Too Much Stuff

January 2nd was the first day of orientation.  The day we get to see who our host mom is.  Deciding whether to live in a dorm or in a homestay was a huge decision and both had its pros and cons.  In the end, the homestay won out.

Considering you are living with this person for 4 months, it's a pretty big deal.  So I arrive at orientation and all I can think about through everything is who is this mystery lady going to be.  I can't even recall what was said during the hour long presentation. After that was all over we finally are off to our homestays.  All of the people that were living in the dorms leave and we just have to sit and wait for our names to be called.  Mine is finally called and I start to get nervous.  Ingrid and I go to grab our luggage (all three suitcases, yes I'm being serious) and head out to meet her.  I'm not sure what I expected, but my first impression of her was great.  She seemed so nice, but spoke little english.  The first thing she says is "mama mia, SO much stuff".  We roll up to her car.  It's a compact.  How we even got 6 pieces of luggage, 2 backpacks, and 3 people in that car is still beyond me.  Just take a look at it below.  It was an LOL worthy moment, that's for sure.

We make it to her house and now have to take this elevator that can fit maybe three people.  So that was a pain.  The apartment is small since she lives by herself but very nice and open.  The view from the roof and the balcony is amazing and I love it.

(host mom and I)

After we spend some time unpacking we head out to meet at the CIEE school where we will then go to get drinks with our Guardian Angels (spanish students who are basically leaders of small break out groups here).  The whole program walks to a bar to find out, surprise, they can't fit 140 people in there. So we have to break up resulting in Ingrid and I (who live together in the same home stay) being broken up.  I also have no phone at this point.  Situation = not good.  We make this plan to meet at a certain spot at a certain time and I don't know where this spot is anymore because I was led around town for like 30 minutes resulting in no sense of direction anymore.  I end up giving up trying to find Ingrid and taking a taxi home.  Ingrid's missing for like 30 more minutes and she finally makes her way home.   We didn't eat dinner until 10:30pm that night.  Yes, you read that right.  Oh, dinner is between 9pm and 10pm here.  Yeah, I'm barely surviving.