Day 2

I could not sleep the night before because of jetlag. So I have been awake since 3am. Orientation began at 8 am. We brought our luggage down stairs, ate breakfast, and separated into groups based on last name. It pretty much was all day seminars on Granada, safety, drug and alcohol abuse, Spanish customs, and other stuff. In Spain they eat lunch much later in the US around 3pm. By that time I was very hungry and ate like 4 plates of food. I continued to meet other people and introduce myself. The program ended at 4 and it was time to take the bus to Granada to meet our host parents. I was anxious to meet my roommate. Her name is Elisabeth Chappell. Before the bus ride I had never meet her and when I asked people if they meet an Elisabeth they always said no. I looked her name up on facebook as well but I still couldn't find her. I was a little worried that my roommate was an introvert because nobody I knew or talked to has meet her. When we arrived in Granada, I meet my roommate and it turns out she is not an introvert but goes by a different name Lissie, Lis, etc. She is one of the 35 students here from Tulane University. Then we meet our host mother Carla. She is tall with jet black hair and her husband Alejandro is very nice and knows English. I was very tired from the bus ride so I didn't say much in the car on the way to Carla's house but my roommate did. She is a Spanish major and very good at speaking the language. I was happy to learn that Lis had two pieces of luggage too instead of just one like many of the other people. Carla, her husband, and two sons live in an apartment on the fourth floor. We took these very tiny elevators to her apt. Sometimes I feel very claustrophobic in the elevators but as we learned Spaniards sense of space is completely different than that of an American. They will stand an inch away from you and not feel uncomfortable. At her house I met her two sons Alejandro, 15 and Mauricio, 13. She showed us to our room and Lissie and I share a room (I hope this doesn't turn bad cause I have certain ways I need to sleep). We unpacked our stuff and talked about ourselves. She came to Granada with her three other best friends. Afterwards we ate grilled cheese sandwich which is something i normally don't eat since I am not a big fan of cheese. But I ate it because I was hungry. Then Clara showed us how to walk to school because she couldn't do it in the morning. She told us her life story and how she and her husband are from Mexico and moved to Spain. When she took on the job as a host parent she didn't have a job but now she does working with something in economics. She leaves early in the morning before we have to wake up for school. Afterwards, we returned to our rooms and I skyped my parents until I fell asleep on them.