Mi Señora

While in Spain, everyone from my program is matched up with a host family to live with for the duration of the semester. A lot of the time, this "family" is really a señora, who is (usually) an older woman who has lots of room to house students because her family is grown and out of the house. Though I'm not moving in with my señora, Julia, until Sunday, I had arranged to meet her at 6 o'clock today to introduce myself and whatnot. I left at about 5:15, giving myself an ample amount of time to travel the 15 minutes that it was supposed to take to get to her house. Much to my dismay, I overestimated my abilities to navigate Madrid. I got lost.

So I took the metro where I was supposed to go (I even had to transfer lines - which I did successfully), but then I had to walk a little ways to actually get to la habitación. Here's the thing. Streets in Madrid aren't marked. Well, some of them are marked, but the ceramic tile signs, though beautiful, are high up on the buildings and pretty much useless. When I got out of the metro, I found myself at a roundabout that connected six different streets - none of them marked - so I took a deep breath and guessed. After walking for about five minutes, I decided to error on the side of caution and went to una farmacia to get directions. I keep forgetting that Spaniards think it's rude to ask for a favor without first greeting them properly, so of course I forgot to be polite because I was getting nervous that I was going the wrong way. The woman behind the counter didn't really understand what I was asking her, and I don't think she was too pleased that I forgot to say "buenas tardes." Lucky for me, there was a man in la farmacia who spoke some English! He pointed me in the right direction and was able to explain it all in English, so I got on the right track towards la casa de Julia.

But wait! There's more. Guess what happened next? Come on. Guess! Okay I'll give you a hint:

I got lost... again.

Isn't it maddening, getting lost? Especially when you're in a foreign country and especially when you have no patience for things like getting lost. Such a waste of time. And energy - literally, I walked for an extra 45 minutes. That's at least 3 miles, and these legs aren't used to that much movement.

So by 6:20 I thought I should probably call Julia and tell her that I would be late for our six o'clock appointment. She advised me to take a taxi to her house, which I promptly did, which brought me to her house in less than five minutes. She was very nice and su habitación estaba muy grande y bonita. And best of all, it turns out it's only a seven minute walk from Sol. Go figure. Lola is my new best friend who also happens to be Julia's perro. Even though she barks en Español, I think Whitey will catch on in no time.