My first day of Spanish school was probably the weirdest day of my life. I had arrived to my host family only one day before, so I hand´t been to the school to get my schedule, gotten any textbooks, figured out how to take the bus, bought a Spanish cell phone, changed money, or done anything, really. Strangely, though, it was really fun just going with the flow, and having no idea what was going on, or to which class I was going next. Starting with actually getting to school, and ending with finding a way home, it was interesting, to say the least. The other students in my school (a public school in a nearby town) were really kind and helpful, though. In class, there´s always someone making sure I understand everything (I can understand like 80 percent on average, but some professors are really difficult to understand), or to take me to the next class. On the second day, I already had a solid group to sit with at lunch, and I know someone in all my classes. Even though I haven´t had the chance to get to know anyone from school really well yet, they seem interested in getting to know me, so I´m sure I won´t have problems making (closer) friends.
I´ve been relying on other people to help me a lot: the kids at school, a friend of my host family to drive me to get school books, another parent in my neighborhood to get me to school in the morning, a friend to help me find my way home from the bus stop, and of course my host family for giving me a place to stay in the first place. It´s a bit of an adjustment to not know how to do normal things, like taking the bus downtown, or cooking myself some pasta.
A lot of people have gotten excited when they hear I´m from the United States. I told one girl that I´m American, and the first thing she asked me was how many celebrities I´ve seen. Yeah, sorry, no celebrities in Oregon.
I was placed just outside Murcia, and I already have a little Murcian tint to my accent (though I´m sure I sound very American). My host parents laughed last night because instead of saying ¨más o menos,¨ I´ve started to say ¨ma o meno,¨ since Murcians don´t pronounce the ¨s¨ sounds at the end of words. I learned Latin American Spanish, so it´s been difficult to adjust to the ¨vosotros¨ form, but other than that, I´ve just had fun pronouncing the word, ¨fácil,¨ like¨fathil¨ instead of ¨fasil.¨
To be honest, I don´t think it´s really hit me that I´m actually here in Spain, and I think this is why I don´t really miss home. Of course, I would love to see my parents, but I´ve been really busy meeting new people, and figuring out all the things I listed in the last paragraph, so I haven´t been sitting around feeling homesick. I´ve been told by other exchange students that keeping busy is the best way not to feel homesick, and so far, that´s working. This week was one of the best weeks I´ve had in a long time, in a weird way, and I already don´t want to think about leaving in June.
I´ve been noticing cultural differences, of course, and I will add them into next week´s blog post, when I´ve noticed more, and I can describe them better.

-Ruby