So like I said in my last post, everything with flights and buses went fine, but once I got to Vitoria, I encountered some issues. I got off the bus and went in the station to find out which bus would take me to the University and apparently there isn't one, only ones that stop on that side of town. So the guy said that it was an easy walk, gave me a map and drew out my path. Well I haven't established my sense of direction here yet (who knows if I ever will, all the streets go in crisscross and loop-de-loops) so I headed in the direction he said and immediately got lost. I tried to identify some streets with the ones on my map, but the majority of streets don't have a sign. I asked a man to point me in the right direction and he was pretty vague, so I wandered around for about an hour before a lady saw me looking at my map and offered to help. She gave me excellent directions and I got to campus about a half hour later cause I was so out of the way. ha! Once I was on campus, I wandered around for about another hour trying to figure out where the residence was before some girls asked me if I knew of a bus to Bilbao. Of course I didn't and I asked them if they would help me, turns out one of the girls lives in the residence and they chaperoned me there. They were freshman and really nice, I was so grateful they helped me because once we got to the residence I knew there would have been no way I would have found it on my own.
The strange and wonderful thing about it was, even though I was lost beyond belief, it was alright with me. Normally I think I would have been very frustrated, but for some reason I still had a smile on my face the whole time. I was exhausted and sweating like a fat man going up stairs, but none of that seemed to matter. Who knew such a struggle could also be so great. NOT that it was easy, my shoulders hurt so badly today from carrying my backpack and a 50lb. suitcase for two hours!
Well, then I was in my room and I immediately got an ethernet cord from the front desk cause I was so sure Mom was freaking out and I needed to let her know I was fine. After that, I did an inventory of my room and realized that I didn't have any sheets, towels or even toilet paper. That was when the exhaustion and homesickness hit me and I just about fell over and started crying, feeling overwhelmed. Cause after being in the same sweaty, dirty clothes (they were really gross) and not having had a nice bathroom to use for almost two days or a good night's sleep...I was pretty pathetic.
So I tried to get myself together, changed clothes and washed my face cause I was meeting Cam and Alba in about 30 mins. I felt a lot better once I saw them and we went around town a bit and then out to eat. Then back to their apartment and they let me borrow a blanket, towel and some TP. It was wonderful!
When I was back in my room, jet-lag was catching me cause I was not tired at all. Finally went to bed around 1am and then only slept for an hour cause I was freezing, put my sweatshirt on and slept SO hard until my alarm went off in the morning. I think I could have slept til noon today.
So my first day or so in Vitoria was a bit of a mess, but I think memorable. ha! And when I woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning all I could think was that I should have traded every dress I brought so I could have my sweatpants! ...but just to wear around my room, that kind of clothing would get me even more glares than I already get!
I haven't taken many pictures cause today is cloudy, I should have yesterday when it was sunny and beautiful...but here's some of my room (pretty bare, I know) and I will have more next time, I hope!
Thursday nights start the weekend here (not literally, it's just the night to go out), so hopefully it will be a fun night! Alba said it might not be that busy cause school hasn't started, so many students haven't moved back yet.
More soon! Chao!
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