My first major challenge has to do with school. In March I got my acceptance letter to the Fall 2012 Semester in Spain program and I was super excited!! I started thinking about all of the Spanish I was going to learn, the culture I was going to get to experience first hand, and travelling!!! Little did I know, it was going to be a lot harder than I thought.
Study Abroad: When students travel to another country for a period of time to pursue an educational degree.SURPRISE. When you study abroad you actually have to study!! I think I forgot that little detail when I was planning out my semester :)
I have never been the type to study (productively) for hours on end and dedicate my whole time at school to my actual school work. Now, you can only imagine how much of a challenge studying has been for me while being here in Sevilla. It is SO HARD to get myself to sit down and focus on my homework. For example, right now I really should be studying for my tests that I have starting on Tuesday, but I decided to procrastinate by writing a blog about how I have a hard time getting myself to study instead of actually studying :) I am a pro at finding ways to distract myself from studying, I should probably get paid for it.
My next challenge has to do with the public facilities here. And I must dedicate this part to my friend Christina, because we relate very well on this topic.
Public Restrooms.
If you know me at all, you know that I am always paranoid about where I am going to find a bathroom when I go out. And not only am I worried about where I am going to find a bathroom, but I worry about the cleanliness of that bathroom. That is why Disneyland is my favorite place to go. There are bathrooms everywhere and they are most always clean and have toilet seat covers. Basically bathroom heaven. Well, let me tell you, Spain bathrooms are no Disneyland bathrooms..they don't even compare. We went out for Tapas last week and not only were there no toilet seat covers, but there was no toilet paper. Toilet paper is a luxury here, so is an actual toilet seat! I can't tell you how many public bathrooms I have been in that dont have toilet seats. Luckily, last night we went out to a Flamenco bar to watch some performances and we found the nicest bathroom in a public place that we have seen so far!! It was wonderful :)
The last funny challenging thing (for this post) is the Sevici system.
For those of you who don't know, this is a public bike system. You can buy a year long pass and use the bikes in the city whenever you want, whenever you want, and ride for 30 minutes for free. It is the best way to go to and from places because it is so fast and efficient! Now, here come the challenges...finding an open station, sliding the bike back into place, and the actual bikes themselves. You remove the bike form the slot when you check it out and you have to slide the bike back into a slot to check it back in. There are only so many slots at each station, so many times there are no open spaces. In turn, sometimes riding the bike actually ends up making the trip twice as long and causes you to walk more because you have to go back to the station you first picked the bike up from to check it back in and then walk to your destination. That always makes for a good laugh and an overheated body when its 100 degrees outside. Now, when you actually slide your bike into place the slot will do one of two things. It will either be silent, which means you have correctly put your bike into place, and then beep 3 times 10 seconds later to let you know that the bike is checked in, or it will beep very loud and uncontrollably at you letting you know that you are terrible at putting the bike into place and you should be embarrassed because everyone in the vicinity is now looking at you and know that you clearly aren't from here. The other very unique thing about these bikes is that they sometimes aren't very good bikes, but you can't test it before you check it out so you don't find out what is wrong with it until you are riding along and your seat slowly starts creeping down or you find that the bike is permanently in third gear. With all that being said, I have never laughed more than in these situations with the bikes. They bring a smile to my face every day that I use the system and I am so thankful that it exists!!
Here in Spain I find myself being challenged by new things every day and I find joy in laughing about the funny and crazy experiences that I am faced with. All of this stuff that I am going through makes my time here so much more enjoyable and funny. Laughing is, by far, the best coping mechanism :)
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