host mothers would walk into the room and start waving really enthusiastically at everyone. Then they hugged their kids and greeted them con dos besos and everyone in the room clapped. Like I said, pretty cute.
My host family is María Carmen and Pepe, a nice older retired couple. They have 5 kids who are all adults now and all married except for one, who usually comes to dinner on Sundays. They've also been hosting students since 2000, so they have lots of stories about "the one from San Antonio" and "the one from Alaska." This also means that for the duration of my stay I've inherited a Spanish-English dictionary, 5 different types of shampoo and hair gel, and some colored pencils. María Carmen and Pepe own a small apartment building so I have my own little room and bathroom upstairs next to theirs, and the kitchen and living room are on the floor below. There's also a signal for some sort of strange wifi sharing network that lets me access anything run by google (gmail, this blog...) and nothing else. Sometimes I can pick up another signal that isn't regulated, which means I may be able to skype. So tell me what your username is. All in all, everything's working out pretty nicely.
Así que he pasado mis primeros días y ahora necesito dormir. ¡Hasta luego!
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