Spain: the beginning

First Impressions of Spain:  Traffic lights are at a minimum here and most of them seem to blink yellow all the time; instead they are big fans of traffic circles, which they often have where we would have traffic lights.  Riding the bus across southern Spain, I thought it was interesting how flat it seemed, but at the same time from almost anywhere you can see a mountain (or line of mountains) in the distance.  The trees and vegetation are definitely different.  I think I am going to miss my oaks and maples.  There also seems to be a lot of 'ruins.' Don't get me wrong, we have them in the U.S. too, but here they seem timeless, like they could just as easily be from 20 years ago as from before their Civil War.  The architecture is decidedly Mediterranean.  The town right near mine is all white, and when I say all, I mean all.  Every single building is painted that white Mediterranean color.  It is actually really pretty :)  Finally, though it is raining now, Spain seems drier than where I am from.  The grass is hardier, more like hay (I have yet to see green grass like the suburbs).

Despite all of that, there are also moments when you realize that people are the same everywhere and parts of America have definitely followed me to Spain.  For example, pants as leggings, totally okay here too.  Also, I was sitting on the Metro, pretty much convinced that there was no way I was ever going to reach my final destination and someone's phone starts ringing, "Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces past, and I'm home bound..." Yes, Vanessa Carlton is here in Spain, and I have to say it is nice to here a familiar voice.  Along with Katy Perry, who I realized was on the bus with me later.  Then, I was sitting in the bus station listening to some older, Spanish women's conversation, and they were talking about this girl with most of her hair shaved off and about how they couldn't understand young people these days.  Now, I couldn't understand why the girl would want to do that to her hair either, but it was definitely a universal conversation that I could appreciate (and one of the only ones I understood yesterday). 

I made it to my hotel safely and mostly in tact, with the help of my mentor, Chus.  The Hotel Cervantes is very typically Spanish.  I mean, there are hams hanging in the front lobby. There was a tricky moment there when we first got to my room.  You have to insert a card into this box to get power, but the lights in the hallway are on a sensor and went out before we figured out where the card went.  So we were standing there in absolute darkness trying to figure out what to do.  Chus saved the day and it has been all roses since then.   The hotel has free Wi-fi, and honestly I have not left my room since I entered it nearly 18 hours ago.  I have been too tired to move and now I am trying to get some homework done while I still have Internet access.  Today is mostly about waiting around until my roomie gets to town this evening.  I don't know when I'll be able to post again, since we are off to Caceres tomorrow for orientation, and I don't know when my apartment will have internet.  So until then, hasta luego!