Hola mis amigos. I have been in my new host house for three days now, and I cannot describe how happy I am to be here. Mamá Carmen has been such a blessing. Not only am I grateful, I'm excited to be living here for the next 4 months. I envisioned my host family experience to be full of love and lots of family since it's important to me in the United States, and I have that here with Carmen. Her sister is always around talking to us, and she will bring her grandkids over too (11 and 9 yrs old). I always get a goodbye kiss on my cheek and a hug before anyone leaves the house and before bed. Mamá Carmen is so giving and sweet, and she's making my time here so much easier. We all sit around the table and talk just like back at home.
After being here for almost two weeks though, the finesse of Spain is wearing off a little. While I am extremely happy for the experience, little things here are starting to get to me. For example, there was always that ONE kid in high school that walked slow down the hallway. Picture that person and how frustrated that made you. That's EVERYONE in Spain. They all walk SO SLOW everywhere!!!!! It drives me crazyyy. I walk fast and have major pep in my step, and I don't understand how everyone walks so slow. It's like time doesn't exist here, and they just stroll causally everywhere they go. It stresses me out hardcore. Also, they aren't concerned with when things start or end. If someone tell me to be somewhere at 3:00 pm, I need to be there at 2:45 pm. That's not a thing though here. They aren't worried about being late or how long something takes. I can feel my chest seizing right now at the thought of being late. These next four months are going to majorly test my patience.
Other than everything being slower here, I've been doing good! I haven't gotten *too* frustrated with the language barrier. There was one day where I just wished more than anything that I was super fluent because it's hard when someone tries to tell you something, and you have to ask for it to be said a few times and a little slower. I swear how they talk here is the only fast thing in Spain. On Friday night, my host mom had her great niece and nephew over, so I got to practice a lot of my speaking with them. I find it easier to talk to children because I'm not as afraid to make mistakes to them. My host mom's great niece is especially easy to talk to because she was very patient with me and understanding that I am learning. She would talk slow for me, and if I didn't understand, she would find ways to reword it. I had so much fun Friday night staying in and talking to her. She showed me how she flamenco dances (she's the 11 yr old), and I braided her hair for her before we went to bed. It was arguably my favorite night I've had here so far.
Bright and early on Saturday morning, my roommate and I were running through the streets to catch the bus to Itálica. It is the first Roman city outside of Italy, and it has the world's fourth largest amphitheater! I didn't realize how much influence the Romans had on Spain until this trip. Remember a few posts back when I talked about how the houses on the countryside had courtyards? That's a thing the Roman's brought here. Itálica even had representation in the Italian government system during the time it was operating. It's just ruins now, so we had to picture a lot of it. It was still pretty cool though. I really enjoyed the amphitheater and mosaics (pictures in my 2017 album). They also had a lot of bath houses where people congregated to take baths together in water that continuously flowed through the pool. People also had the choice of a hot water bath, medium heat, or cold. The Romans pulled this off with their extensive aqueduct systems and impressive engineering. Hearing about all of the amazing things they pulled off without the use of electricity or steam power puts into perspective how much the people in the world now rely on major forms of energy. One thing about Spain that is interesting is that they are not wasteful of any resources which I feel ties in well to energy use. Everything is turned off and unplugged at night. In addition, water conservation is important here. It's interesting to see the contrast to what I am used to doing with energy back in America compared to here.
While getting used to the change in life and culture, I find solace in writing about it here and having people read it, sympathize with it, laugh at it, and enjoy mi viaje conmigo. Gracias.
xoxo,
Caroline
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