¡Hola, Señora!

Today was the day of truth for the students of the Michigan-Cornell-Penn Seville Program: the day we were put with our host families--or more often, our señoras, who are usually widows or single older women. Everybody was nervous, both for their roommate assignments (at least I was) and for their host families. We had to sit through a meeting in which we went over all of the rules by which we must abide as students in the homestays before we could find out our situations. There was much anticipation and nervousness amongst us, believe me. A bit of it was alleviated when we found out all of the houses/apartments have internet, an area of grave concern for college students. Finally, we were given little tiny slips of paper that would decide the next five months of our lives and the wait was over. It was really funny when we met our señora, because she didn't know how to pronounce our names and decided to change them. She wasn't sure what to re-name Sabriye, but I am now Sandra. It's easier for Spaniards to say than Kendra, apparently. As far as I can tell, everyone is pretty happy with their situation, and I am ecstatic with where I am. My lovely roommate is Sabriye, and our señora, Ana, is an adorable grandma who is so nice and funny. The apartment is really pretty, and our room is great! I'll post pictures of it soon, meaning I'm too lazy to do it right now but they are to come.

I must say, it's looking like we're going to get spoiled here. The host families are required to provide 3 meals a day for us as well as wash our laundry once a week for us (we're actually not supposed to do laundry). Today Ana even cut up an orange for me because I was seriously struggling in my attempts. Oranges are really difficult, and it didn't help that Ana was able to cut the entire peel off the orange in one strip, Sleepless in Seattle-style, causing me to look even more foolish as I fought my way through peel and juice to try and get at something edible. But I digress. The orange is not important; what is important is that the anxious wait is over and I have a great living situation and I get to eat delicious Spanish home-cooked meals every day. It's also important that writing this post in English was harder than usual, because that means Spanish is taking over in my brain--¡muy buena cosa! (a very good thing, indeed).

This is also the first time I've ever posted two days in a row. I'm pretty proud.