First day of work

I made it past the first day! Truly, I feel accomplished. My brain hurts a little from all the Spanish but a siesta fixed that right away.
I started the day like a foooool because I got on the wrong Metro this morning. Just after I write this whole thing about how easy I think the Metro stations are to navigate. In the poor Metro´s defense, I totally just messed up. So instead of taking one Metro to work and getting off 4 stops later, I had to take 3 different ones, and probably went through 10 stops. But, luckily, I was only 5 minutes late and if they cared they did a very good job of not showing it! When I first arrived, the secretary (named "Mama") handed me off to a girl/woman (¿¿Brittney Spears??) who looks to be in her late 20s maybe and probably will be the biggest help to me at the office. She introduced me to everyone (a lot of Spanish greetings which means a lot of cheek kissing). However, I soon noticed that everyone, theres only maybe 10 people in this office, are women! And they all seemed to be super friendly and nice. After maybe 5 minutes though, the language headache kicked in, and I was exhausted from trying to understand. So, after 5 hours you can imagine how tiring it was.
At first, Rosa, my boss presumably, showed up to work (in jeans) and gave me a whole presentation on ACNUR (they just call it "ak-nur" so it`s easy). It was a solid hour of her speaking extremely quickly, all in Spanish of course, and me nodding my head pretending I understood. Tottaly what I was advised not to do, but I had no time to stop her. Luckily I had a powerpoint to guide me as she talked, but it was still a LOT of information, all at once, completely in Spanish.
Then, she just left me for a while, so I sifted through some reading that she left me that also explained ACNUR. Much easier.
About noon the other intern arrived. He has been here for 3 weeks or so, and he seems to be grad-student age. He also spoke very, very fast Spanish. And, he doesn´t seem to know much English. It was very difficult. I am happy there is another intern, but I feel so inferior compared to him because of the language gap between me and him. Hopefully he can help me with my Spanish later on.
Every day we have the task of looking through newspapers like, El Pais, El Mundo, ABC, and online news to find articles about the refugee situation, immigration, or news that could affect these, like political clashes or impending wars. I actually like this job, because I get to practice reading in Spanish and get to see the news everyday from an international perspective. Time flew after this, and I left at 2.

I will start with the bad stuff about work first so the exciting good stuff will seem more dramatic. :)

This language thing sucks. Its exciting that I am DEFINITELY exposed to Spanish in full-force, as not a word of English was spoken all day, but I am still so nervous and insecure speaking that I really struggled to comunicate. It was hard enough just to comprehend what people were saying. I know that I missed a lot of what was said to me. That also worries me. It seems like they maybe think I am better at Spanish than I actually am. I wish they would talk to me like I was a 5 year old right now, seriously! But, I will catch on somehow I presume. I guess that starting a job is hard enough in English: knowing what your boss wants, and learning what the tasks are every day. But this is a whole new obstacle besides those things that I will need to figure out later.
and....
Good news: ACNUR is awesome! I am totally getting exposed, at least I believe I will be, to the kind of thing I want to do after I graduate. It really seems like the perfect match for me, and I am so happy with the job CDS did to place me. Also, I think, I THINK, I am going to be using Final Cut once the office gets it. It was during Rosa`s briefing of everything when she mentioned it, and I didn´t completely understand, but it seems that she is going to want me to work on the video portion of their operations. AH! That would be awesome, so I am crossing my fingers that actually happens.
And lastly, on Friday, June 3, there is a huge concert to benefit ACNUR. It´s in Madrid, but when they first told me about it, it sounded like I might not be going. But I am! I obviously wanted to figure out what it was after they told me this, and I am very excited. It´s called Primavera Pop, and as you see... Enrique will be there!!! AHHH. Now, hopefully I actually understood correctly, and I am really going. Otherwise, that would be unfortunate. I guess I will find out as the week continues.

So, after work, I took the CORRECT Metro home and took off my painful shoes. Each day I have a new blister. Its day 4, and I have 4 very bad blisters on my feet. Ugh. I wandered off for food and ended up in a really cool part of town by my hostel that I hadn´t yet encounted. There were a lot of clothing and shoe stores that were oh so tempting, and of course restaurants. I am very bad at choosing where to eat here... because I am alone so every place intimidates me. After at least an hour of walking, I finally found a small place, not so intimdating, and got a wittle baby calzone to walk and eat. And then, upon returning to my hostel, a siesta.

While I´m blogging, a few more things I´ve noticed that I feel like mentioning. :)
I know that there are very upscale and nice shops here, and I have seen many,  but there are also countless stores that have prices like H&M of Forever 21. For me, that´s awesome. I need to buy clothes once I move to my apartment, so knowing there is a lot out there is a big relief. Because the population of youth living in Spain is massively unemployed (41% unemployment if you are under 30.... hence, riots) I wonder if these are the only stores that are able to survive right now. Works for me!

*intermission!* someone blew the fuse where the computers are and the computer crashed! Luckily this saved. I went for a walk and to get dinner and now they are back...

I have definitely seen the large protest that exists in the center of Madrid at Plaza del Sol. If you have not heard about these.... here is an article that puts it quite simply... article that puts it quite simply
It really is amazing. They have created a village. There are tents that cover the entire plaza so that its like a camp. It really seems to have the most energy at night, which was really cool to see Friday. Pictures
On Sunday, when I was doing the walking tour, they were having a huge meeting over the loud speakers about whether or not they should continue to stay. I believe it came out of the brutal attacks on the similar protest in Barcelona. But, from the news, I see they decided to stay. It is a really cool time to be in Madrid because of it, and I think that here the police will continue to not use violence. I am eager to see what happens next. However, I honestly dont think they will accomplish anything significant.

And lastly, all I eat is bread, cheese, jamon, and more bread, cheese, and jamon. I am going to gain so much weight.

Another long post but it is really helping to write this all down so thanks for reading if you made it to the end. Hasta luego.

Busy 3 days

¡Hola otra vez! Judging by the title, I bet you can guess I have had a very busy Friday/weekend. This is true. It feels like I have been here so much longer than just a few days. Not even a full three yet. Sorry it has taken me so long to update again, buttttttt now  I will.

Well, Friday morning, the start to my first full day in Madrid, I woke up at a nice 7 AM... very strange... and had a nice breakfast of cafe con leche in the downstairs restaurant before deciding to go out and explore the part of the city I was in (the north). I had to deposit money in the bank for Etor, a roommate in my *future* apartment, and I needed to see where my work was. It was fun to just wander though, and the weather was perfectly breezy. eeee and the part of the city I saw, the northern and more residencial part, is so beautiful. I will post pictures at some point but I just left my computer at said apartment until I move in Wednesday, so it will have to wait until then SRY.
When I returned to my hotel I had a roommate! Anna, another participant in CDS was there and we talked in the room for a while as it began to POUR rain outside. After a trip to the grocery store (I made 3 trips that day because I´m COOL), we met up with ALL THE OTHER PARTICIPANTS. Oh wait, there were 2 others. We were all quite surprised. And the orientation was also very different than expected. Astrid, a CDS representative, met up with us at the hotel and we talked over drinks for an hour. And that was orientation. Oh well.
After another trip to the grocery store, three of us went down to Sol, the downtown area of the city for dinner. We went to a place with 1 euro sandwiches and 1 euro cerveza. It was great. Then we wandered the winding streets of downtown Madrid until we stopped at a little bar for more cheap beer. The best part of the night was catching the last metro of the night home by total luck.
We woke up Saturday morning to room service breakfast, more cafe con leche and croissants, and then later went to a really great lunch with Astrid at a very nice tapas restaurant. We had maybe 6 courses of very authentic Spanish food... like tortilla española, gazpacho, and finished with gelado obv. Astrid is a German woman who lives in Madrid, and was very interesting. Very well traveled and smart... I liked her a lot. Plus she knew 4 languages and could speak them all nearly fluently.
After this lunch, however, I took a very intimidating trip downtown with all of my stuff to find my hostel. It ended up being fine as I traveled during siesta so not many people were out on the streets. This whole hostel experience is VERY different than something I have ever done before. At first, I was tempted to just leave and find somewhere else, but it is growing on me a little, and I ended up talking with a lot of really interesting people last night. I only slept maaybe 3 hours though, which sucked. There are 6 people in my room, it was very hot, and the street was VERY loud. I´m hoping tonight is NOT the same. eek
However, since my bag did not fit in the locker here, I was able to take it to my apartment a few metro stops away AND see it for the first time last night! Its perfect. So cute and in a great location. That has made the shitty hostel feeling go away a lot. 
Anna has now gone of to Majorca to work for the summer, which is a bummer, but me and TJ, another U of M student and CDS student, went exploring for dinner last night. We saw yet another part of town that is new and ate at VIPS, which seems to be Spain´s version of a diner in the city. We did have a cerveza at a really cute bar between our residences after wandering the streets some more, but it was just too tiring to still be out after the stress from the day, and I went back to the hostel fairly early.
So, after like NO sleep last night, I went on a *four hour walking tour* today. It was very long and hot as you can imagine (PS Its hot here...) but we saw SO much of the city. Pictures forthcoming :) It was offered by my hostel, and only cost 7 euros in total, getting a water and jamon y queso croissant along the way.
Afterwards, I returned to my apartment to bring my computer there til Wednesday, as there are computers here in the hostel that work fine. Its not worth the risk if it doesnt need to be here.
And tomorrow... I start work! holy crap. I am very nervous to begin, but I guess that is just part of this trip. So far I have just been completely out of my comfort zone here, and that will continue tomorrow, but thats okay! Todo está bien. 

And now I´m back at my hostel! 

Things people might care about(?)....
-The Metro system here is amazing. Its super efficent and so easy to navigate. I truly feel confident going anywhere in the city because of how simple it is to use their Metro system.

-This city is HUGE. I have seen a lot of it now I´m sure, but there is just so much to discover. Downtown, metro stops function almost as the center of spider webs. There will be a plaza where the metro stop is, and from there streets expand in every direction from the plaza. It leads to many winding streets and paths (that cars still go down!) but I love it. Many of the streets are just filled with people at night, or so it seemed on Friday night, and people just eat and drink at cafes in the street until 1 or 2 AM. Then of course every goes to the clubs and such. Anyway, so much to see and try and comprehend. From the walking tour today, I now have a grasp of the main historical areas, plazas, palaces and museums, but its still just crazy. After three months, I do think I will know this city very well.

-Everyone is "cool" here. Seriously. I am the only big loser.

-I´ve been following the whole eat dinner at 9/10 thing, and it is very strange. Its 830 now, and I am starving, but I dont think anything is even open yet. Actually, because it´s Sunday, I will probably struggle to find a place to eat :/

-This place is SO expensive. I am so eager to buy my own groceries and such so I don´t have to continue to eat out. There are places you can find that are cheap, as previously noted, but most everything costs a lot. Lovely right?

Okay this thing is long. I will update about work tomorrow :)

Update!

I have arrived in Madrid! I am currently sitting outside at a cafe drinking a coke and eating macadamia nuts (Cool story?). I had the probably the best shower of my life when I arrived, and after having my first, but anticipated, panic attack, I think I am now fine. It has been a long day I guess. I met someone at the Amsterdam airport and we navigated Madrid's airport after the flight together, so that was helpful. And everyone at the hotel is very nice. It seems that as long as I try to speak Spanish at first they will respect me.

In other news, Emma just told me she was beaten by a man on the subway one time so I feel much better after I was totally made fun of on the Metro into the city. That's what friends are for!

<3

I forgot to sign my passport!

Hello everybody. Welcome to my blagh. It's really cool.

Reasons for keeping this blog throughout my trip:

            Being a member of MIISP means that other students from U of M and myself will keep blogs and share them with each other throughout the summer.  I believe Kelly and Bill will be following as well! MIISP blog 

            My parents can keep tabs on me, since this will be the best record of what I’m doing or what I want to do.

            POSSIBLY my igloo gals and other amigos will MAYBE check this out. I know personally that Megan Szkatulski has requested an extremely detailed account of my travels. I shall make note of this if I ever decided to buy a pair of pants. Wink

            Mott Community Relations I SEE YOU! I will make sure to send any Spanish beanie babies your way.

Continuing on…

The trip started a little rough, as I approached DTW feeling like I was going to vomit. However, my flight only took off an hour late and I arrived to Schipol airport in Amsterdam earlier than expected. The nice young man sitting next to me convinced me to take advantage of complimentary beverages while on board, so I skipped the sleeping pill and we talked till the wee hours of the morning. Eventually I got about an hour of sleep… maybe? But it was great to not be stuck next to a crying baby or oversized human for 8 hours! He is also living in Spain for the summer so we may share cities later on. Overall, the flight when by pretty quick.

I am currently waiting to board my flight to Madrid. It's only about 2 hours, and from there I’ll head right to my hotel to crash. In the meantime, I will sip my delightful DUTCH coffee and eat this strange pastry I bought because I wanted to be super euro.

I  don’t feel nervous anymore or scared, but maybe I’m just running on adrenaline. I talked to many people at the airport while waiting in lines and such, and everyone has been so encouraging. Some mom started crying because she said I reminded her of when her daughter went to Panama, or something. Couldn’t really understand through the tears, but it was touching!

Oh and that really cool title of this blog? It has deep significance for me. Actually, not really. But it is the title of an album I have listened to repeatedly since I realized I MUST learn Spanish. She’s a Mexican singer, actually, named Julieta Venegas and the album is adorable and great. ‘Otra Cosa’ means “Something Else,” or at least in this translation, and I think that’s pretty perfect! The song on the album is all about doing something else and hoping you can make something of it. OMG IT FITS SO PERFECT LOL.  Plus it looks really cute up there.

Well I will continue to drink this delightful coffee and pick at this ever-so-strange euro pastry until I take off to Madrid. I will update very soon MOM and DAD. 

(Side Note: forgetting to sign my passport was SO embarrassing. I'm such a newbie!)