First of all, more on Blanca (my host mom). She is THE BEST. Whenever we talk it's totally a one-sided conversation. She talks, I nod and smile. Once in a while I'll ask her a question in broken Spanish and she lifts one eyebrow and laughs. My Spanish is definitely a little rusty...
My address is Calle de Doce de Octubre 11'4. How cool is that?! The doorman is very sweet, he always has something or other to say on my way in an out. Also, I am not the only student here. There are so many other people living in this apartment. There are two medical students from Mexico, but they will be leaving on October 5th. Another roommate is Colleen, from a school outside of Philadelphia, who is here for classes and an internship. Then there will be another girl from DePaul coming tomorrow and ANOTHER girl coming the day after that, also from DePaul. Full house! And only one bathroom for the six of us... Wish us luck!
This afternoon Blanca made a DELICIOSO Spanish lunch for me, which is served around 2:00pm. Very different food, but very good. Tons of vegetables and tons of oil on everything. I realized I am not the biggest fan of cabbage. But the best part is that she makes everything "sin gluten" (gluten free) for me. She so sweet and accomodating. Her brother came to visit and we all had dinner together and this meal is served around 9:30pm. We talked about Nebraska and Chicago, my family and friends. Blanca has hosted so many students and she had lots of stories to tell me. But what really made me feel good was when she and her brother told me I understand a lot of Spanish and am speaking it well for my first day. That was a relief!
I took the bus before dinner to visit Alex. It was so easy and WAY nicer than the Chicago busses and everyone here is so friendly. It was only about a 5 minute bus ride but I asked four people on the way there and four people on the way back if I was going the right way. They all were very friendly and nice and I'm sure I seemed like such a tourist. Oh well. Alex's host mom is such a sweet lady too. She told me to come visit anytime.
The two things I've noticed about Castillan Spanish are the accent and the use of the word "vale." Everyone here pronounces "s" like they have a lisp, it's very different from the Spanish that I'm used to. Also, EVERYONE says "vale." Literally every other word is "vale." This means "ok" or "sounds good." I keep saying "ok" and then correcting myself to "vale." It's something to get used to!
Now it's just about my bedtime, seeing as I've gotten very little sleep the past couple days. Ciao!
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