Adjusting.

....Traveling cont'd

My new life. 

Apartment: I have two roommates. Elanna and Linda. We also live with our RA, her names is Anna Moises, is Spanish, awesome, and helpful. We were fortunate to be the only apartment that has single rooms, so I have my own room! We have a wonderful view of downtown Barcelona on Avinguda Sarria.  Large closet space, nice living room and kitchen and two bathrooms.

After I arrive at my apartment and meet Elanna it's about 7:30. I'm famished and tired. But decide it's probably best if I eat something before I pass out. I unpack and then Elanna tells me that we have to go at 9:30 because no restaurants serve dinner before then. Awesome. 9:45 rolls around and Elanna and I meet her friend Natalie at this cute restaurante La Mamasita. which is very nice and very affordable. Order a bottle of wine, a quiche, and tiramisu which was all lovely for about 15 euro. A little pricey, but it was my first night in Spain. 

Orientation: Haven't started yet, but seem easy enough. We had orientation today at 9 am so Elanna and I found the bus stop by asking 7 or 8 people on the street who were very nice. Got off a bus stop early by mistake and continued to get extremely lost on the way to our center which is in the Plaza Cataluyna which is right by Las Ramblas. Finally found our center and I find the room my name is next to on a list in the lobby and proceed to orientation where I meet a lot of nice people. Our orientator (sp? word?) is British and seems nice and gives us all our information very straightforward and in English. I find out at after 3 hours...I'm in fact in the wrong room because I have placed into Advanced Spanish 1 where the orientation was all in Spanish. Whoops!

Lost in Barcelona: Because Elanna and I had the same orientation time I figured I'd wait for her....10 minutes goes by, 15 minutes. No Elanna. I begin to become very panicked because the friends I had made in class had left me to get coffee and I told them to go ahead because I had to wait for my roommate. Bad idea. I proceed to follow some IES students to lunch with a girl I met on my flight. But, they keep walking around Las Ramblas and I am very exhausted so I decide to go back to my apartment and rest some more. I then realize I need some Euros because all I have are 10s and 20s paper bills and the bus only takes coins and Elanna had to pay for me that morning. Shoot. I try to find a coffee place to get change, but proceed to walk in circles because I'm exhausted and walked in one coffee shop where the waitress smiled at me and walked away. I'm impatient so I find a Dunkin Donuts...how American I know. Get some change and then realize I have no idea what bus to get on to get me back to my apartment. I walk in circles and read maps, and ask people and I still have no idea where I am or how to get home without getting a taxi which didn't seem like a good idea for whatever reason. I hop on a random bus after about 20 minutes of walking aimlessly around and get off where it looks familiar. 

I still have absolutely no idea where I am. I walk down Avinguda Diagnol which is a very busy street for about 30 minutes and realize I'm walking parallel to my street. I finally figure out where I am and get to my apartment......

I expect to get better at this. I'm taking a nap now.