Okay, so now I am much less tired and have a few minutes to fill everyone in on my first few days in Cáceres. We've pretty much packed the last few days with random stuff. We've been to the cell phone stores (no phone yet, though), shopping, all over the city, to the library, and pretty much everywhere there is to go in Cáceres. The jet lag hasn't been bad. My brain definitely knows something is different, but I'm getting used to the difference already. One kid slept through his alarm today, slept all day long, missed all the sight-seeing we did, and just woke up like a couple hours ago. It might be a long night for him.
Tuesday evening we arrived in Cáceres and met our families. I love my mom and my brother. I'm still not super confident with my speaking abilities, but I have definitely already picked up a lot. I hope they don't think I'm not happy. I miss my family and friends in the States a lot, but I think I'm really going to like living here. Plus, my dog is super adorable and I kind of want to talk my roommate into getting one next year. It probably won't happen...
Yesteday we wandered through the city. My coordinator, Toñi, and her helpers showed us where they show free movies, and we went to a little museum thing that was pretty cool. Cáceres is not very big so I'm already figuring out where things are and learning how to get different places. One thing, though: the maps suck. Oh they show you where everything is, but they don't put the north side at the top or anything. They turn the map however it best fits on the page. OBNOXIOUS. So I have no idea what direction to go.
Today we did more sight-seeing. We went to la parte antigua, which is the part of Cáceres that has been around for thousands of years. It's incredible. We got to go through some little museum things and explore the area. It was way cool.
(There will be many more photos to come, but it's kind of taking forever and I have a limited amount of time to finish this post.)So after we explored la parte antigua we had some free time this afternoon so a bunch of us went shopping. We did a lot more city exploring, and rather than getting lost, I prefer to think of it as us taking the scenic route. (That's for you mom.)
In a little while I am going out to a club called Boogaloo. We're having a little party to celebrate our arrival in Spain. Tomorrow morning we're going to the university to find our classrooms and get our books and things before classes start Monday.
Okay. So a few things:
People don't go out at night until LATE. I'm going out at ten tonight and that's early for Spaniards. It's nothing to be out till 4 or 5 in the morning. How do they do this and still function like normal human beings you ask? Easy. Siestas. Spain has a designated naptime. It's freakin awesome. Every day from 2-5 all the stores close, the banks, the post office, everything. You go home and eat lunch, take a nap, and then return to work for a few hours. I already love naptime, and think that the States should definitely pick up the tradition.
The food is amazing. I have yet to eat anything I don't like. That being said, they eat soooo much! Seriously. Lunch is a full three-course meal. I don't know how they do it! And it's all drenched in olive oil so it's really rich. I have a really hard time eating all of it. I had to lie to my host mom tonight and tell her I ate with my friends because there's no way I could eat anything tonight. For example, my lunch today: a thick squash soup to start (which I thought was the whole meal at first), followed by chicken cooked with herbs and olive oil and these really awesome fried potato things (both of these courses were accompanied by fresh bread), and THEN we had fruit and THEN my mom asked me if I wanted dessert. I politely declined.
There was something else I was going to say, but I don't remember what it was. If I think of it I'll let you know. Now I am going to go out and listen to music, dance, and maybe have a drink (they don't drink to get drunk here).
Love you!
