First Day of School

Went to bed at 12am, and as able to sleep pretty well. Woke up at 7am. I don't think I'm jet lagged at all anymore. Breakfast was corn flakes and sterilized milk. The milk is heated to around 150 C for a few seconds, it tastes different then the milk I'm used to but still pretty good. Breakfast is basically non-existent in Spain, I think our house mom serves it to us as more of a courtesy. I ate as much as possible because I knew I wouldn't be eating again until around 2pm.

The metro is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. We take the number six to the number seven in order to get to school, pretty basic stuff and we haven't screwed it up yet. From there you can take a short cut to Nebrija or you can take the long way. I think you need to have lived in Spain for about 10 years before you are comfortable enough with the streets to take the short cut. I took the long way.

I now understand what people mean when they talk about being physically tired of listening to Spanish. Orientation was almost entirely in Spanish, they talked very fast, and I had to concentrate extremely hard to catch everything. Sometimes I would catch myself drifting off and have to force myself to pay attention. Its not like not paying attention in english where you can zone in and out as you please, always being able to tell whats going on. If you zone out in spanish you have to wait a little bit before you can tell whats going on. I'm hoping in another week it won't matter and I can just listen passively like I would in english.

We took a break half way through orientation for "cafe" (coffee) in the cafeteria. As far as I can tell its french press, they essentially give you a shot, with milk if you want. I drank it in about 4 sips and immediately felt jittery. By far the strongest coffee I've ever had.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria in the university. It was some kind of salmon sandwich, spanish tortillas, a meat I didn't recognize and sangria. It is extremely common for them to drink alcohol with meals, and doesn't bother me one bit. All the food was very good as well.

On the metro ride home this lady walked in our car and started giving a speech. Initially I didn't have any idea what she was talking about so naturally I paid attention. A few seconds into her speech I noticed everyone else was avoiding eye contact. As I listened more it became clear that she was a homeless person asking for money. I didn't give her any money but I assume she makes more on the metro then she would in the US on a street corner. People come in and out of the metro every stop and if the police see her she can just stop talking. She just has to pay one euro to get on the metro and she can stay there all day asking for money if she wants.