Hey y'all
Sorry that I've taken so long to update this thing. The past few days have been a whirlwind, during which I picked classes, got a little more settled with how things run around here, and, of course, turned 21.
As those of you who have seen my Facebook page will notice, I finally answered the cries of the masses and put up my first set of touristy photos. Many more of those to come, don't worry. I'll try to be brief in explaining all that's happened since my last entry (as you can imagine, there's been quite a bit) but it won't come as a surprise to those of you who know my writing style that I make no guarantees of brevity.
I s'pose I'll start with our second night out...after figuring out the hard way that convenience stores stop selling alcohol at 10 p.m., we were forced to skip our first botellon (pre-game) and go straight to a bar. The one we picked turned out to be a great one, and we made friends with the bartenders. We've gone back since and whaddya know, they remembered us! There's a bit of travel advice for ya: when in a foreign country for an extended period, always befriend the local bartenders. You never know when they'll come in handy.
Over the next few days, other American students from the University of Minnesota and Ohio University, as well as a handful of students from Puerto Rico arrived at the Fundacion for their own orientation. I've yet to meet most of them, but I've gotta think there are at least a few friends yet to be made. I did, however, get a chance to meet a few who were out celebrating a friend's birthday in a local club. And while we didn't befriend any bartenders, I did end up getting a few "free" drinks; one of the beauties of studying in a foreign country is that everyone's constantly trying to break 20- or even 50-Euro notes. Thus, when you buy, you buy a round. We're big proponents of the pay-it-forward philosophy here.
The next morning (by some miracle, surely) I woke up in time for our 10 a.m. guided tour of Toledo. That's where a lot of my pictures were taken, as you can imagine, but aside from giving me an excuse to use my camera, we found out some interesting stuff. For example, the picture below is something you'll see all around the city, and it signifies that that building is a convent and that those outside should be quiet and respectful when passing.
After the tour, I succumbed to my first American desire...I bought a can of Pringles. Not quite as delicious as the McDonald's I had after a week in China, but pretty darn good. Kinda nice to have at least some of the amenities of home while I'm here...gotta love corporate America, huh?
We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, as we have all week. This place is impossible to describe...it's literally a maze of tiny winding streets, most barely wide enough to fit one car through, let alone two. I still only have a vague notion of where things are, but then, as many of you know, I'm what I like to call directionally...ahem...challenged, so we'll see how long it takes me to get things wired.
After a nice dinner at home, the moment arrived...at midnight, as I set foot on the main plaza of Toledo, I turned 21. Alas, I did so in a country where the unofficial drinking age is 16, but whaddya gonna do. I won't get into the details of the evening, as they're still a bit fuzzy (not to mention potentially incriminating) to me, but I do know that I had an excellent time and, a botellon, two bars, and three clubs later, I arrived home safe and sound at 6 a.m. local time. Needless to say I was rather proud of myself for surviving. Below is a picture of my first "legal" drink, in case anyone's really interested. Yeah, I look happy. Also, I'm proud to say for the record that no porcelain gods were worshipped that morning. I'll reserve that honor for my much belated birthday celebrations when I get back to the US. Those of you on campus for Senior Week have been warned.
Anyway, I woke up at about 3:30 that afternoon feeling pretty good all things considered, and showed myself just in time for lunch with my host family. We had paella, a traditional Spanish dish made of rice and various kinds of seafood, and afterward my family surprised me with a cake. In a moment of glorious coincidence, at the exact moment they put the cake in front of me and started singing, my real family called my phone to do the same. Alas, I made them wait a few more minutes before calling back, but it was great to talk to them when I finally did.
Today, we finally started our classes and while I have two with the same professor, he spent the entirety of each period going over his plans for the class. Turns out they have Syllabus Week here too...go figure, eh? I'm thinking those two classes (20th Century Spanish Lit. and Recent Spanish Film, both with Fuentes) are gonna be interesting ones, but we'll see what the semester brings. If nothing else, I know I'll be writing at least 8 papers...fun times.
I think, at long last, I've gotten you up to speed with what's been going on here in the past few days. Props to those of you who stuck it out to the end. For your sake and mine, let's hope I don't go this long between entries again.
Nos vemos,
Griff
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