Meet my host mom!

This is Soco, my host mom for the semester! We're living together in her two-bedroom apartment, and I'm the second student to whom she's ever rented a room. We took this picture today while waiting at the bus stop after our mini-shopping spree. Tomorrow I have orientation, so she took the bus with me to campus so I could get used to the routes, and then we went to a store called El Corte Inglés, which is sort of like a 10-story version of Macy's or JC Penney, except on the bottom floor there's a supermarket too--it's a one stop shop!

Across the street from El Corte Inglés was a theater, and they've been featuring this display by Belenes for the past week or so in celebration of El Día de los Reyes Magos. Today was the last day, so we went inside to see it. I only took a couple of pictures, but the creations were so amazing--everything was made entirely by hand. Take a look!

Lastly, here's a look at the apartment I'm living in! The neighborhood is called Zizur Mayor, and I absolutely love it. Everything is cute and comfortable. By the way, my closet doesn't have anything in it yet because Air Canada lost one of my suitcases. It's been found, but they're sending it from Madrid, so it won't be here until Tuesday (which is why Soco and I went shopping today)!

One thing I learned today: The drivers in Spain aren't as rushed as the drivers in the US! I've already seen a few interactions where honks would've been provoked in North Carolina, but the drivers here are so nonchalant! This is good to know in the event that I ever rented a car here, which I don't plan on doing because the traffic pattern is a bit confusing (there are tons of roundabouts), but Soco suggested that I rent a car during Easter break and travel through Spain (our break here is a week and a half!), so we'll see!