When I first got to Spain it felt completely surreal. After traveling so long, I hauled my heavy bags to a taxi and was brought to a hotel. I slept until the next afternoon and was greeted the next day by Lauren, who is also here in Oviedo. I am so thankful that we were together for the first several days, especially considering I did not speak much spanish before coming here…by not much I mean barely any. Despite this, I was super excited for my time here…very excited. Will I be fluent when I get back…? These past few days have been so fun, exploring the city, trying new foods, drinking moscato… Exactly what I was hoping for.
After the first couple/few days of being in the hotel I met my host mother here, an older lady that seemed very nice and spoke no english besides a couple of words. As we ate together, I simply listened and only spoke if I was asked a question. This was a very difficult adjustment for me considering I am usually always very involved in conversation.
As for the food here, I have learned early on that it is much better to say immediately what foods you do not like considering much of it is very traditional, at least with my host mom. In my experience I made an effort from the beginning to try different things even though I normally would never eat them. At home I eat healthy, very simple foods. Food here is quite the opposite for the most part, very heavy, which has been really challenging. Also the times and portions are different here but I adjusted to that fairly quickly.
I am here for a reason and have definitely learned a lot so far… I’m trying hard to remind myself of this but it has been difficult, I’m not going to lie. I feel like many people that go abroad paint the picture that they had a fantastic time every second of every day, and maybe that was their reality but for me that hasn’t been the case…and that’s okay.