Today was my first day to do things on my own and get into the routine I will have for the next few weeks. However, it seems that nothing can ever go smoothly the first time, and getting to campus this morning was quite an adventure in and of itself. I woke up, got dressed, and had my now-normal breakfast of coffee, cereal, and what looks like a shot glass of orange juice (Zulema says it has vitamins that are good for my health), and left the apartment a little before 8:30. Yesterday Zulema had bought me my two cospeles for the day and told me that tomorrow I could come to the same place on the corner and buy more. That was my first problem: the store that we had gone to yesterday was closed when I got there this morning. Trying my best not to panic, I went to the next kiosco that I saw; however, the man working there told me he didn’t have cospeles and to try the next one. Of course it didn’t have them, and neither did the one after that. I was just about resigned to walk to campus and just be late when finally I saw another woman buying them from another store and followed suit. After securing four cospeles I faced my next challenge: getting on the correct bus. When I asked Zulema which one to take she had told me, “A2, A6, A7…there are many, if you have any doubts just ask the bus driver if he’s going to the university.” What I said in reply was gracias, but what I was thinking was “Oh great.” So, standing on the sidewalk, I had no clue which one to get on. I used my observation skills and saw that there were some other people that seemed about my age with backpacks and notebooks getting on bus A. No number, just A. So I decided to follow them and just hope for the best. However once I got on the bus my confidence level fell and I asked the bus driver, ¿Va a la universitaria? (the phrase I had carefully practiced with Zulema) and he looked at me like I was an idiot, nodded, took my cospel, and we were off. Fortunately, after about 15 minutes we arrived at the UNC campus. Afraid of missing my stop, I anxiously got off of the bus at the stop before the one I had gone to yesterday. Thus commenced challenge number 3: finding Casa Verde. Fortunately this was probably the easiest of the day, and I just wandered in the direction that I thought it was and finally found the building. Miraculously, after all of my morning adventures, I still arrived about 7 minutes early. I can honestly say that I’ve never been more relieved to get to class! I had my first class, SPN 312L, from 9-11 and my second class, SPN 318, from 11-1. I have to say that, so far, I love my classes! There are 8 of us in the first one and then it’s the same 8 plus two others in the second. The professors couldn’t be nicer and it’s fun having such a small class of people that I know. My 318 professor, Profesora Ingrid, told us that they don’t get paid much extra to teach these classes but she teaches them every year because she loves helping international students. Also, studying in this situation provides such a different atmosphere than I’ve ever experienced. For the first time I don’t want to go to class just in order to make a good grade. Here, all of the students participate and strive to improve not because we have to, but because we want to. Here the learning doesn’t stop when class ends: for the first time I know that whatever I learn in class I’m going to step out of Casa Verde and immediately use. Whereas one hour of Spanish class at home would most days seem to drag on, our four straight hours of class today seemed to fly by. After class I set off to once more tackle the bus. I knew that todos los colectivos azules (all of the blue buses) would take me to Plaza San Martín, and from there I could easily walk home. However, even though that part was easy, I somehow took a wrong turn at the plaza once I got off. Therefore I was presented with my fourth and final challenge of the day: finding my way home after getting lost. Fortunately I bring my map with me everywhere I go, and once I figured out where I was I was able to eventually make my way back home. I arrived at the apartment around 1:45 and ate lunch, took a nice siesta for a couple of hours, and then got up and did my homework. A little before 7 I met up with Thor, another one of the UT students, and we went walking around downtown. We went to Patio Olmos, the mall, and then he showed me where he lives and walked me back so I could show him where Zulema’s house is. I got back home around 8:30 and Zulema and I went around the corner to a pollería, which was a small store where they pretty much just had a huge charcoal grill covered in cooking chickens, and Zulema bought half of one. Then we went to the bakery next door and she bought some fresh baked rolls and we came back home and ate dinner. Something important that I’ve forgotten to mention is the temperature of my current home. As many people know I am a strong believer in that everything happens for a reason, and after a year of complaining I finally know why I was forced to live in a dorm room of arctic temperatures: I can’t think of a better way to have prepared myself for not having a heater. During the day the temperature is perfectly fine, but after about 8:00pm the house is muy fría! After going out tonight I’ve discovered that, I guess since we live on the tenth floor, it’s even colder inside than it is outside. She kept telling me something about it and I was hoping she was telling me that the heater was broken (because that would mean that it eventually might be fixed). I finally somewhat understood on our way back tonight that a pipe broke somewhere and the water got in the motor of the heater and now it doesn’t work. She said hopefully it will be fixed sometime in the next week. But I don’t really mind, it’s a small price to pay for being able to be in this awesome place and after dear old Moore-Hill I’m very used to wearing sweat pants, jackets, and my fuzzy socks indoors.
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