First Day of 15th Grade

If you think about it, it's technically the first day of my junior year in college which is the 15th grade. And what a start to the year it was!

We got incredibly lost. I've never been so late to a class in my life!

As soon as we got off the bus I knew I didn't recognize any of the buildings. We had been to our part of the UB campus once before during orientation, and while I didn't exactly know where it was, I knew we were definitely not in the right place.

Taking another bus was going to be even more confusing so we opted for a taxi on the app called Free Now. Our first taxi got canceled because we could not find the driver at the pick up spot and trying to communicate on the phone proved to be unsuccessful. So then we got another one to bring us right out front of school. Easy peasy.

You know that moment when you open the door and everyone just stares at you? We had that after all looking at each other before grabbing the handle.

The professor said "hola" and we said it back and then we sat down. It wasn't too bad though, I'm just being minorly dramatic.

I thought she didn't speak English at first but then I realized that she just wasn't going to teach in any English. That was surprising because I swore the website said my class was going to be taught in English.

I understood most of what she was saying so I'm happy with that. However, it takes a lot of brain power to hear what she says, translate it in my brain, and repeat that process sentence after sentence.

We did Spanish exercises for about two hours and then had a 20 minute break. After that our next professor came in and we finished the rest of class for about two hours. Five hours of class, two professors, one 20 minute break. We joke that even the professors don't want to sit through that long of a class so they take turns!

A group of us went to the bookstore nearby to buy the workbook we'll be using, then walked to get tapas because we were all super hungry. Some of the kids are from all over the world which is neat. I hope to get to know them more throughout the month because it's such a unique experience we're sharing.

I made it home and relaxed. I showed my family the apartment over FaceTime and talked with them for a while.

For dinner I walked to the restaurant right by my building for a quick meal. Not the fanciest but I got everything for €8.30 so I'm not complaining.

I brought my book and sat inside, reading and people watching.

They call grilled cheeses "bikinis" here. I got conflicting explanations on Google so I can't tell you exactly why. I burned my gums eating it too quickly. With every bite the cheese stretched out from my mouth to the sandwich. It tasted like home.

Please excuse the ungodly amount of ketchup I applied to my plate - I forgot to take this picture before I did so.