"carmen?"
"quieres?"
.... now to my understanding, "quieres" translates to "what do you want." ....hola, quieres.... hello, what do you want... i stand there silent. what do i say? um, hello, i live here? hello, i'm your temporary responsibility for the next 4 months? meanwhile, as i'm quiet and dumbfounded, carmen buzzes me into the building. i see her down the hall and make my way towards where she stands by her door.
"hola." she kisses both my cheeks. i smile to myself. yep, just like in the movies. we walk and she starts talking to me. in spanish. oh no. "uh...." "halbas espanol?" "uh, un poco" for some reason she thinks "a little" means i am fluent in spanish, and continues to talk to me like i'm a regular. finally after a few more "uh.."'s out of me, she asks "no halbas espanol?" and i just agree.
she sighs.
contrary to what her biography said on her profile on the housing website, she knows very little english. this is going to be fun.
she walks me in and offers me agua. i accept. i listen for others in the apartment. no sounds. not a good sign. carmen asks me where my roommates are and points to their names on a sheet of paper, along side my own. yep, definitely not a good sign. where the hell are they? i try to make small talk with carmen. i give her my gift (i guess sort of like a home-coming, showing my gratitude sort of gift) recommended by the student guide on the madrid university website; supposed to be a good ice breaker. it is not. i opted to get her a necklace at the st. louis airport gift shop, where mom and i concluded that she has probably gotten many tourist-y gifts over the past years of hosting belligerent american college students (this is confirmed later, when i notice the texas coasters at dinner). she opens it, smiles, but does not put it on. ....damn it, should have went with the st. louis skyline refrigerator magnet.
after my first failed attempt to get my new host senora to like me, i head to my room to unpack. which doesn't take as long as i hope.
roommates still not there. carmen shows me how to work the shower and gives me my key. stilllllll no roommates. i try to dial into the wireless network in a failed attempt to reconnect with the only world i know. no dice. did i mention, it's freezing outside? carmen takes me out to the front door to show me how to use my key. we walk outside and it is snowing. what. the. hell. msn.com told me it was going to be 45 degrees here. i was looking forward to escaping the soggy pant legs and frozen hair that was in st. louis. today is not my day.carmen shows me how to use my key in a way that will not make any sound at all. we practice. i start to realize how anal she is. we go back inside. i decide to take a shower since i really can't do much else. i start to freak out that my roommates' flights are delayed or that they are dead. after that, i try again to connect to the wireless. nothing.
BUZZZZZ.
the buzzer. oh my god. thank you. i hear carmen answer it. "hola?" (she does not say quieres afterwards) and buzzes them in. i stand in my doorway ready to pounce as i hear them coming down the hall. in comes brittany and morgan, both from st. louis. brittany goes to loyola in chicago; morgan goes to univeristy arkansas. their flight was delayed in london (apparently british airways was going on strike?). they lost their luggage, which will be delivered when found. they are slightly better at communicating with carmen. once they unpack what little they do have, we try to figure out the wireless together, but still are unable to connect. my stomach joins in our conversation (i haven't eaten since breakfast on the plane) and the girls fearfully offer me peanut butter crackers. i decline and shush my stomach. i refuse to be weak!! i text sam and dad to tell them i'm alive, and to sing it from the mountain tops.
about 30 minutes later, diana comes, our last roommate. from pennsylvania, attends university of virgina. i'm the only one from SLU. cool with me. i creepily sit in diana's room and watch her unpack. there is a slip in her suitcase informing her that airport security went through her bag. she digs to find the shampoo bottles were unwrapped and had opened, oozing shampoo on her clothes.
ok.... compared to my roommates, i don't have problems.
carmen gathers us to go over the rules of the house, which are typed (english on one side, spanish on the flip) and laminated. ...see what i said about the anal? she reads off the rules in spanish and i try to follow along, but the woman is speedy gonzales which the spanish speaking. we start to absentmindedly say "si" after everything she says and are caught when she asks us questions. one thing i notice: there are specific ways we are to leave our doors when home and not home, ways to leave the bathroom door when after use and after showering, and the kitchen door must be closed at all times. she shows us how to open and close the house doors without making any noise. ....let me repeat myself, see what i said about the anal? she gives the girls their keys and offers them key chains to choose from. there is an extra key chain, but she does not hand it to me. i'll clarify. everyone has a key chain except me. this may seem like a careless mistake, sure. but to me, that key chain is a significant symbol of my acceptance by the senora. ...i will get that key chain.
we go over dinner times. breakfast until 11. dinner at 8:15-8:30 on week days. lunch on fridays at 1:15. only breakfast on saturday. dinner at nine on sunday. i look at my watch; 40 minutes til nine. my stomach argues.
at nine, carmen calls us to dinner. we walk into the kitchen and sit at the table. soup is awaiting us. i try to control myself so i don't look like i'm the definition of world hunger. it is a chicken broth with noodles. nothing too exotic. next she serves us a tomato, cucumber, green pepper mix (which i fall in love with) with egg (sort of a scrambled) with melted cheese. for dessert, strawberry yogurt. smaller portions but, delicious, nutritious, i'm happy. during dinner carmen watches us eat. at one point she walks over to brittany and pulls her hair back behind her shoulders, which she also repeats the next night.
diana is the best at spanish out of the four of us (or at least the most willing). she is sort of our interpreter and communicator when the rest of us are insufficient. we talk to carmen about our brothers, sisters, and pets. when trying to explain i have a twin sister to carmen, i curve my arm over an imaginary belly with one hand and use the other to make the number "2" inside of it. i hope to myself carmen doesn't think i'm telling her i'm pregnant. i try to follow when carmen is telling us about what i assume is the bus stop. then i here diana, "ah, donde(where)?" and carmen answers. then daina asks, "cuando(when)?"
before i know it. we are getting our shoes and coats on. diana explains that carmen is taking us to the bus stop. .....now? i'm living with a crazy lady. it's 9:30 at night, there is already snow covering the ground, i've slept
7 hours in the past 72, and the university tells us to take the metro- not the bus ....but i'm not about to argue (key chain is mine). we head outside. besides the fact that it was probably one of the most awkward, uncomfortable moments in my life, it was beautiful. the snow and the city lights, i regret not taking my camera. we walk down the block to the bus stop and carmen tries to explain to us what routes to take. we don't fully understand, but we say "si, si" because we are frozen and want to get back home to our beds. as we walk back, a kid bites the dust on his bike in front of us. guess they aren't aware that snow is slippery (the next day at orientation, a counselor tells us that this is the most snow she's seen in the 16 years she been here-- in fact the other univeristy counselor was snowed in and couldn't make it. ... it's about 5 inches of snow). <
i pass out in my bed.
is this real?
:) :) :) :) :)
ReplyDeleteMo, Kare, and I just read this together on your couch.
AKA -- WE MISS YOU, but are soooo glad you're having such a good time already! Get some sleep, missy!