One Month

Well, I’ve officially been live in Spain for a month now.  Half of me can’t believe that I’ve already been here that long and the other half feels like I’ve lived here for much much longer.   This month is just the start of my time here.  I still have 8 more months left.  At the beginning of the month, when I told people I would be here for a year, I got a lot of “Seriously, how are you doing that, aren’t you going to miss the State?” Now when I tell people I’m here for a year, I get “You are so lucky, I wish I could be here for a year.”  Honestly, I feel pretty lucky.   When I went through the program’s orientation, I was told horror stories about people getting culture shock 2- 4 weeks into their time here and people missing America so much, they actually go home early.  Well, I’m still waiting to meet this mythical “Culture Shock”.  I have settled into the culture and lifestyle of Spain extremely well.  There are a few things that are still going to take a little getting used to but for the most part I fit right in.

Things I’ve grown to love in my first month in Spain:

1.       Siesta- In America I only slept during the day if I was extremely tired.  In Spain, I take a 30min-1 hour nap every day no matter how much I slept the night before.  However, if I sleep for more than an hour I tend to have really weird dreams.

2.       Walking- When I first got here, I was told it would be a 15-20 minute walk from my house to my school. It’s a 40 min walk.  At first, I hated having to walk that far but now I really enjoy walking to and from school.  Basically every day I spend about 2 hours just walking.

3.       Staying out late – In America, I was always home by midnight, usually in bed by then too.  Well, in Spain, most of the bars and clubs don’t start getting exciting until about 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.  I think the earliest my roommate and I have gotten home on a weekend   is 1 o’clock.

Things I still need to get used to:

1.       Mopeds – The people on mopeds here seem to feel like they always have the right of way because they’re cute and little and speedy.  They will even drive on the sidewalks if they feel like it.  That just seems a little dangerous to me.

2.       Dogs without owners – There are little tiny stray dogs running everywhere in the city.  I pretty much trip over one every day.  One of my teachers told me that a lot of the stray dogs in Spain are dogs that people have just left somewhere because they can’t afford to keep them anymore. Isn’t that just sad????

It’s been a great month and this is only the beginning.  I still have 8 great months to go.