Day 6: Spanish Sister Tea Party

I can't remember the last time I got the luxury of really, truly sleeping in without stress or an alarm to wake me. I'm sure it was only a week or two ago, but it feels like it was months ago! Not only did I not awaken until 1:30 in the afternoon, but I didn't shower until 5:30 - as I had more important things to do, like sit in my PJs on the internet playing around with Pinterest, Facebook, Youtube etc. The highlight of my *vast* knowledge gained? Learning how to make an up-do that looks like my hair is a bow. I'll do it this week and post pictures. I look like Hello Kitty when I do it right. Haha! It's just such a luxury to have wifi in my apartment (a luxury I haven't had in years - minus the two months I lived with my Spanish family) that I felt the need to really take advantage of it. Ha. :)

But the best part of my day started around 6:00 when I met up with Maria, my Spanish sister, at Plaza Cervantes! She took me to a wonderful little tea cafe tucked in a nook right off of Calle Mayor and we had delicious tea served in quaint, mini, Arabian tea pots and shared a piece of chocolate cake while catching up on what was new with ourselves since we last saw each other.

I admit I haven't spoken much Spanish since I arrived almost a week ago. It's not that I don't want to improve my Spanish, but rather that I'm too ashamed about how much I've forgotten to open my mouth and make all the mistakes I know will flow out in place of grammatical, understandable Spanish. But talking with Maria is a little different, as she's my age and she's an English teacher. I feel like if you study another language and are good enough at it to teach it, you're less likely to be judgmental and more likely to be patient and want to help out in a non-insulting way.

After our little tea party, we walked up Calle Mayor and she took me in some colorful shops and we talked more about teaching and traveling and everything else I had enough vocabulary to discuss semi-intelligently. Haha! I took her to see my cute piso and we hung out a little while longer before it was time for us to part ways and have dinner. She invited me over for lunch tomorrow and to pick up poor Wellington (I can't believe I left him behind when I moved to my piso - but Maria has as many stuffed animals as I do in her room and he probably just blended in! My Spanish mom and Maria have both been giving me updates on Welly and have said he's enjoying himself just fine at their house. Haha! Adorable.) - YAY!

On the way to drop her off at the bus stop we saw a girl our age with the CUTEST Pomeranian puppy - ohmygod!! It was totally adorable and all I could do was squeal when she let us pet him!! ^_^

The rest of the night has been spent hanging out with my roomies, getting apps on my new phone over our wifi connection (my new phone is so cute!) and updating the format of my blog (this new format is so crazy... took awhile to customize but I think I'm going to love it!).

Best story of the night winner is roomie Katie. She and Ali went to the corner store to get some ice cream bars and a guy in line asked Katie if she was American. When she confirmed she was, he said, "Oh! You look like someone... someone's wife... Obama's wife! You also look like the American Flag!" Hahahaha... WHAT!? Katie is definitely in her early 20's and very much Caucasian. o_O

Anyway, I'm starting to feel like I belong here after just a few days - my apartment, my school, my phone, my friends... slowly but surely, it's all coming together. I don't know why it is I feel this way in foreign countries but not in the US - maybe it's because I have to try harder here and I know it, but I expect it just to happen in the US? Maybe it's because I have to be totally self-reliant when I'm abroad or traveling, but I have people I can depend on in the US? Whatever the answer is, I hope I find out so that if ever I must remain in the US for a long period of time I will feel as self-actualized as I do abroad.

XOXO