Bienvenido a Burgos!!

Hola a todos!!!

So it’s been a very stressful few days, but we are finally settled in a piso (similar to an apartment in Spain) with a good landlord and working heat.  The craziness started when we left the first hostel we were booked to stay in in Burgos.  We were able to find a piso and it was over 100 years old, which at the beginning was okay.  After staying in the piso for two nights we realized that it wasn’t the safest and best place to be staying.  The piso was very cold and there were many things wrong with it such as broken doors and even a broken bed.  After also realizing that butane gas is apparently very outdated and not the best to heat a home, we had to start looking for a new piso for our own safety.  Luckily the boys already had been settled in their piso and we were able to stay on their couches for a night until we were able to finalize our plans.  After meeting Valentina, our new friend from Italy, we were able to locate a four-bedroom piso on Calle Madrid, very close to the Plaza Mayor and to our other friends.  We have finally settled in our new place and our landlord has a son studying abroad in the United States so he understands our situation very well.  The new piso feels much more like home and it is a lot warmer and homier as well. 

Other than the piso chaos, we finally had our international student orientation at La Universidad de Burgos on Monday.  This semester there are 80 international students total and we even made the daily paper for Burgos!  Classes don’t start until next Monday, so this week is considered ERASMUS welcome week.  ERASMUS is the same thing as an international student program except it’s only for students living in Europe already.  So far we had an “icebreaker” meet up where we met tons of other students from the organization from all over the world, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Mexico, and France just to name a few.  It’s so cool to have the Spanish language in common with all of these new people even though we don’t have much else in common.  It’s fun to talk in Spanish and discover new things about new cultures other than just the Spanish culture.  That’s probably a nerdy thing to say, but I’m having a really great time with it!  On Tuesday, we were finally able to tour the inside of the beautiful cathedral in the center of Burgos and it was even nicer than I ever imagined.  It’s amazing how different the architecture is and although I feel like I’m living in a dream, this is normal for the residents of Burgos and many others who live in various places of Europe!  I love the United States, but it would be really cool if there were buildings even remotely close to these ones there. 

As far as everyday things go, I’ve been having a hard time getting used to the schedule that most people are on.  Every day it gets easier and easier but it’s very different from the United States.  On a normal day, wake up would be around 7 or 8 and around 1 to about 4 is the siesta in which most stores close and people go home to eat lunch or to take a nap.  Later the stores open back up until about 11 and dinner is usually around 9.  It’ll be much easier when my body clock can adjust to the difference, but it’s not too bad! 

I really enjoy the food here a lot and I’ve been making it a point to try at least one different thing everyday.  So far I’ve had a lot of really great and fresh bread as well as morcilla which is blood sausage and paella which is a mixture of shrimp, different vegetables, and rice, or anything really that you want mixed with it.  At first, it was hard to eat the shrimp because they don’t come peeled (and I know that sounds bratty but the eyes kind of freaked me out a little J).  Not to mention, the variety of wine is definitely a plus as well.  We were able to locate a market with fresh meat, cheese, fruits, vegetables, fish and anything else that you could think of.  We were also able to find a store like Wal-Mart for everyday needs called Hipercor which is extremely convenient.  Also, none of the above could have been done without our dear friend Sandra.  She studied abroad at Millersville in the fall and returned to her hometown of Burgos in December.  She has helped us with everything from piso searching to finding where the best food is and we couldn’t be more grateful for her.  Although I’m not totally settled into my new room or my new city, I can already tell that I’m really going to love Spain and I can already feel myself gaining more confidence in my speaking and listening.

Until next time amigos!! Adios!

PS… for my roommates at 100 if you’re reading this, I live next to a yarn store J

outside and inside Burgos' beautiful cathedral

new room!

...and a small front porch 

morcilla!!!