Las Reglas

       Today was a mix of confusion and touring. Today was my first day taking the bus alone to school which thankfully went well, although my timing wasn't exactly the best on when I'd arrive at school (I got there with a minute to spare!). I have lots of time to get better at that though.

       We started off the day discussing a blog we had read last night about a woman from the United States who prefered working in the OR of Argentina. We reflected on her personal account of her time in Argentina and her time in the United States comparing the two with three categories: pensamos (what we thought), vimos (what we saw), y "I wonder". the "I wonder" category was my favorite because we really got to discuss thought provoking questions like whether someone could be patriotic and not ethnocentric.

       After starting with a fun activity we had to get into the grind and learn the rules of the school. Some rules were the common rules like no cheating and no plagiarizing, but the most important part about us learning the rules was so that we didn't have to ever face the consequences. When someone accumulates enough minor or major strikes against them it can cause major disciplinary action, and while this was scary to talk about it also was settling to know how I can avoid those strikes.

    My favorite part of the day though was the bus tour!!!! I cannot explain how refreshing it is to finally see most of the town I'm living in haha Zaragoza is a lot bigger than I thought it was! we zigzagged through streets all over town through neighborhoods like Torrero and La Jota seeing beautiful architecture everywhere. We toured Zaragoza on a double decker bus, similar to the ones you see in London or New York, but they weren't nearly as red, in fact they were blue. My friend Jada and I power walked to the bus so that we could get good seats on the upper deck and boy did it pay off! we got to sit in the very front and see all of the sites from the big glass window in front of us. Our inner photographers took over and we began taking as many photos as possible of Zaragoza leaning this way and that to get the best angle for the shot, and now that I look back at it we must have looked very strange to the people on the street. I took so many photos that when I got home and loaded them on my computer it took me an hour to go through and delete all the bad ones (I had over 100 photos!!).

    After school I got some gelato with my friends at a shop down the street, and after a hot day in the sun it was like heaven on earth. When I tried to go home is when things got interesting. I, being the forgetful person I am, could not remember where my bus station to get home was, so I ended up walking back and forth down a street looking for the right bust station. Sadly I didn't find the station, but I did see my bus in the street and I began chasing it down so I could find its next stop. Luckily its next stop wasn't far and I successfully caught the bus and I was very worn out by then. As I got home I also remembered I didn't know how to open the door to my family's apartment building, so I spent 20 minutes with my key trying to open the door, and then after that struggle the next obstacle was opening the door to our actual apartment. Luckily mi madre saved the day and let me inside, but afterward I had to be taught how to open doors (embarrassing!). So you could say I rode two buses today: the tour bus and the struggle bus.

    I know I'm going to be sleeping well tonight :)
             Besos
                     Lauren