First Day Out and About in the New City!

*note... I don't know why but my iPad loses the formatting when I try to post these enteries. Originally I have separate paragraphs but for some reason when it posts it makes it all in one big blob. I'll try to fix it on a real computer tomorrow as well as add some photos hopefully. When I woke up this morning I made myself some cereal and then I walked to class. Pretty uneventful considering I live five minutes away from campus and both my host mom and sister were asleep when I got up. I found out that there are a lot of different kids from other universities studying at the Universidad de Oviedo as well so we all had a big introduction meeting in one of the auditoriums when we got to school this morning. All of the speakers during our introduction spoke completely in Spanish... And they all spoke fast... None of us understood anything they said besides "grupo de Utah" so I figured I was in the right place at least. Afterwards we broke off into smaller groups for our classes. Our professors only speak in Spanish to us but they understand we don't know much so they talk slowly and sometimes repeat things a few times using different words. So far I feel like I'm surviving. I had another brief moment of panic (one of many on this trip) when I was trying to find my house today. They gave us some maps of Oviedo during our introduction session today and my friends and I thought we had figured out where everyone lived so we were going to try and walk home together. I sort of forgot that I needed to pay attention to where I was going and before I knew it I looked up and I had no idea where I was. My friends were somewhat lost as well and I decided I needed to turn around before I got even more lost. My host family lives really close to the university so I never really took the time to learn the address I just figured I would know my way around. Well I ended up wandering around for a good half hour trying to get back to the university to retrace my steps. I started panicking because there was no way to ask anyone for directions. I didn't know the address of my house and there are multiple Universidad de Oviedo campuses and I had no idea which one to ask for! I finally found the university and when I turned around I realized I had been walking down the right street for the past 15 minutes or so! Things look so different when you are walking the other way I suppose... Well after that crisis ended another one arose. When I got home I said hello to my host mom and went and set my things down in my room. I didn't quite know if she was planning on making me lunch or not because the day before I think we had a conversation about me fixing myself food if I needed it (which was terrifying because when I looked in the fridge I didn't recognize any of the food). So I figured I should be social and I walked out into our very small living room and sat down on the couch. She was working on the computer and looked over at me and laughed and then kept typing. I felt so awkward! I then pretended that I needed to use the bathroom so I could escape this awkward encounter. I walked back into my room and my mama came in and said "Olivia! Ayudarte!" which was her asking me to help her. So I walked out and much to my relief she was asking me to help her with lunch. She had me set the table and then we sat down to eat our salads and tortillas. Tortillas in Spain are not the tortillas we think of in Utah. Tortillas in Spain are somewhat like an omelette filled with potatoes (that's the best way I can describe it). It was pretty good and definitely filling. We also had a salad and pan. She also poured me a glass of wine for lunch which surprised me at first until I remembered the conversation I had earlier with my professor about how the drinking age in the Oviedo region is 16! Regardless I could not finish my glass of wine.. especially at two in the afternoon! After my "siesta" I met up with my friends at the university (none of us can figure out another meeting point yet..) and we decided to adventure around the city and look for a cheap place to buy shampoo and all of our other basic necessities. We walked through the old part of Oviedo which dates back to 1100. It was amazing. We are going on a tour of the Cathedral in the center of the city later this week which will be really exciting. We also went to the mall in Oviedo which is gigantic! And after a lot of effort we found each others houses and planned a route so we can all walk to school together in the morning. Slowly but surely we are figuring out a routine! Once I made it back to my house I found that both my mama and my sister were gone. I remembered my mama telling me that she would leave me notes if she wasn't going to be here about what to do for dinner. I found a note in my room and when I walked into the cocina I found a tray set out with a glass of water, a ham sandwich (with roasted red peppers!), and a yogurt. It was so cute! I was so happy that she made me dinner. A much needed item of comfort after my hectic day in the new city! I didn't think I would have so much to write about but everyday I see something new and figure out new things about Spanish culture. I also realized that the five-year-olds walking down the street with their moms know a heck of a lot more Spanish than I do which is somewhat discouraging. As I was walking home I overheard these two little boys shouting "la chica es fea! La chica es fea!" (The girl is ugly). I thought it was hilarious. Spanish phrase of the day: today I learned that girls in Spain say "Que mono!" whenever something is "cute". It can refer to just about anything. I have been using it ever since. Yes mono does mean "monkey"... not sure how that slang came to be.