la primera semana

Okay, so I haven't felt like I've had anything interesting to say yet about Spain, at least not for the first several days. You would think it would be tremendous; my first few days living in a foreign country should have been epic right? Well, kind of. Overwhelming is probably more like it. I mean, I hardly slept on the plane, then I had to spend my first two nights in two different hotels, and meet everyone in my program (46 of us altogether) in the span of two hours. Then we immediately went out to the clubs, and had to spend the next day moving into our new home, la Residencia Onix. Then there was unpacking and buying food and adjusting to a 9 hour time difference and being away from all my family and friends and having to start all over in a new place. I'm not complaining, this semester is going to be epic and I know it, but it was definitely hard. And harder still because I wanted to be able to tell everyone all about what a great time I was having.

But I've been here for about a week and a half now, and now that I am adjusted to the time difference and have made a few friends I have a much more optimistic outlook on the semester :)  This is going to be an incredible learning experience for me, I can already tell that I will grow so much both academically and personally.

One thing that still bothers me though is the language. Honestly, since I've gotten here I feel like my ability to speak both Spanish and English is slowly deteriorating. What doesn't help are the Catalan classes that we are required to take with our program. In the state of Cataluña (Barcelona = the capital), Catalan is the most widely spoken language, though most catalunians are also fluent in Spanish and often English and French or German as well. Most street signs, building signs etc. are in Catalan, so it is useful and exciting to be learning this new language. Its confusing me though, and I'm beginning to wonder if the language space in my brain in severely limited. I keep forgetting words for things like "apple" or "swim" and its making me nervous...

Sóc l'Elena! Tinc una germana! Sóc de California!

That's what I've learned in Catalan. I am Elena. I have one sister. I am from California.

So I am absorbing a little.

I still need to post pictures from Park Güell, and write more about what I'm looking forward to this semester, but I will say right now that it will be a dynamic and exciting four months! Stay tuned for updates!