Spanish word of the day: disco duro. It literally means "hard disk" (or, more accurately, disk hard), but it's just surprising because in English, I think of that as one phrase, but I think of the word duro as the opposite of soft, rather than a way of describing technology.
In a word: fantastic, and the same goes for my host family! I have a mom and dad (Gema and Juan Carlos) and two sisters (Carmen and Esperanza, 15 and 11 respectively.) They live in a condo in the center of the city, although since Leon is pretty small, it seems like everything is in the center of the city. I'll take some pictures of the house soon, but it's beautifully decorated (Gema and Juan Carlos are very into art) and very comfortable. I have my own room since they also have three sons who are in Madrid for college, and we have Wifi which is reasonably fast, so I'm all set.
Fortunately, the Spanish accent here isn't very strong, so people are pretty easy to understand. Gema speaks the most clearly, but I can actually understand a lot more than I was expecting in general. Talking is a different story, since there is so much vocab that I recognize but can't quickly remember, and my recollection of all past or conditional tenses is severely lacking, but it won't be long before I can do those as well as ever, I think. Juan Carlos likes to talk about the government and politics and this can be kind of hard to follow, but I try because I want to learn about what he says!
I haven't done too much since I got here; the single longest activity was sleeping for 14 hours last night! It was my first time in a bed in a while, especially I didn't sleep much before packing. Gema made torta for dinner last night, which is kind of like quiche, and can vary significantly, but hers, at least, was basically egg and onion. Absolutely delicious. Since she has 5 kids, she's very used to dealing with picky eaters (not unlike my mom!) and asks me several times per meal if I like something, and assures me that if I don't, I do not have to eat it. I'm past that phase in my life, though, so I like everything I've had so far.
I didn't meet the dad or girls until later on Saturday night because they were at a golf tournament (the girls, and the sons, play). I'm glad Dad and I took a class a few years ago so I at least know a little about it, and can go with them sometime. I briefly tried to explain ultimate to Gema and she thought I was talking about curling! Need to improve my Spanish and find a representative video...
Today Gema and Juan Carlos showed me around the city (maybe town is more appropriate?) and it is fantastic. I think it will be a much better place to live than Quito or Ioannina were, and those were both excellent cities to be in. Everything is within walking distance and people clearly walk to do most errands. My family has a car which Juan Carlos uses to get to work since he works a couple miles away (which, now that I think about it, is still quite close compared to most American jobs), but Gema expressed her pleasure that she never has to drive anywhere, and most places she needs to go are within 100 m (give or take a bit, I think) of their house. Since today is Sunday they said that few people were out and about (and it's true that most of the stores were closed) but I was impressed by the number of people. You would never see that many walking down Front Street in Issaquah! There are a zillion (yes, Nick, THAT MANY!) bars here, and it seems like people, both my age or a lot older, go out all the time to enjoy some wine and tapas with friends. Juan Carlos says that it's normal to stay out until 3 or 4 in the morning... ughh. My schedule would ideally be bedtime at 10:30 when the girls go to bed, and then I could run in the morning before my 9:30 class, but we'll see. If i want to make local friends, going to bars might be better than going running since people don't seem to be big on exercise here.
Speaking of bedtimes, I'd say it's mine right now! Tomorrow is day 1 of school (aka orientation, syllabus day, and a walking tour) which should be good.
Hasta manana!
In a word: fantastic, and the same goes for my host family! I have a mom and dad (Gema and Juan Carlos) and two sisters (Carmen and Esperanza, 15 and 11 respectively.) They live in a condo in the center of the city, although since Leon is pretty small, it seems like everything is in the center of the city. I'll take some pictures of the house soon, but it's beautifully decorated (Gema and Juan Carlos are very into art) and very comfortable. I have my own room since they also have three sons who are in Madrid for college, and we have Wifi which is reasonably fast, so I'm all set.
Fortunately, the Spanish accent here isn't very strong, so people are pretty easy to understand. Gema speaks the most clearly, but I can actually understand a lot more than I was expecting in general. Talking is a different story, since there is so much vocab that I recognize but can't quickly remember, and my recollection of all past or conditional tenses is severely lacking, but it won't be long before I can do those as well as ever, I think. Juan Carlos likes to talk about the government and politics and this can be kind of hard to follow, but I try because I want to learn about what he says!
I haven't done too much since I got here; the single longest activity was sleeping for 14 hours last night! It was my first time in a bed in a while, especially I didn't sleep much before packing. Gema made torta for dinner last night, which is kind of like quiche, and can vary significantly, but hers, at least, was basically egg and onion. Absolutely delicious. Since she has 5 kids, she's very used to dealing with picky eaters (not unlike my mom!) and asks me several times per meal if I like something, and assures me that if I don't, I do not have to eat it. I'm past that phase in my life, though, so I like everything I've had so far.
I didn't meet the dad or girls until later on Saturday night because they were at a golf tournament (the girls, and the sons, play). I'm glad Dad and I took a class a few years ago so I at least know a little about it, and can go with them sometime. I briefly tried to explain ultimate to Gema and she thought I was talking about curling! Need to improve my Spanish and find a representative video...
Today Gema and Juan Carlos showed me around the city (maybe town is more appropriate?) and it is fantastic. I think it will be a much better place to live than Quito or Ioannina were, and those were both excellent cities to be in. Everything is within walking distance and people clearly walk to do most errands. My family has a car which Juan Carlos uses to get to work since he works a couple miles away (which, now that I think about it, is still quite close compared to most American jobs), but Gema expressed her pleasure that she never has to drive anywhere, and most places she needs to go are within 100 m (give or take a bit, I think) of their house. Since today is Sunday they said that few people were out and about (and it's true that most of the stores were closed) but I was impressed by the number of people. You would never see that many walking down Front Street in Issaquah! There are a zillion (yes, Nick, THAT MANY!) bars here, and it seems like people, both my age or a lot older, go out all the time to enjoy some wine and tapas with friends. Juan Carlos says that it's normal to stay out until 3 or 4 in the morning... ughh. My schedule would ideally be bedtime at 10:30 when the girls go to bed, and then I could run in the morning before my 9:30 class, but we'll see. If i want to make local friends, going to bars might be better than going running since people don't seem to be big on exercise here.
Speaking of bedtimes, I'd say it's mine right now! Tomorrow is day 1 of school (aka orientation, syllabus day, and a walking tour) which should be good.
Hasta manana!
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