Then there were two terrible movies (Right up there with all the free OnDemands we watched this summer, Coleton), during which the lights were dimmed and I attempted to sleep. It´s hard to sleep sitting straight up, hence I was in a tired state and time seemed to slow down incredibly. Around 5am Spain time, the lights were turned back on. Then came breakfast - a packaged roll with ham in it, a blueberry muffin, some honeydew which I didn´t explore, and a kit-kat which was odd but appreciated.
It was nice to take the group flight, because once we got to the airport (around 7am) I just followed everyone around. It was a huge airport, but nearly empty when we arrived. After we got our bags, we took an indoor train-thing to the exit. Our program director and student services coordinator had ¨WIP¨signs and met us out front. We loaded a coach bus and took a 20 minute bus ride to the dorms. We got to the dorms around 9am - we had spent a good amount of time walking through the airport and waiting for our luggage and such.
The dorm is really nice! We have individual rooms with a bathroom, and the ¨key¨ to our room is a slide card like at hotels.
I couldn´t figure out how to get the lights on though. Later I found out from others that you have to put your room card in a doc on the wall in order for the lights to work - I never would have figured that out on my own!

Right when I got to my room I knew I would take a nap. Before we left for the airport, I had bought a cheap clock with alarm at Walgreens so I´d be able to wake up on time for things this week. So around 10 I went down for a nap and set the alarm for noon. That way I could shower and go to lunch at 2 (It´s served from 2-3) and continue on with my day. So I woke up... and it was 3.30p.
Right when I got to my room I knew I would take a nap. Before we left for the airport, I had bought a cheap clock with alarm at Walgreens so I´d be able to wake up on time for things this week. So around 10 I went down for a nap and set the alarm for noon. That way I could shower and go to lunch at 2 (It´s served from 2-3) and continue on with my day. So I woke up... and it was 3.30p.
The clock had stopped ticking at 11.20a, so the alarm clearly never went off. So I showered and first tried to find the computer room. I was expecting a room with one computer - as I had read in our pre-departure materials, so when I ran into a computer lab I didn´t think it was for us. There´s some type of chemistry conference going on here, too, so I thought this room was for that, since it had a label on the outside similar to the other conference room labels. So I walked around outside for a bit; didn´t run into anything too interesting. When I got back around 4.30, I ventured back to this computer lab and saw another student from the group in there - so I figured we could use it.
Our first orientation was at 5.30 that evening, followed by a cell phone presentation at 7.15. I got a cell phone at the presentation, which is nice just for the alarm / knowing what time it is. Cell phones work differently here - there´s no such thing as free nights or weekends. You pay for every call you make. There´s a 16 cent connection fee plus 12 cents / minute for any line ( US or Spain) and 2 cents / minute if it´s to another phone in the network (aka to my fellow WIPers). To send a text is 12 cents - no connection fee. The strange thing is that all incoming anythings are free. Incoming calls from the US, Spain, wherever, and incoming texts - free. The woman who gave the presentation said that sometimes here, when people already have a pretty high phone bill for the month, they´ll call whomever they want to talk with, let it ring once, then hang up. Then the person will see they had a missed call and call them back - hence making it a free incoming call for the person with the high phone bill. This act has a name, but I don´t remember what it´s called.
After everyone got done buying their phones it was around 9pm, so I had a half hour to wait until dinner would be served - so I started writing this post. Dinner was some type of vegetable soup - maybe asparagus? It was all blended, and actually didn´t taste bad. Then there was fish and potatoes or pork and fries. I didn´t realize that the potatoes with the fish were potatoes at first... so I got the pork and fries. After dinner I read our program manual up in my room until I went to bed around 11.30p.
Got up this morning around 8.30, showered, and went down to breakfast at 9. Breakfast is self serve - there was a mini-loaf of bread that was too crunchy for its own good, with cheese and some type of meat. There was also cereal and milk, which I of course couldn´t eat. So I made half a sandwich with part of the loaf, then put strawberry jelly on the rest of the bread.
There hasn´t been much Spanish spoken yet at all - since I´ve mainly been cooped up in the dorm with all the other WIPers. I´m anxious for classes to start, so I can get working on that.
We´re meeting at 10 to go on a walking tour of campus, followed by an academic orientation, lunch at 2, another type of orientation, and group picture at 5.30 tonight. It´s quarter to 10 now, so I´m going to get ready to go. ¡Hasta luego!
Hey REBE,
ReplyDeleteI would die for a good, crunchy, real bit of bread right now, so you had better enjoy it!
Kitty