Cold Showers, Inside and Out

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I had to take a shower last night, and I learned what it means to conserve water. Maria Luz told us to turn the water off when we don’t need it, so when we’re sudsing up, the water is off. We turn it on real quick to rinse off then turn it off again. Standing in a shower without hot water constantly on you is one of the worst things ever. Especially when there’s no heat in the house and it’s about 55 degrees inside. I am going to be taking showers as little as possible until it warms up.

Maria had breakfast ready for us at 9:30 this morning—toasted bread with butter and jam—so we were ready to head to our first meeting at the Centro at 10:45. It’s not toast like we have at home; it’s toasted baguette bread. But it’s still good. At our meeting, Veronica went over our handbook with what not to do, what our rights as students were, etc. She had lots of stories for each point with every point coming from something that happened in previous groups. These poor families! Some of the people they had to put up with were completely irresponsible and disrespectful. A girl came home so drunk one night, she threw up all over the room. Another had to have the family’s daughter help her to bed. I don’t think I would be willing to host students if they acted like that in my house.

After the meeting, Veronica took half of the group on a tour of the city center. Since there are 44 of us, we can’t all go on excursions at the same time, so she split us into two groups. I’m in group two, and we get the tour tomorrow. Today Courtney and I just hung out at the house since it was raining and freezing outside. We had a placement test today at 4 so we studied a bit, Maria made lunch for us at 2:30 and we took a siesta. I was a little worried about the placement test because it determined what level of classes we would take. I want to be in Lengua y Cultura or Estudios Hispanicos, so I hoped I would get a good enough score. Since Spanish has been coming so hard for me, I was a little scared I’d be stuck in Intensive Language. The test turned out not to be too bad. I remembered most of the grammar and writing stuff. What I was worried about was the speaking, but we ended up not having to do that. And this test was just a kind of practice and a placement for our orientation classes the next two weeks before our actual placement test. In the orientation classes we’ll be reviewing to prepare for the actual test.

The test took two and half hours, and we didn’t leave the Centro until 7. Emma grabbed me to get a drink with her, Alex, and Liasor. We stopped at a nearby café and sat at the bar talking for an hour then we each headed our separate ways home. I was a little nervous since this was the first time I had walked back by myself. I wasn’t sure if I knew the way. There were a few turns that I wasn’t sure on, but I guessed right and made it home in plenty of time for dinner. Maria Luz made us ham and cheese pizza and soup. In Spain, everyone loves TV; they watch it all the time. At meals, the TV is always on. I think Paco must be retired because he is always here when we get back, and he is always sitting in his chair watching TV. Always. Unless he’s helping Maria in the kitchen, after which he goes back to watching TV. After dinner, we sat and talked about the news and what we’re doing tomorrow. It’s so much like when I was growing up and Mom made dinner and we all sat down together to eat and tell about our day. We stopped doing that once I was in high school and everyone had different schedules. I look forward to this time every day because we get to practice our Spanish and get to know Maria y Paco. It’s also good because it’s the only way I know what’s going on in the world. I’m usually very uninformed about current events.

Lots going on tomorrow. We have our tour of the city and our first orientation class. It’s supposed to be sunny, so I’ll be able to take pictures finally.

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Comments

[Jas]

Maria and Paco
It sounds like you were placed with a great couple. I am very glad to hear that. The shower situation does sound awful, though. As if you didn't love showering enough already!