The First week of School.

Matthew has officially completed his very first week of being a master student, and I have officially completed my first week being a master student's wife. Now, what does that entail? Well, I think that might change from week to week, but this week was pretty..... interesting.

I spent a lot of the first couple of days just trying to get over my jet lag. I really thought that whole concept was a myth... but boy. We kept finding ourselves pooped by 4 or 5 in the afternoon. We were so tired that staying up just seemed impossible, so we would sleep. On afternoon, we wanted to take a nap. It was about 4 and it was only going to be about an hour at most. We were trying really hard to get in a routine. Well I wake up and I genuinely thought I was walking up the next morning. It looked like dawn in the windows and I felt very well rested, the only thing that threw me off was I woke up squished on the couch. Had I really slept all night on the couch? I must have been exhausted. I looked at the clock and it read 9:30. Not 9:30 am... No, 9:30 pm. We had slept for 5 and half hours!! Now what were we supposed to do? So much for fixing our sleep schedule. Well Matthew woke up about 10 minutes after me with the exact same thought process. We ended up staying up till about 1 or 2 and made ourselves go back to sleep.

That has been only one of the things that has been difficult to get used to. Another one is the heat. I think it has been a constant 84 degrees in our apartment the entire time we have been here. I'm starting to get used to it, but goodness. We do have AC, but electricity is more expensive here (so we've heard, we have yet to get our first bill) and so we are trying to cut back as much as we can, but our apartment is conveniently placed down a small alley way where the wind forgets to go, so even when we open the windows, there is no breeze. We are saving up for a fan. That will save us.

Now, Matthew is busy. He's got plenty to keep him occupied. He's got school, which is LOVES. He comes home every night with a huge grin on his face and a whole bunch of fun stories from the day. Me, I've had to figure some things out.

I was really nervous about this part. This whole 'figure out Spain' seemed really daunting to me. I can officially say that it's not as bad as I thought it would be. The people here are so helpful. I've been lost several times and they are so willing to help me out. I'm SOOOO grateful I can speak Spanish, even though they use weird words here. For example, we needed to buy a trash can but had no idea where to find one. We asked an employee, who luckily figured out what we were trying to say and then proceeded to let us know where to get a trash can and how to say it. The term we were using for trash can was 'basura'. The term used here is 'papelera'. Not even remotely close. I also found out that a large trash can is a 'contienador'-one that contains. Also papas (our term for potatoes) are patatas (their term). They also spell everything kind of weird here. There is a huge mix of French and Portuguese.

I spend most of my time walking. I walk to the grocery store and back home which is about 30 min each way. Usually the walk home takes longer though. I'm carrying all my groceries and I almost always get lost on the way home for some reason. Which is ironic because its the time I'm carrying the most stuff.

Anyway. I'm learning all the ins and outs of the city and things are getting more and more comfortable everyday.


Up next: Shopping.