Learning my way around

There has been so much going on the past couple of days that I know I'm going to forget stuff and only write down some.  Yesterday, we began orientation, which wasn't overly exciting.  We went over a lot of rules and got an overview of the next couple of weeks.  We learned where the program office is, got pictures taken for school IDs here, went to a cafe (the orange juice was great!), and went for a brief walk around the area.  Everyone is here now (after delayed or cancelled flights).  My roommate Cara is from Tufts.  Cara and I ate lunch on our own yesterday (our senora sat and talked with us) since we had to rush back to the orientation.  So much for a siesta on my first day.  There will be plenty more opportunities though.  :-)  It takes about 25 minutes (Tori walking speed) to get from my host family's apartment to the program office.  It takes a few minutes less to get to the University.  The weather is great, so it's nice to walk, but my legs were really sore yesterday after walking of several hours.  I now have a cheap Spanish phone, so it's easier to make plans with other people in the program.  On the way home after afternoon orientation and then phone shopping for some people, I decided the most direct route was to zigzag through the streets near the cathedral.  We got a bit lost since I didn't have a chance to look at the map much since other people kept walking.  The streets in that section are really confusing (and not straight at all).  We eventually ended up exactly where we wanted to be; just a while later than we intended.  A lot of people were going out last night, so I was going to meet up with a couple people that live nearby to take a bus to meet them, but we waited for 45 minutes or so and the bus never came (the schedule is supposedly weird after either 11 or 12 at night), so we gave up and went home.  The schedule here is interesting.  Lunch at 2:30 or 3.  Dinner at 9 or 9:30.  Go out starting at 11 or later.  Return at 4 or so (I'm not planning on being out that late, but some people in my program were last night).  It'll take a bit of getting used to.

This morning I woke up at 12:30 (making up for the lack of sleep 2 nights ago on the plane), had a quick breakfast, then went for a run in the big park Maria Luisa.  The park is gorgeous!  I'm going to have fun running there.  I then came back so I'd be home for lunch.  Everyone ate together today (my senora, her husband, her two sons- both in their 20's- that live at home still, and me and Cara).  I understood a lot of the conversation, but it's hard when 2 or 3 people are talking at once.  I then went out and met some people from the program and walked around for a while.  We went to the park Maria Luisa and walked around the Plaza de Espana.

We then went back to the main street by the university and saw a place that had churros and drinking chocolate for 3 euros, so of course we had to stop there.

I then walked home and relaxed and used the internet for a while.  A bunch of people are going to a Flamenco bar tonight, so hopefully I'll get to see Flamenco.  And I found at least one other person in my program who doesn't drink and who is looking for alternate activities on weekends.  We have the entire weekend free because our trip to Italica was postponed because of everyone's flights being delayed.  I'm going to go talk with my senora while she makes dinner now.