Every Other Day

I thought would be nice to describe my daily life here in fantastically gorgeous Spain because I realized it must look like all I do here is go out on adventures-I do have to go to school…a bit…among other things. Megan and I live in the center of the city in this smaller apartment with a single older lady and another exchange student from Korea. I think you already knew that but this is just a refresher. Meg and I share a small room where we spend a lot of time while at the apartment. We like to occupy ourselves with facebook, blogging, Skyping, journaling, regular trips to the bathroom (which is always immaculately clean and somehow the toilet paper never runs out) and playing awesome computer games like MAHJONG TITANS! (For all of you who have no idea what this game is you are missing out-see picture below, it is not as lame as it looks).


Don’t get me wrong-we do not spend all of our time here-sometimes we do like to get some fresh air and venture out into the city and do what the cool people do-go walking. Here in Spain (and probably particularly Alcala) practically everyone goes walking in the streets between 5 and 8 PM and it’s this big social time. Thus we quite enjoy venturing out and doing some superior people watching. The old couples are the best! They all seem to know each other and all the ladies always wear their nice fur trench coats, it’s a riot!


Speaking of older people going out with their friends let me tell you a little about mi mama here. Blanca is quite a character. She is a mom and grandmother, with two sons in their thirties and one little granddaughter. However don’t let the grandma status fool you-she is one ball of fire! Let’s just say that Blanca has a way of properly identifying those attractive men out there and letting me and Meg know. She watches mucho TV everyday and loves to watch the shows all about famous people, pretty much the same ones as in America so I can identify with that (Fun Fact of the day: on average 90% of the Spanish population watches at least three hours of TV a day). She also goes out partying with her friends until all hours of the night. I know that she has a better social life than I do. Megan and I will be in bed before she even gets home (usually between 12 and 1) from going out at least 3-4 nights a week. Also apparently 7 AM is really early here because I’m not allowed to shower before then because it wakes her and others in the complex who were also out partying. I think this weekend she’s even going out on a trip with the girls because I guess she has gotten her fill of nightlife in Alcala and needs to branch out. Don’t let the partying fool you though-she is also incredibly domestic and let’s just say I am well-fed with delicious meals (unless she tries to poison me with TUNA!). I guess she learned everything she knows from her grandmother because her mother passed away when she was fifteen. She has lived in Spain her whole life, and Alcala for the past fourty years! This lady knows Spain and how to keep a mean house. The other day I was thinking I needed to do some laundry and low and behold when I got home look at what view we had from our window:


Every time Meg and I try to help she says “No, no, no. Your job is to go to school and eat. I cook and clean.” Can you say heaven? The only problem is that we still haven’t mastered her door and practically every day she has to show us again the proper way to shut it without waking the whole neighborhood. We did finally learn how to open it and no longer have to pray that someone is in the house to open it for us. Success!

And then we come to the thing that takes up a good portion of my day these days: good ole school. Even in another country I can’t escape it. I must admit that it’s not too bad here yet (but I have only been to one week). I actually only have it Monday-Thursday from 9 AM to about 1 PM. This homework load definitely does not even come close to last semester either so I’m a happy camper I would say. This is also supported by the fact that my teachers are fantastic. They are two Spanish ladies for my Spanish classes and they teach entirely in Spanish (which is confusing but I guess the most effective for learning). The one for grammer is a hoot and so animated (plus she has an amazing sense of style-Mom I know you would appreciate that) and the other one Meg and I refer to as the fabulous teacher. She is quite elegant in all her movements and dress and talk, pretty much everything about her screams fabulous. She also has a strange obsession with the color purple (she wears it every day almost and I think her hair is even nearing a strange shade of it). So I really enjoy both of them. Then our other teacher (besides the director Landes-who is really great too) is actually an area seventy for Europe. His name is Faustino Lopez and he is so fantastic. We only have his class once a week but he is really a great teacher and you can really tell he feels and knows what he’s teaching. He’s teaching us about the history of the LDS church in Spain-a subject he is actually writing a book about. I am so excited for this class!

Anyway that was a brief overview of the more menial parts of my life here in España! Hope that wasn’t too boring for you all! Don’t worry, my next post will be all about exciting and beautiful Toledo!