Day 3

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

This was the morning I realized that I would have the same morning routine, most likely the whole time I’m here – muesli cereal with yogurt or toast – since Teresa isn’t up most of the time…and that’s perfectly fine with me.

We had our group meeting at 9:30 am again, but this time at the bus station at Plaza Eliptica so that Isabel could show us how to get to school on the bus. For me it’s better to use the train, but I went anyway since I figured learning an alternate route to school wouldn’t hurt. It’s also mostly underground, so I might use it on days that are really rainy.

At 10am our crash course in Spanish started. First with Monica, then after a coffee break, we learned with Fatima. Monica reviewed the use of Usted versus tu and some basic food vocabulary and phrases. Fatima started her three-day long mini-course on Spanish music. After class, a representative from Morocco Exchange came to talk to us about the program. Unfortunately Stetson doesn’t include this trip in our expenses like Marist does, but I’m going anyway (I spent a few days texting/emailing Mom about it). It seems like it will be a really awesome experience considering the point is to familiarize Americans and Middle Easterners with each other, not tourism. It will definitely be different than the afternoon we spent in Tangier last summer, which was probably the most touristy-feeling trip I’ve ever taken!

I wanted to use the internet downstairs after this, but when I arrived, I realized that I didn’t know my usario. I thought that it might be on my UC3 ID card, and it actually is, but I was dumb and didn’t try the correct number, since it looked wrong to me… oh well. I was upset about this as I was walking off campus and so I walked in what I thought was the right direction. About halfway down that street I realized it wasn’t the correct one. I thought I was supposed to be on the street to my right, so I figured I’d just walk to the next corner and take a right… well that wasn’t for a while… and then I was really out of the way… and then once I thought I was on the right street I realized I was wrong! So indeed I had my first experience being lost. Somehow I walked in a giant square back to the university, which was good since I could re-orient myself from there. I almost went down the wrong street again, but didn’t, and finally found the correct one.

By the time I got to the train station, I’d been walking for a good 45 minutes – my exercise for the day. Teresa was a little worried that I was late coming home, but then over lunch we laughed about me getting lost. I resisted taking a nap, and instead watched TV with Teresa and then Natasha when she got home from the Prado. I still went to bed early that night though… not yet over my exhaustion.