Making friends, finding classes... etc etc

This morning I slept through my alarm... well actually, I think I turned it off in my sleep. I forgot that I usually set 2 or 3 alarms because I can do that in my sleep. In any case, I woke up at 8:45 and I needed to be on campus by 9:30. I took a shower, quickly ate, and walked as fast as I could to campus. My calves still hurt from it actually, and my chest a little too because I'm still finding it hard to breathe. It's not that I'm congested or anything, it just feels like I'm trying to breathe water because it is so humid.


About halfway there I realized that I had not written down the classroom number, so I beelined to the information center in the facultad del derecho (my college), found the number, and off I went. I was about 10 min later arriving, but it didn't matter because the professor had not arrived yet and everyone was just milling around outside. It seems strange to me how the professor generally lectures sitting behind a desk, never writing anything on the board, never pacing back and forth... just sitting still at the desk.

Everyone thinks my name is all kinds of hilarious, and they think I'm very exotic. Apparently American exchange students are rare here, usually the foreigners are from some other part of Europe.

After class I found a computer lab and worked on my online Tourism class for Tech because there is a test due by noon today EST... 6pm for me. Since the connection here is less than reliable, I decided the computer lab was a good call. After studying for an hour or so I took the test, got an A, and then set off to investigate how to get the wifi working.


I found the instructions online as to how to configure the wifi, and when I finally got to the end, I found out that I have to use a uniovi.es email address as a username. D'oh. I decided to seek out Paloma who was so helpful before and ask her what to do. Her office is in another facultad, so I walked over there, waited a bit, and finally someone else asked if they could help me since Paloma was busy. Someone told me that I have to get my email address from the administrative secretary of my facultad, so back to the facultad del derecho I went.

Once there, the confusion ensued. Long story short, most international students are from ERASMUS, a program for E.U students studying abroad, so everyone seems to assume that's what I am. They told me that I wasn't in the system and that I should come back on Monday. I thought about Pepijn, my Dutch friend, who in reference to the Spaniards said "mañana, mañana..." Which is it say, it seems like everyone wants to put off everything until later. Procrastinators of the world unite... tomorrow.

Oh yeah, so last night I did finally meet with Fito and he introduced me to some other students and we all went out for a drink. It boosted my self-esteem a lot, because while my Spanish family seems less than impressed with my Spanish speaking, these guys/girls were astounded. They all thought I had already been here for months!

A few of the girls said that they sometimes rented out a room in their apartment to ERASMUS students, and that it was always really annoying just how little they spoke and understood... so much so that they usually resorted to just speaking English most of the time. I found it a lot easier to understand the younger people and to talk, but maybe it was just because I felt more comfortable talking to people closer to my own age.


We stood around talking for a bit, and nibbling on tapas (little snacks that they serve in Spanish bars which are usually complementary)... I tried out a tapa with cabrales, a common cheese native to the Asturias area. It was really good actually, it reminded me a bit of brie. Usually the Spaniards hop around from bar to bar trying different tapas, but since most of us had class in the morning we retired a bit early and Fito/The British guy dropped me off near my house. Actually, something interesting about Spain: they close down streets for construction and whatever else, but they don't put up signs or anything. As a result, it is entirely acceptable to just drive up onto the sidewalks to make 3 point or U turns. Oh yeah, and people use their horns a lot here when they drive, for any little thing.

To be honest, I don't remember any of the names except for Fito... but here are a few pictures anyway:


The girl on the left in person looks a lot like Courtney Cox, and talks a lot like her too. The guy in the back is Fito's roommate, who is actually from Liverpool but has lived here for a few years now.


Beside me is Adolfo ("Fito"), and some of his friends posing in the back there.


Seriously, I just don't remember their names. Oh well. You'll notice that despite what I had heard, young people DO wear jeans all the time here much like in the U.S, however, I have yet to see a single person wearing a tshirt of any kind. I think I'm the only female in Spain who has sneakers, too.


I must have made a good impression on them anyhow though, because I got invited to a party this weekend. I haven't decided if I'll go or not, but we'll see. It might be a good way to meet some people, and the others that I met last night were all really nice.

Everyone has been freaking out about me not wearing a coat anywhere. It's friggin hot and humid out, I'd die in the sweaters and coats these people wear. Hell, when I go outside with just a tshirt I come back soaked in sweat.


I wish I had bothered to buy some new headphones for my mp3 player though.. mine are giving out on me big time. The sound goes in and out and it crackles pretty bad. Maybe I'll go check out MediaMarkt, which is Merche's brother's favorite store. She said it is like a toys r us for electronics lovers, haha.

Apparently everyone thinks I'm really strange for A) walking around the house in socks or barefoot in lieu of slippers and B) not tweezing my eyebrows halfway off. They would probably be appalled if they saw my legs that I haven't shaved in months, haha. No Shave 08!


Oh yeah, today is Becky's birthday apparently, so last night Merche made some bonbones with crushed almonds as a gift for her and everyone in her beauty school.

Pedro getting the wrappers ready for the bonbones, and Guinness supervising of course.

Merche dishing out the bon-bon goo. She ended up making 160-something of those things! Later on they put them in little baggies with ribbons to give out to the students later this afternoon.

Well I'll leave it at that for now. Tomorrow we're going to tour a bit of the historic Oviedo and such, and then who knows.

Hasta luego!