My street!Well, I have been here officially one week (well, at 11PM or 23.00 tonight!) It has been a very eventful week and I am finally slowing down from all the adventures!
My roomates are very nice. I rarely get to see my Spanish roomate, Ana, because of her tennis pratice, although when we have hung out she seems very sweet and nice. I really like having Kristen around. She is a fellow Office fan (although it is difficult to find websites that will stream it outside of the US....stupid hulu and NBC.com!) but we are making the best of it. So no one tell me what happens, because I will watch them but a bit delayed!
I found out that Alcalá de Henares is quite historical. It is the birth place of Miguel Cervantes and there are many beautiful buildings here. I hav enjoyed just wandering around downtown and seeing the sites. I eventually had to stop taking so many pictures because they all are really beautiful!
I did get to explore Madrid a little with one of my co-workers (she's from England and it was fun talking about the differences betwene our countries). We found an English used bookstore that apparently is very popular with the English community. It is small but quite a comfort. They even sometimes sell Reese's PB cups! Now I just need to find a used music store with English music and then I'm set!
Here is a list of things that I didn't expect to have to get used to:
- flushing the toilet by pulling up on a knob on top of the tank
- the shower head being in the middle of the main wall (what the crud is that all about?)
- military time
- spotty internet
- saying "zumo" for juice instead of "jugo"
- hanging up my clothes inside of the dryer (see pic...this took about 5 hours to dry and they were still damp)
- Chinese stores (I've been assured this is not racist, they are stores that consist of items made in China and are similar to American Dollar Stores...very handy)
- Having a maid (Maria Angeles is very nice!)
- church being a 2 hour train ride away
- leaving my window open and not worrying about bugs (not many mosquitoes here, although a cranefly did visit me one night)
- different light switches (like one giant square)
- street signs being on the buildings...so hard to spot!
Ok, so funny "crud, I don't know much Spanish" story. I desperately needed to wash some clothes so I went to a couple of different stores to see what kind of detergent I could get cheap. I saw some in bottles and it was after school and I didn't want to lug a large box home. I double checked it to make sure it wasn't like dishsoap or something. I knew that the one I bought was for clothes. Well, I got home and realized the liquid was blue and that I had only bought fabric softener. I guess detergent doesn't come in liquid! Oy!
People have been very patient with me (like when getting a phone and asking about Internet options) even when I tell them I don't know very much. I can't wait until I know more and can start to really converse with people!
Well, that's all for now (this is rather long). Enjoy the pics (more on facebook for you members!) Love you lots!
Along this street there are cloistered nuns who sell really yummy sugared almonds!
There are many little stores down the street that specialize in something I need. This fruteria smells so good when you walk past it!
This is one of the many pictures I took in Madrid. This park was so beautiful! It even has little forests in them!
2 comments:
Aw! I love your list of things you didn't expect! And yeah that dryer situation does look like it sucks! But it could be worse! You could just have to hang them outside in cold and rainy weather making it take 3-4 days for things to dry (yeah that was my experience in Ethiopia). And you've got a maid! :) *slightly envious*
lol I also enjoyed your list=) haha. I could relate to a few of them (pulling a knob above to flush the toilet lol) and drying your clothes (I had to hang them outside, thank goodness it was summertime). A maid shouldn't be too hard to get used to though lol. I'm a little jealous, not gonna lie=)
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