otros dias..

9 September

difficult day. i´ve heard from others that the first few days are hell. yet they are also incredible. crazy how both feelings come at once. it really takes a toll on the emotions. i must live with the realization that it all gets better as you go along.. so, Marta is wonderful. she feels it is her responsibility to make me feel welcome. and her parents are so sweet.
Alicante is gorgeous. when we got to the beach earlier i felt as though i was in a dream. and actually it still feels like one. going through the airports of Munich and Madrid i felt like i was really experiencing the world, in bite sized pieces. i loved it. it scared me. and still, it gave me a feeling of liberation.
well, jet lag is killing me, buenas noches.

10 September
Manolo is my comic relief. He reminds me of my father more every time he cracks a joke. marta is, as always, my savior in the socializing and language departments.
A weakness of mine is that I shut down whenever I feel uncomfortable. I must try my hardest to work against such a tendency as that will only make things far more difficult. I have to try to use my minimal Spanish skills as much as possible, and particularly when I feel uneasy. This is my greatest challenge.
Later in the day.. Day before Madrid. Met both of the other exchange students from the US to Alicante, went to the beach, then later went out with Marta, her boyfriend(novio), her amiga Marina, her novio. We ate at a small restaurant in Alicane, and I enjoyed myself (although generally speaking I had no clue what they were ever talking about. Oh well, soon..

15 September
Ah, lets jump forward to today, my first day at the school. IES Cap de l´huerta is a small school, even smaller than my Florida high school in Callahan. lots of people introduced themselves, and honestly i can only remember about 3 names total. it was very loud before school and trying to understand how to pronounce names and remember them (through such heavy valencian accents) is very difficult. But many people want to speak english to me, since many of them have studied it for most of their lives. I, on the other hand, have my two years of high school spanish and struggle through my nervousness to just say "hola, soy estudiante del intercambio" or "soy de estados unidos" or "me llamo maria". but the first days are always the most difficult. I was quite relieved, however, when the teacher started speaking to the class en ingles.. he happens to be one of the english teachers, thank goodness. I had (and still have)some confusion regarding my classes, but he reassured me that it would all get figured out and told me to relax. So, after all of this I searched for my neighbor Javier and we walked home with his two friends (about 10-15 minutes). and now I am here, alone with the dog, passing the time until the rest of the family gets here and we eat and possibly take a siesta :)