Starting Something (everything) New

So, now Santander. We got here at 1 am on Monday morning and went straight to our host families' houses. It wasn't as awkward as it could have been, mostly because I just went right to bed. We had class in the morning at 9:15 so I didn't even take a tour of the house or anything. That morning my host mom told me to take the bus to school. It is not as easy as just taking the bus. Luckily, I was brave enough to ask a girl on the bus if she was headed to the university and it so happened that we were headed to the same building. Even so, I was probably 10 minutes late to school which was pretty bad. My classmates were taking a placement test so I just snuck in and tried to act like nothing was wrong.
The first day of school was pretty intense. We didn't have actual classes, but we had to listen to a few different people explain Santander and school and living here for 2 months. I am not a person who falls asleep in class, but I sure wanted to then! It was useful information, but between jet lag and general confusion, time difference, and mostly no sleep, I couldn't hardly function! We also got a tour of the university and later that evening a tour of the city. I think the best thing the university has done so far is to hire a few "guides" for us. They are 2 college aged girls (Andrea y Marta) who gave us the tours, but also plan stuff for us to do after school each day. So with them we've gone to the beach, the Magdalena Palace, the maritime museum of Santander, out for tapas, and out for dinner.

Our schedules here are really weird for us, but very normal for Spanish culture. We go to school at like 9:15 in the morning, but very few of our host parents are actually up. I had to tell mine that I could get my own breakfast because she always went right back to sleep after I ate. So we have class from 9:15 until about 2:00 and we get soooo hungry because we're used to eating around noon! Then we rush home for la comida. It's lunch, but it's the biggest, most substantial meal of the day. So far we've always had 2 courses, usually pasta, a vegetable, or salad for the first course and then fish or eggs and lunch meat with French fries for a second course. And we always have plantains or yogurt for dessert. (Bonus, the yogurt is 1,000,000 times better here than at home, and plantains taste like bananas, but don't make my stomach hurt!!) Afterwards is siesta time. Sometimes we take naps, usually I just read or enjoy some down time before we go out and do something. Around 5 or 5:30 all the shops open back up and everybody is back on the streets meeting friends, shopping or just getting a drink or coffee. Everybody stays out pretty much all night from there. We always come back to our houses for dinner at 9:30 or 10:00 and stay home for the night then, but most people (even in our group) leave again and stay out way later than in the US. I'm not a party-er back home or here, but I know that it's late to come back at 2 much less between 4 and 6 like is normal here! My host family thinks it's weird that I don't go out all night. One night we stayed out until midnight, but a lot of that was because we got lost and then were really hungry so we didn't want to just go home and not eat for the night. We actually ended up at this Mexican restaurant that was delicious! I had the best chicken flautas ever, it made me want to be in Mexico, but then I remembered I was in Spain and I was okay with that.

Okay, I'm cutting this one short (well, shorter than expected) so you guys can hear some more. I'll try to keep updating more regularly now.

I wish everyone of you could be here with me so we'd be a big happy family! 

Love you all, always!