Jet Lagged...

6 Sept 2011

            Today was my first full day in Spain. I was way too exhausted to write much yesterday. Once I got to Madrid, I mostly hung around the Colegio—meeting other Fulbrighters. I was able to meet the other Fulbrighter from my home state (who will also be in the region of Valencia), the Fulbrighter assigned the same city (different schools) as me, and the Fulbrighter that I met on my first visit to the Chicago Consulate.

Today, I did a bit more exploring—or rather re-exploring—since many of the places I visited were places I knew from when I studied abroad in Madrid two years ago. I woke up much later than I intended! I set my alarm to go off at 8:30 but woke up then and changed it to 9:00. Then, when I woke up at 9:00, I decided to completely shut my alarm off and ended up waking up at 9:50. Once I was able to get up, I set out to accomplish one of my many logistical goals for the day: get a Spanish cell phone. I went to Cuatro Caminos (a metro station/neighbor in Madrid) with a few other Fulbrighters to get phones at Yoigo—which seem to be the cheapest option. While we were there, the employee asked why there were some many Americans around. Laughing, we explained that in talking amongst ourselves everyone with phones mentioned having visited that particular Yoigo store because it was so close to the Colegio.

Next, I was off to Atocha (Madrid’s train station) to get my train ticket to Alicante, Spain. Unfortunately, the ticket machine wouldn’t take my card. This is a fairly common occurrence. Most of the time when you use a foreign credit/debit card you have to show your passport. So we had to wait in line to buy our tickets in person. There were 26 other people in front of us! However, I was finally able to get my ticket without any problem, but I felt a little like I was back in Spanish 102 again.

After which, the other Fulbrighters wanted to visit the Parque del oeste (Western Park) and the Templo de Debod. Interestingly enough, the Temple of Debod is a legitimate Egyptian temple that was given to Spain as a gift! We met up with some German friends of one of the Fulbrighters, but soon we were headed back to the Colegio for an informal get together and then dinner.

*On a side note, the Spanish schedule is different that what we are accustomed to in the United States. In some places, people eat 5 meals--if you count snacks as a small meal. Breakfast is before work just as we are used to. However, sometimes there is a snack around 10 or 11. In Alicante, this is sometimes called almuerzo (which in other places refers to lunch). Lunch is not until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and is referred to as la comida (the meal). Then, you might have a snack—usually fruit—at around 7pm, and dinner is between 8 and 10. Spaniards also typically stay up later than we do—mostly because they have a siesta (nap) after lunch.