First Day of School

Had my first day of the TEFL course today. There are eight of us total in this section, though one has yet to show. I already feel bonded with the classmates, though of course we don´t know each other very well. There are three of us girls and four guys. Five of us are from the United States, one is from Australia, and one is from Malaysia. Everybody seems intelligent, nice and full of personality. All but one of us (and maybe me) plan to stay in Spain after the course is over, though the other two girls may go to Valencia or somewhere else where this is a coast.

I was musing late last night that perhps the main reason this adventure is so scary is because I know that this time I have volunteered to surrender myself and become a different person. And I don´t know who that person will be or whether I will like her....I don´t know to what extent I will lose my current self. My mom says she still recognizes in me the person I was at a few months old, but I am not so sure that I have any kind of stable core that will remain through all my experiences.

I´m getting along fine with my roommates. I just accept that there will be noise late into the night. It´s too hot to sleep anyway. Sara´s brother is visiting for the week & he is kinda cute, so there will be some eye candy around for a while. =*)

Last night I went to a cafe after the locutorio (Internet place) to get something to eat. All they had were potato chips and day-old cheese, but I stayed a while because the bartender was really nice and there was this hilarious drunk lady who kept talking up a storm but I didn´t understand a thing she said except for the swear words (palabrotas are my specialty) and then this other old guy who didn´t say much but seemed very nice and reminded me of my host father in Sevilla a little. I think he bought my drink, but when I asked the bartender what I owed he said that they were on the house (no mention of the other guy) so I´m not sure. My listening comprehension is not what I would like it to be. I often have to ask people to repeat themselves, and if they don´t speak slowly I don´t understand much. But I suppose it will improve with time and practice.