Arrival and First Impressions

Hola lectoras! (Hello readers!)

I am officially in Ourense with my host family. I had a very long two days of travel, starting on Saturday at noon all the way until Sunday at eight A.M. However, this meant that I was not done traveling until four P.M. Spain time, so I had to finish the day without going to sleep so that I would not be all messed up. Thankfully I was able to sleep four hours on the plane, but it was not enough to make me awake for my full day on Sunday.

As soon as I got off the plane in Madrid, I went through customs and picked up all my belongings to head to the train station. Luckily everything was labeled very well and most of them had an English translation underneath the Spanish word. Then whenever I was unsure if I was going the wrong way, I asked someone, and everyone was very helpful. Not everyone knew how to speak English so occasionally I had to pull out my phone to find the translation for them to be able to help me. Then when I got off my train in Ourense, I was greeted by my host mother and someone who works through the program that I used to go to Spain. They were so sweet and were so excited for me to be here and even more excited when they realized that I spoke a little bit of Spanish. Their greeting was a little different than what I am used to but after they both did it, I was not as thrown off when new people I met also did this. It is custom when greeting someone you hug and give kisses on both checks. I am not used to new people being so affectionate or so close to my bubble, but I like that they instantly embraced me into their culture and showed me the proper way of greeting someone.

As soon as we left the train station we went straight to Carnival, which is a celebration that lasts over a month in Ourense. It reminded me a lot of Halloween because everyone had on costumes and their parade had all different types of themes. Some of the floats were even playing American music that I recognized. It was such a fun time with dancing, singing, and just enjoying the entertainment of the people in the parade. Then at night I went to some other Carnival activities that were similar to concerts but there was multiple all over the city with so many people. It had music, dancing, lightshows, and so much more. The daughters of my host family explained that during this time there were parties like this almost every week and everyone was welcome there. While at these events I was surprised to see how different everyone looked from each other. There is not one specific type of look for a Spainard like there normally is for people of the same place. It is also interesting to hear where people think I am from. Before hearing me speak people have assumed that I am British, Parisian, Italian, Portugal, and my students basically guessed every South American country before even guessing American.

My first day of school was amazing and everyone was so kind. My day began at 9 A.M. which is a lot later than I am used to, and it ended around 12:30. On Thursdays, I am normally done around 11 but my teacher offered to let me watch another class then to go get coffee with her and other teachers during break. I think that it is so interesting that during their break they all just go across the street to a cafe for coffee. Another thing that is different about schools here is that instead of students switching rooms depending on subjects or time, the teachers are the ones that switch rooms and more around. I personally like this because it gives students consistency, and they do not have to more around their belongings from classroom to classroom. It was also such a strange feeling being in the school because it was so similar to my Spanish elementary that I felt like I was transported back in time. I had a student make a sound from a song and it unlocked a memory that I did not know I had and same goes for a cartoon they talked about. The teachers there have a way about them that is so soft and delicate but also very stern similar to how my teachers were. So far, I am loving my experience and cannot wait to keep gathering memories and learning new things.

Until next time, Ms. K.