And the language immersion begins

So yesterday, Thursday, was my first full day of immersion in the Spanish language and culture. I woke up in my new home quite refreshed after a good nine hours, made some pan tostada con mantequilla (toast with butter/margarine) in a type of toaster that I´ve never seen nor used before, and then showered. That was an experience. You see, the shower is a detachable shower head, and, well, the piece on the wall that you hang the shower head is broken. So, in a house with no heat on a 60 degree morning, this was pretty interesting. I´d do the soaping/shampooing thing with the shower head on the ground facing upwards like a fountain so as to keep my feet in hot water so at least I wasn´t completely freezing to death. Then, I had to lift the shower head and rinse off. This whole process takes quite awhile and hot water goes fast. Needless to say, it was the worst shower that I´ve ever taken, but I can get used to it...it´s truly a humbling experience. After washing up, I was off to the program center to use the internet, research classes at the University, and then attend orientation class. It was so beautiful outside, it was in the sixties and sunny! Walking the 20 mins to class is quite pleasing. When I got to the center there was a presentation for the department of filología (languages and literature) and historia which gave recommendations about which courses to choose, which to avoid, etc. etc. OK, a little bit of background before I continue: like I´ve said, this whole week we´ve had conversation/culture orientation classes once a day. The program´s participants are divided alphabetically into 3 groups of students which have class at a different time each day with a different professor. So, I´m in the afternoon group and my profesor is Juan. Stacey´s in the morning class and her profesor is Jorge, who gave the filología presentation. So here we go; Stacey and Jessica are both in that class and had told me that he is really cute. Well, Stacey and Jessica have boyfriends so they definitely understated the magnitude of this man´s beauty. I´m just gonna put it out there: this is the hottest male that I have ever seen in person. I do not lie. He´s freakin beautiful, he´s so beautiful it´s frustrating. He´s 28, a literature teacher, Spanish, rides a motorcycle, is unbelievably hot, and ENGAGED. Bastard. I guess that I´m happy that I wasn´t in his class because there is no way that I would have paid attention. The end.
Anyhoo, continuing. After the presentations I ate lunch along the river with Stacey and Jessica. Our Señora packed us a lunch (so cute) of bocadillos (sandwiches) and a tangerine. Good weather, good food, good people, good times! Then I returned to the center to do my hw--reading an article in the newspaper to summarize for the class. Oh man, it´s such an amazing break from the work I had last semester, I tell ya! I researched classes...I´m probably going to take 2 lit courses, 2 art history courses, and a history of spain. Es posible. As I was researching class, I started to get a bit stressed and hence came the pressure headache. Class went kind of slow that day, most likely due to the headache, but we didn´t get any homework! Yeah, I was craving a party last night, and that just perpetuated that craving...I had not had a real night out in Spain yet! Headache or no headache, I was going out.
I walked home, and on the way stopped at un supermercado (supermarket) to buy some notebooks and pencils. I ran into a couple of my friends, Katie and Melissa, buying cheap vodka and Fanta. Drinks are pretty expensive at bars, but it´s way cheap to buy alcohol at the store (4 euro for a fifth!), so pre-gaming is a must. The only catch: we´re prohibited from bringing liquor into our host family´s homes. So, they had a plan to buy water bottles and put the vodka in them, and drink on the way to the bar (it´s a long walk, anways). Haha, feels like high school. They said that Stacey and I could be in on the deal. Aw yeah! Walked the rest of the way home to nurse my poor, pounding head (I swear my body hates me). At home, Stacey, my temporary farmacia, gave me some ibuprofen. Then dinner. We ate at the table in front of the TV...this family loves TV...therefore I kind of love them too! Dinner, again, was delicious: collared greens sauteed with chic peas, and croquetas (kind of like mozzarella sticks, except with potato and ham inside), and a tangerine for dessert. ¡Qué rico! After dinner, Stacey, María del Mar and I got into a convo about TV. In Spain, they have Simpsons, The O.C. (just started last summer), C.S.I., West Wing (that´s funny), Sex&theCity (El Sexo y Nueva York), and Friends (which is extremely popular). That night was the season finale of the most popular telenovela in Spain, can´t remember the name though. So all of us girls watched it together. I kind of understood most of it, Marta and María helped us out; they´re so awesome! This telenovela was really silly actually, it reminded me a lot of the cheesey, poorly filmed ones that are on Telemundo all the time...also kind of reminded me of Destinos. Haha. Also, this telenovela shows nudity! Full nudity! María told me that since there´s no censorship in Spain, even commercials show nudity. Can you believe it? She was telling me about how in Spain they thought that it was the dumbest thing that the U.S. made such a huge fuss over the Janet Jackson Superbowl boob incident. Haha, it is really absurd when ya think about it. Also, in Spain, there are fewer commercial breaks--this show was an hour and a half long and there may have been 3 commercial breaks altogether. The breaks are really long, though. This is a much better system, I believe, because less interruptions, and on breaks more time to do things like make a phone call and such. Spain, you are a smarty! All in all, it was really great to "hang out" Spanish style. I mean, that was exactly like an evening in the U.S. for me, hanging out and watching our favorite TV drama. It really made me feel more comfortable and at home here. I´m really starting to become immersed in the language!