Today was even better than yesterday! The day started at 8am when I woke up, and I got ready for orientation. My host mom took me to the tram, and rode with me to campus because I was nervous and I had no idea where I was going. I felt like a little kid getting dropped off for school haha, but I was very thankful that she came with me!
We sat through a few hours of orientation
and learned a lot about the university and everything that we need to know.
Once that part was over, we were introduced to our intercambios. Intercambios
are the other Spanish students from the university that we are paired up with.
These students are sort of like our Spanish best friends, and they are going to
show us around campus and around the city, and help us get acclimated and make
more friends. They are also going to help us with our Spanish speaking skills
too.
My partner’s name is Celia, and she is
extremely nice. She wants to take me shopping this weekend because I explained
to her how horribly I packed for this trip. All of us American students and our
intercambios went for a tour of the university, and then 8 of us went out to
eat lunch at a tapas restaurant near campus. This was my first experience with
tapas, and they were delicious! If you don’t know what tapas are, they are
famous in Spain. They are like finger food or little appetizers, but there are
hundreds of different kinds. I got 2. One was pollo y ali oli, and the other
was tortilla patata y salsa. I liked them both very much!
From the restaurant, we all went to La
Plaza de Luceros, which is basically in El Centro, or the downtown part of
Alicante. We got a chance to explore the city, see the beaches, and see the
malls and other shopping areas. Once we were finished touring the city, we were
left to find our own way home.
I was not looking forward to this, because
both of the other girls who came from Michigan with me live close together and
in El Centro. I live about 15 minutes by bus from this area, so I had to figure
out how the heck to get home. It was surprisingly easy, but I was still
nervous. I managed to get myself onto the correct tram and I made it home at
7:30!
I got the opportunity to share my day with
my host mother, and she told me that she is very impressed with how much my Spanish
speaking skills improved in just one day. I guess I am just a little bit more
comfortable, and I hope to continue improving each day! 