Imagine (Day 1)

Imagine waking up in a different bed, in a different room, in a different house, in a different country. You don’t speak the language. You don’t recognize the smells, the food. You cant even figure out how to flush the toilet. I’ve been doing these things a lot lately. Sounds scary, right? But whats more scary: imagine you’re loving every moment of it. If you’re like me you love trying new food, smelling different smells, and making yourself look like a fool trying to speak broken spanish (or “Spanglish”) to passersby. 

Rewind a couple weeks to the terrified kid I was- waiting at the Suffolk University Madrid campus, feeling a little like an orphan, waiting for my new mother to pick me up and take me home. I had a case of anxiety like you read about. What if she doesn’t speak any english? What if she’s evil!? Luckily only the former is true... As a matter of fact, its only two weeks later and I can’t imagine having another host mother. She makes AMAZING food, she does my laundry, changes my sheets, and even doubles as a Spanish teacher at dinner! (I told her she should be getting a professor´s salary from the school) She never gets frustrated with my shockingly poor level of Spanish, and is always willing to repeat and speak more slowly. What’s more, I have three more siblings to my collection (not to mention another yappy dog my mom would melt for). Their names are Borja, Pedro, and Anna, and although their english is limited, it is much better than my Spanish, and is helpful not only for translating, but for finding a cheap little bar to go to at night, which museums and parks are the most fun, and even which dessert their mother makes the best (and which to avoid). 

So after a couple hours of feeling a little like an outsider intruding upon this family’s life I already felt like a part of it. Their constant barrage of engaging conversation and hospitality made assimilation quick, easy, and relatively painless process. And so here I am, only 2 weeks into a new culture, waking up in a different bed, in a different room, in a different house, in a different country- and I couldn’t be more content. 

PS. If you’re wondering, yes, I did figure out how to flush the toilet.