Week 1 - "Todavia estoy trandano aprender de español"

(Guess how many times I've said that this past week?) 😂😂

Wow...I truly still can't believe I live in Spain.  What???  I don't know how much time I will have to blog once school starts, but I want to write down as much as I can, not only to reflect after this year has passed, but so I can share with those back home all of my experiences here.

Okay, well day 1 was a bit of a core memory....and not in the best way haha.  I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland in the morning and immediately I had no service.  Please note I have never left the country before.  I don't know what I'm doing!  All I know is I have no way to contact my parents unless I have wifi.  I try not to panic, finish my quick flight to Valencia, where I arrived around 3pm.  Quickly, I realize how scary this is, being in a foreign country by myself, trying to find my apartment that I have never been to, with no way of contacting anyone.  I finally find the address, but:

1) The elevators in my building don't look like the elevators I know, so I thought I was in the wrong place.

(I didn't see the button at first, so don't come at me) 😂

2) I had 2 huge suitcases with me, that I guess I could have attempted to carry to the seventh floor, but at that time I didn't even know what floor exactly was mine haha.  After some desperate phone calls, that were most likely not cheap, to my mom, dad, and finally my landlord, I found my apartment.  Sadly there was some confusion with the payment and it took about 7 hours for me to actually get into my room.  My sweet landlord doesn't speak English, and all my Spanish Duo-lingo lessons flew out of my head when I needed it the most.🙃  So I took a nap in the entry way couch, walked around the Marina in my neighborhood, and at 11:00 pm, I finally got the keys to my new home.  WHAT. A. FIRST. DAY.

(Oh and I forgot to mention I didn't eat a thing that first day.  I had no idea where anything was.)

My favorite story from the first week was this lady I met from Facebook Marketplace.  I was buying a bike lock from her, and got a taxi across town to her apartment.  Long story short, after we talked for a little bit, she gave me the lock and I was on my way.  On the taxi ride home, we both realized at the same time that I had forgotten to pay her!  But I had NO idea how to tell my taxi driver to turn around and go back, plus it was a fixed payment for the ride, so how would that work??  I don't know.  I text her saying I'll get another taxi back once I get home.  When I arrived back home, guess what?  My key doesn't work.  Can't get in at all.  Guys....I started my period that morning.  And most public bathrooms here are for paying customers only, so I was just freaking out.  Plus why is my key not working??  I end up getting a taxi back to this lady across town.  She was so grateful that I had returned and not just taken the lock for free.  She said, "I know this may be strange, but if you ever need anything, a guide for the city, someone to talk to, a bathroom----" And I was like "YES bathroom please!!" 😂😂.  She was so kind and let me come up to her place.  I know, I know....stranger danger, but if you had met this woman, you wouldn't have been scared either.  She was the kindest.  She started telling me about her life and how she grew up in Valencia.  Her family lived in that same apartment when she was a little kid, and now she lives on the top floor.  Not only that, but her boyfriend, who she was introduced to, happens to live in the flat right next to hers.  SO CUTE.  I love this woman.  Anyway, that's about it.  I used her bathroom and then we were best friends.  Haha I'm sure I will never see her again, but she was my first friend in Valencia and I will never forget her kindness.

After that, I was able to get a new key and it's been fine ever since.  I love my apartment.  Not having AC is the absolute worst.  It's not only very hot here, but SO humid.  Definitely an adjustment.  The last couple of days I was able to meet more people from my program.  We partied a lot this week, you know before the semester starts and we sign our souls away to Berklee.  Lots of beach time and food.  The food here is just incredible and fairly inexpensive.  Although, I do miss getting water for free, and the free drink refills at restaurants.

I was able to find a church fairly close to me.  The people were so welcoming and incredibly kind.  I was introduced to this man that spoke very good English.  They gave me this device to put in my ear that was connected to this radio kind of thing.  The guy translated the whole program for me in real time and it was just magical.  My goal is to be able to understand most of the language during sacrament by the end of the year, but for now,  this is going to be very helpful.  I love my ward already.  We have a lot of diversity there too.  Not many people from Valencia, but there are many from Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, really just a lot from South America, and also Africa too.  I am learning so much about many different cultures.  It's just beautiful.  Plus, there are 2 sets of Sister Missionaries in my ward who speak English and have been very sweet and helpful already, so I feel pretty lucky to have found this ward.

We had a Berklee Campus Tour today, which I'll probably save for later, since I'm sure the rest of my blogs are mainly going to be about the studios and projects haha.

I miss Utah, my family, friends, and pets so much.  I think about you all every day.  Lots of love.  

COME TO VALENCIA!!

Adios!

April Kerr