new roomie

Me and Nikki :)

Guess what? Nikki is my new roommate! Well technically she's my housemate because she lives in the next room, but we call each other house sisters :)

So this is how it happened. She had been living with an older couple and had a roommate from the U.S. but from a different program. Basically, she hated living there. I don't think she had a lot of problems with the husband, I don't think he was there a lot, but there were other things. For one thing, she wasn't allowed to go into the living room. Basically, she can go into the bathroom, the kitchen, and her room. So she spends a lot of her time sitting in her room. Also, I guess her host mom didn't give her enough food. She had to spend some of her own money to buy food for herself because she was still hungry. Also, I don't think her host mom respected her beliefs. Nikki is Catholic and doesn't eat meat on Fridays. She told her host mom, and she complained a lot and said, "That's really inconvenient," even though she serves fish all the time anyways. Nikki gave up bread for Lent (EXTREMELY difficult when living in Madrid), and her host mom was complaining a bunch again. Besides all that, her roommate is at a higher level of Spanish, and I guess she got a big head because she only spoke English with Nikki, even when Nikki would ask her a question in Spanish. She told me that she basically only spoke English at home, which surprised me because home is where I speak Spanish the most.

Well every day at dinner, I usually talk with Maru (my host mom) and tell her about my day and everything that's going on. She knows all about my friends, and one day I was telling her about Nikki's situation. She was shocked and kind of upset that this was happening to her. One thing that she thinks is important is that we feel comfortable in our home-stays because they're, well, our homes. The first week I was here, she kept asking and asking me, "Are you comfortable here? Are you happy? Is there anything I can do to make you feel more at home?" I appreciated this so much. Maru suggested that, if Nikki wanted, she could move in and stay with us.

Our typical Madrileña dinner - Ariel, Nikki, and Maru

A few weeks passed, and thing with Nikki seemed to be okay, but after a while I found out that not much had changed and that she was still unhappy. I told her about Maru's suggestion, and she seemed super excited. Maru had made a "typical madrileña dinner" one night, and I invited Nikki and Ariel over. It was a fun night, and we sat and talked for 3 hours straight (Maru loves to talk). Nikki got to talk to her about the situation, and everyone was okay with it! The next day Maru talked with Rocio, our program director, and got the okay.

The thing is, she had to move in the next day. It was going to be March 1st, which is when they pay the families. All of this happened in the course of 2 or 3 days, but thank goodness Maru is laid-back and awesome. She said Nikki could move in right away, so the next day when I came home, she was all moved in!

I have to say, I'm a little jealous. Her room is seriously 3 times as big as mine. I don't know why Maru had given me the smaller room. I think it's because mine has a closet with sliding doors and drawers, while Nikki's has a wardrobe. Still, her room is seriously huge (bigger than mine in California), has tons of natural light, she has windows, and she has a desk. My room has a window, but it doesn't open into the outside. It opens into the hallway, which means no air, which means my room is very warm. Since I have no window opening to the outside, Also, I'm the only person I know in the program who doesn't have my own desk in the room. I usually do my homework on my bed or go into the living room. I can't believe Nikki got her own desk!

Sorry lol. I think I'm just in a jealous mood right now. I've just been eyeing that room for the longest time. At first I was a bit worried about how it would affect the relationship between Maru and me, but now, I LOVE that she's here. Maru, Nikki, and I get along extremely well. Nikki's super super sweet, understands my sarcasm, and gets Maru's jokes. Nikki and I like the same things, and we're both from SB, so we can talk about that stuff too when we get homesick. Also, she's pretty studious, so she makes me feel guilty and want to study too.

En fin, I am SO HAPPY with how things turned out, and I am so excited with to have my house sister. Also, you know how in my last post I was really sad that I couldn't go to Paris? Well okay at this moment I'm still kind of bummed because they're all in Paris at this exact moment, but in April around Semana Santa (Easter break), I'm going to PORTUGAL! Ahhh I'm so excited! Everything actually turned out great. I mean yes, I do want to return to Paris and see it on MY time, not on my tour guide's time, but I have been there before. I've never been to Lisbon. Anyway, that's all for now :)