A personal goal of mine was to become integrated into my community. Integrate is a big word. It means that I wanted to be a part of the local culture by making friends from Logroño, eating where the locals eat and doing what the locals do. At first, I was a total tourist because it was a brand new place for me. I was taking lots of pictures of things in town and visiting the “tourist sites.” But I slowly started to integrate myself into the Spanish culture. I made several friends from Logroño, who really showed me to how to be a local. They cooked dinner for me, took me to cool places in town and spoke Spanish with me so I could practice! It was exciting because everything was so new to me and I loved how much I was learning.
After the first few weeks, I started to settle into more of a routine. I started teaching at my school in Logroño and I felt super welcomed by all of the teachers and students. On my first day of school, all of the teachers greeted me the Spanish way. It is typical for everyone to “dos besos”, which means that they give you two kisses on the cheeks. I had just met all of the teachers and the principals and every single one of them gave me two kisses on my cheek. I had a hard time remembering all of their names at first. Yikes! Don’t worry, I know them all now!
In order to integrate into the Spanish culture, I tried to participate in as many activities as I could. I even attended a jazz dance class. I love dancing, so it was especially fun for me. I also started taking yoga classes with a friend and I learned lots in class because it was all in Spanish. I also spent a lot of time in a café to work and I befriended the owner. Now he always knows my order when I walk in the door!
