Erasmus Orientation

Yesterday and today were my first days of orientation at the University. Of course, meetings all day, both days, but they have helped me better understand the university here and the differences that I'm going to see while here (although today things did start to get repetative). There are three directors from the Erasmus office that put together the presentations: Teresa, Marga and Maria Jose. Teresa is in charge of all of the American students. Marga is much more animated and helpful than Teresa seems to be; Teresa is very monotone and quite and doesn't really seem to have much of a personality, while Marga is talkative, moves her hands all the time when she talks and remembers all of the Erasmus students' names.
Yesterday the first meeting I had was a meeting for all of the exchange students from the U.S. There are 11 of us. Most of the students (six) are from the University of Oklahoma, three are from Murray State University (for two of them this was their first time on an airplane), one student from Florida Atlantic University and myself. Of the 11, only four are girls, which really surprised me since I had read that most students that do exchange programs are females. After the meeting with just the students from the U.S. there was a meeting for all of the exchange students about Spanish customs and culture. Although I did know quite a bit from the few days that I've been here and from my previous courses, it was nice to hear it again. We learned about the food that is typical to the region that most people know about (paella, tortilla, fish, cured ham) and the food that most people would not know that is popular in the region (rabbit, snails, and pretty much any part of the pig). We learned about cultural norms that might be different in other parts of the world (for example, they told us that until about 5 years ago people smoked pretty much anywhere, even inside of university buildings; most drivers take traffic signs as suggestions; and you don't have an obligation to tip at restaurants unless its fancy because tip is included in their salary). We learned about the festivals that are big here in Castellon (Festival de la Magdalena and Holy week).
Afterwards, some of the American students and myself walked around the city and got to see the different parts of down town. The down town is bigger than I expected it would be. If you don't know where you are going, it is easy to get lost because there are so many round-abouts and many of the building look similar at first glance. We stopped inside of a small restaurant to have "almuerzo." I was a bit frustrated with the other students because the waitress asked them what they wanted and they were getting confused and you could tell that she was getting frustrated and it wasn't really a good situation. But lunch turned out to be good and the waitress (who happened to also be the owner) gave us her business card and told us to return again. Since I had not anticipated walking around the city all day, I had decided to wear heels and was super glad when we got back to campus and I was ablt to sit down and rest a bit.
Yesterday was the first time that I caught the bus here, also. I was a bit nervous about catching the bus since I sort of knew where I was going, but not really and since the street signs here aren't as visible. I asked the driver to tell me when we got to my stop and where I had to go to catch the bus that would take me to where I needed to go (The university is in Castellon and I live in El Grao, which is outside of the downtown). I'm glad to say that the drivers on both buses were helpful in telling me where to go and how to get around on the buses.

Today I had more meetings. We had a session about the culture, again, but it there were also things that had not been said before. We had an activity where we split up into groups and discussed the differences between the culutural norms and values that we are accustomed to and the ones that are often seen here. Each group was given a different value; my group's was the value of time. We had to say where on the spectrum we fell when it came to how we see time. On one end was polychronic time: time is unlimited, people should take the amount of time necessary to do what they need to do, life does not follow a clock, it's ok to meet a friend 15 or 30 minutes after the time that you had set, etc. On the other end was monochromatic time: time is precious and should not be wasted, activities must be organized, you plan your day to make sure that you arrive on time to all of your meetings and classes, it is unthinkable to waste someone else's time, time is money, etc. Of course anyone that knows me knows where I fall. I of course fell exactly at the monocronic end; I am always busy, I have to plan everything, I like to be in charge, I am always on time or early, if I'm going to be late I let the person know and still feel guilty that I'm late. I've already seen since being here that that is not the way they view time here. Yesterday, for example, I was early for the first meeting and Teresa looked at me like I was crazy (I had only shown up 10 minutes early), and once she was ready to it was 10 minutes after the meeting was supposed to start. I guess that that is something that I am going to have to get used to dealing with while I am here and will just have to learn to relax more.
Afterwards, we got a tour of campus. When I first got to the uniersity I thought that I would have a hard time finding where I'm supposed to be. Although the buildings are big, there are three buildings for classes, a library, sports center and the amgora (which is like a plaza- there are stores, a bank, a pharmacy, a cafeteria). I know that I will probably get lost at first, but at least know I know where to go to ask for help so that someone can guide me to where I need to be. And since most of my classes (for now) are in the history department, I won't have to change buildings when I go to class.
All of the Erasmus students that are staying with families had a meeting following the tour. I was surprised that out of 50 plus students that only 12 of us are staying with families; I thought that more people would want to do a home stay since it is popular in other parts of Europe. It was nice to know that there are other students that are not living close to the city or that have experienced the culture shock that I have experienced living with a family (I think that there is more opportunity to experience the Spanish culture when you live with a family, eat their typical meals with them, meet their family and friends).
So today on my bus ride home I learned how to bus a bus pass. It was really easy- I just asked the driver for one and it was nothing. I remembered where to get off the bus at, which I think is a huge achievement for me. The only thing that did go kind of off was actually getting to the house. There are like six buildings around here that look the same so I thought that I had walked down far enough. I got to the number 26 (which is my house number) and was trying for like 5 minutes to get the gate open, but my key wouldn't go in. Finally, I realized that maybe this isn't my house and it turns out that my house was still three buildings down. When I got there my key worked but I couldn't figure out how to open the gate. After trying for a few minutes, my host mom opened the gate and that is when I realized that I had to push, not pull (We have only used the garage door in the past, so I had never had to open the gate before).

All in all, things have been going well. I feel like every day things are getting better and better and I am adjusting more to life here. I'm meeting new people and practicing (hopefully bettering) my Spanish.