PWJ : Posting While Jet-lagged

I can't believe I ever had cold feet about coming here....which, yes, I can now admit that I had moments up until landing in Europe when I thought "Why am I doing this? Do I really want to do this? I DON'T WANNA DO THIS!" I was especially nervous about landing in Switzerland, being alone, and making my flight to Spain. But all of those fears evaporated when I was going through the passport check station in Zurich. The guy asked where I was headed and for what and when I told him, "Valencia to study abroad," three little voices piped up from behind me, "Do you go to FSU?"

So now I wasn't alone and the 4 of us had 3 hours to kill together in the lovely Swiss airport with a beautiful view of the Swiss countryside. We admitted to feeling very American in that we only spoke one language and had subconscious expectations that everywhere we went there would be English translations. We also admitted that we weren't sure what language was spoken in Switzerland. Swiss? That sounded more like German on the plane? And since none of us were certain (and we couldn't google it) we made a pact to not ask anyone and risk look even more like stupid, egotistical Americans. Well I guess I broke the pact--but none of you are Swiss--and now that I've googled it, I know the answer. Swiss is not a language. We were definitely hearing German. Now, don't go pretending you knew Swiss wasn't a language.

Our group grew even more when we arrived in Valencia and the FSU staff members were waiting with signs and a big bus just like they promised. The place we're living, the FSU Study Center, is gorgeous. So so beautiful gorgeous! The front doors are huge. Like 2 and a half of me tall. There are 4 floors with different "apartments." Each apartment is a hallway of about 4 rooms and a common room (kitchen, tv, sitting room) and bathrooms. Most rooms have 2 people in them, but since I'm so important and all, I get a single! Really, I get a single room because I'm the only one doing an internship. Meaning these other kids (and yes I mean kids cause many of them are not even 21 yet) are taking classes here so they have a regular college kid schedule (i.e. staying up late and sleeping well past normal functioning real life hours).

There are so many of us (probably about 50 overall) and we're all so sleep deprived that we keep having to reintroduce ourselves to each other. I met the others on my floor and a girl asked me if I was like the RA. "Uh, no...I am totally not in charge of you." But I'm totally the grandma. The only other graduate level intern isn't even living here. Her loss. The staff working here is great and a few of them only speak Spanish! So I've already been practicing. I may be old, but I'm one of the few students who speak Spanish conversationally....but man do I need more practice.

Well, I think I've managed to make this post pretty coherent...but it has taken a great deal of effort. My eyes are crossing and I've somehow got to make it down 4 flights of stairs and go to a brief orientation meeting/dinner. So I guess it's about 11:00 your time. Stupid American Confession #2: I have to count on my fingers every time I try to figure out what time it is in America. Every time.

At the airport in Switzerland



Dinner first night...Italian. Yeah, I know I'm in Spain. But FSU was treatin.



My Room




Kitchen/Living Room for our "Apartment"