Update

It has officially been a week since I arrived in Segovia.  

Things are going really well.  Every day it gets a little easier to understand the language.  I still miss a lot when people speak normally, and sometimes it’s hard to think that I’ll ever be able to understand it completely.  Then I remember that I still have 14.5 weeks to learn, and that this has only been one of them.  

Surprisingly, I’m adjusting well to the hours of the culture.  I didn’t expect it to be so easy, honestly.  In Spain, people usually get up around 8 or 9, although we have class starting at 8:40, so we have to get up earlier.  Lunch, or la comida, isn’t until 2:30, and we eat dinner, or cena, around 10.  It’s perfectly fine to take a nap after lunch.  Many people will tell you that the entire country shuts down for this nap, and that isn’t true; to me it seems like it’s a time that many people relax with a cup of tea and the television.  If it’s a weekend, people go out starting at 11 or later, and a normal night out ends around 3 or even later.  

I’ve found that I’ve been a little hungry around noon, but that it’s not too difficult to wait until comida to eat.  Also, each day I’m a little less hungry when it comes time for cena, instead of being starving like one would expect.  And of course, I do enjoy a good nap.  

The food is delicious, for the most part.  Although I will say that I wasn’t a fan of the sopa castillana, a type of bread soup.  One night my host mom made me pizza and I almost cried, because I didn’t have to ask what in the world I was eating.  

Things are good.  We’re definitely all starting to settle in to a routine.  I’ve been a little bored, to be honest, but I’m sure that as classes pick up and as Marian helps us to find “service learning” projects that I’ll find ways to fill my time.