This post is dedicated to Casey because if I had not promised him that I would write this, I would be on Pinterest right now instead. Pinterest has become my life. I can only wish to be half as crafty as the people on Pinterest.
Anyway, this post is the tale of how I got lost in Cuenca yesterday. Alone.
It all started last week when Mayra said, "I'll take you to church tomorrow." But I never told her what time it started, not thinking that she would sleep past 10:30. But she did. So, I didn't go to church last week.
On Wednesday, I had an appointment to get my student card at the Extranjeria. Before work, Mayra dropped me and Cayetana off at her sister, Arancha's house and she walked with me to my appointment, ALL THE WAY ACROSS TOWN! It was a really fun walk, but I want to emphasize that it is a LONG walk. Lots of turns. Remember that.
We got to my appointment, and as I had expected, we didn't have all the papers they need, so, I STILL don't have my student card........ Without it, I can only stay until January.
Arancha and I walked to Mayra's work and then we went to a little bakery that Mayra's friend owns and we drank some Coke. Then, I went shopping with Arancha and her husband before returning back to her house. After work, Mayra picked Cayetana and me up and we got McDonald's for lunch. Let me just say that I hate McDonald's in America, but in Spain it's EVEN WORSE! Well, just the french fries are gross. They were weird and chewy...
Anyway, come Sunday, I knew exactly where the church (close the the Extranjeria) was because on our walk, Arancha had shown me. Julian dropped me off at the front door and I went downstairs, and nobody was there. I was super confused. Then about a minute later a missionary came downstairs and was like, "Hola...?" in an are you lost sort of voice. He figured out that I speak English and then told me that they first meet upstairs, which I didn't even know there was an upstairs because the doors is off to the side.
When I walked into the chapel there were like, 5 people in the congregation and 2 in the branch presidency and 2 missionaries. The missionaries asked me the general questions, where are you from, what's your name, etc... They're both from Utah, shocking, right? And I don't remember their names....
Then the meeting started and we sang, but nobody plays the piano, they sing along to a CD. The first missionary that I met came and sat next to me and asked me how much Spanish I know. I never really know how to answer that, so I just gave him the so-so hand signal.
As the meeting went on several more people came in. In all, there were probably about 30 people there, give or take...
There was a super cute little boy running all over the room, (it's a small room with chairs instead of pews) and he ran up to the stand where the branch pres was and was playing with stuff and nobody seemed like they were going to stop him. So, the missionary leaned over and whispered, "Only in Cuenca."
I didn't understand the first talk very well. I only heard key phrases like "resistir el diablo" and "Libro de Mormon." But the second talk I understood very well. I don't really remember what it was about though.... Well, it was about the Book of Mormon but I don't remember the details.
After Sacrament meeting, we went down to Sunday school. It's just like in our stake where you can choose to go to Gospel Principles or regular Sunday School. I think it's called Gospel Doctrine? Anyway, I went to Gospel Doctrine and there were only, like, 5 other people in there. A woman not too much older than me sat by me. I think her name was Soraya Soralla.... I don't know.... Saraya? I really don't know. Well, she was really nice and easy to talk to. She lives in Madrid but she comes to Cuenca every weekend to be with her family. The missionary told me she's an English teacher and that she speaks better English than he does. But I only talked to her in Spanish. Anway, she shared La Biblia with me because I only had the English copy. The teacher, the same lady who gave the first talk in Sacrament, gave me the manual and asked if I could read it. It was a little nerve racking at first, but then I remembered that I like reading out loud.
As we were reading in the Bible I came to some verses that I didn't understand so I pulled out my English copy and went to turn to the page but realized that I had no idea who Santiago is. Soraya, or whatever, leaned over and said, "Santiago es James." I felt a little silly. I never realized the names we sooo different. I knew about Nefi and Pedro, etc...
I understood most of the lesson in Sunday School but less of Relief Society. It was the last hour and my brain was exhausted from paying such close attention to everybody's words. It's really tiring listening to church in a foreign language! There was an alarm that kept going off on the cell phone that Julian gave to me and I couldn't figure out how to turn it off!!! I turned the phone off (worst mistake of the day) but the alarm STILL went off!
So, after church I paid my tithing and the branch pres. asked me for all my information so he could request my records. This is the point when I realized that I've grown leaps and bounds in communicating in Spanish. But he was a little difficult to understand, nonetheless. He asked me for my phone number at the house, so, I took out the phone to look it up. I turned it back on and saw that it was LOCKED asking me for the PIN. I didn't know it and had no way of looking up the number and therefore no way of calling Mayra. I finished with the Pres. and left, still not knowing what I was going to do. I luckily packed an extra pair of shoes because I accidentally brought the wrong black heels to Spain, the ones that KILL my feet. So, I quickly changed my shoes and decided I would walk to Arancha's house (second worst mistake of the day).
At first, I recognized my surroundings and for the most part knew I was going in the right direction. But after about 15 minutes of walking I had no idea where I was. I thought of asking for directions but decided that was not gonna help me at all. I'm terrible with directions. So, I thought I should go back to the church and assume that Mayra would eventually come. I hoped.
I got to the church just in time because the Branch Pres was just getting ready to leave and he had 2 other people with him that I have no idea what their names were. They were possibly related? Not sure. Well, I told them my situation and the Pres. offered to give me a ride to Arancha's house. I didn't want to ask him to take me all the way out to my house in Arcas because it's sooo far away. And I just thought going to Arancha's was the best option, which turned out for the best.
Once at Arancha's apartment building, I said gracias several times to the branch pres and walked over to the little button buzzer things on the outside of the apartment building. I'd seen Mayra push it several times before but I wasn't certain which apartment number she lived in. So I gave 6-A a try.
It buzzed and a voice said, "Quien es?"
Before I said who I was I asked, just to be sure, "Eres Arancha?"
"Sii!" She said.
So, I said, "Soy Emily." And she buzzed me in. I explained to her what happened when I got inside and she gave me food while she tried calling Mayra, who DIDN'T ANSWER! She tried several times throughout the next hour and after I had finished eating and the kids got dressed, we drove over there, but no one was home.
She called Ivanna and asked if she knew where Mayra was. Sure enough, Mayra was there eating lunch! Arancha told her what happened with the cell phone and then we all drove over to Ivanna's house to wait for them to finish eating.
By this time I was absolutely exhausted. But I still had to teach Lola, Nacho and Carol English. Which, by the way, I had nothing prepared because, 1) they never tell me in advance what they need to work on and 2) I wasn't planning on spending all day being lost in Cuenca, so I thought I'd have time to throw a little something together. Wrong.
I helped Lola with her homework which took about 2 minutes and then I helped Nacho sing his Thanksgiving song for his class and I helped Carol learn her letters. She only knows them in the order of the song so we practiced them out of order. She had a hard time with A, E and I.
Then they left, and I had a splitting headache and went to sleep without dinner. It was a loooong adventurous day.
