Fulbright Orientation. It happened.

This week was CRAZYTOWN. I opened a Spanish bank account. I moved into an apartment. I developed a smoker's cough even though I don't smoke because the rest of Madrid does. But I spent the majority of this week in a hotel/conference center, meeting members of the Fulbright Commission in Spain, getting to know my fellow grantees, and attending various sessions about:

- how to become a legal resident in Spain (Empadronamiento and Residency Cards, led by a staff member from the Association of American Programs in Spain)
... An alternative title for this session could've been "You told me I could enter Spain before my visa's start date, now you're saying I have to go to Portugal and come back, whaaaat??" Luckily, I entered Spain after my visa's start date because I'm a hedge-my-bets kind of girl, but a lot of people didn't. And because of a very recent change in the law, a lot of people will, in fact, have to leave the country and come back in order for their visas to be valid. OOPS.

I took this photo at Madrid Fashion Night Out! Has
nothing to do with this post, but it's much cooler
than any photo I could've taken at Orientation, so.

- living [it up] in Spain (How to Adjust to Life in Spain, led by former Fulbright grantees)

- living (literally living, as in not dying) in Spain (Briefing on Security, led by a staff member at the US Embassy; Health Care/ASPE Insurance, led by members of the Fulbright Commission)

And there were a million more. It was exhausting, actually, to be focused on sessions from 9 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. and to be meeting all sorts of new people before, after, and in between. But the other grantees seem great, and a ton of them are living in Madrid this year. That is exciting for many reasons, one of which is that I now have more contacts in my mobile than just every emergency number imaginable. (Seriously, you name it, I've probs got it. Ambulancias? Check. Bomberos? Check. US Embassy? Yep, that too.)

And now, before I go, I will share with you my most defining moment at Orientation...

An hour and a half was set aside for icebreakers the first night. AN HOUR AND A HALF. After the first hour, the ice was sooo broken, blown-to-smithereens broken, and people were way past ready to be done. The last game was a round of "Would You Rather" led by former grantees; you had to move to a certain side of the room based on your response. After they asked a few (i.e. "Would you rather have no mouth or no ears?"), anyone who thought of one could take the mic, introduce him/herself, and ask the group a question.

It went ON and ON. Finally, a girl next to me muttered the perfect Would You Rather and I told her she should go up and say it, but she didn't want to. So I raised my hand instead, like a total eager beaver, and went up to the mic all chipper and stuff. I could actually see people rolling their eyes, "great, not another one," you get the picture. I said, "Hey, I'm Elle, and I just wanna know: would y'all rather eat dinner NOW?... Or just keep playing this endless game?" People died. The group literally cheered, the former grantees were like, "Right-i-o, dinner it is!" and for the rest of the conference I was that girl, a.k.a the girl who got the hungry fed. And let me tell you, that's not a bad rep to have haha. ;)

xoxo!
E.