let the journey begin: Moving in!

Wow, it's been a busy few days and I am quickly learning about alicante and Spanish culture. One of my favorite things about spanish culture is greeting people-when you first meet or you are leaving for awhile, you give two kisses on the cheek. When I came home to my homestay for the first time, her grand kids were there, two of the cutest little boys, Adrian and Mario, they're eight and five I think? Still having trouble understanding much.. But I walked in and they commented on my blonde hair of course and then Mario came up and gave me a hug and said, ¡Besos! ¡Besos! Which mean kisses! He is adorable. We got out my iPad to have them show me where we were on my map and where other things were by our house(well, our apartment) and they loved it. We're going to be friends for sure. So about my madre, Juana Maria! She goes by Juani but I don't call her by her name. I guess I don't call her by anything because she is the only other one in the house other than me! She's the sweetest 67 year old lady you will ever meet. Just like my grandmas :) she wants to feed me all the time and goes out of her way to try to make sure i feel at home. My first meal with her she made me homemade french fries and a hamburger! They were amazing. We have a hard time talking to each other but I can understand what she says more than I can speak back. The apartments don't have heat, so it is freezing!! I know why I had to bring slippers now because my toes were about to break off.

Considering the first thing she asked me was if I was going to meet my friends later, she is totally cool with me doing my own thing. We had dinner around 8 and I tried to unpack a little before I met everyone at our meeting place to take on el barrio in Alicante for the first time. Without phones it is so hard! Once we found each other, our pack of 21 dumb Americans headed for el barrio. Our new Spanish friend, Demi, who is a helper with our program, met us with some of her friends too. I had the craziest conversation with Careem from London! When i told him i went to Mizzou, he said he knew one girl from there, and only knew her first name. He told me and I knew a few with that name so i just said what they looked like and it ended up being an older DG that i know! How crazy!! Delta Gamma is pulling through for me for sure on this trip already! There's another dg in my group from Bucknell too :) You know it will be a long night when you go out at midnight and every bar you go in offers you a shot for free.. We had a great night and finally went home around four to get up at nine for our trip today! Brief preview...