How to Get Over Jet Lag

Monday morning October 1st, I tried to sleep in, but only did so till about 9:30. Showered, and left to pick up my phone my friend Melissa had left for me and visit with my friend Maria, who Melissa had left the phone with. Then I talked to my parents for about an hour, tried to find my school and walked back home. Magdalena was making tortilla española for lunch and Pepa came up to see if I wanted some habas con jamón, these green bean things, she had made. So we had a nice lunch and then Magdalena got ready to go. She is moving to the Canary Islands October 17th and was going to her home in Murcia that afternoon. She started going through her stuff and gave me towels, a backpack, 2 blankets, a beanie a really warm jacket, an umbrella, and a bunh of other stuff that she left in her room that I went through after she left. I played with my new cellphone, cleaned up the kitchen and then helped her load up the car and leave. It was sad just to be together just for a bit...

That afternoon, I kept cleaning and tried to unpack, and got almost done. My old friend Jose came by to say hello and we chatted for a while. He was really excited to see me and I was too. Then I got ready to go to my welcome dinner for the orientation and left about 8 for the dinner at 10. It was about 40 min away and I checked into the hotel, the lobby was FULL of the 500 grant recipeints for Andalucia and I didnt feel like being outgoing so I went to my room till about 9:30. Then I came down, forcing my self to be outgoing, and the lobby was totally empty, and everybody was sitting down, eating what looked like the 2nd course. Now I was really confused because it was 9:30 and supposed to start at 10 and this other girl told me that it actually was almost 11. Apparently my watch is slow and I have no idea for how long its been like that. I´m pretty upset because that watch has been in the shop all summer and now the battery is jacked or soemthing....

So after barely getting dinner, I made a friend who also came late, and tried to go to bed. The hotel was really nice, 150€ a night, so I had fun playing with all the luxuries. It also had one of those crazy toilets that is an automatic bidet, with a shower and dryer. If you have never played with one of those I highly reccommend it. By now it was 1:30 and I still hadn´t fallen alseep when someone knocked at the door and came in, and said loudly "hello??" So it was my hotel-roommate´s best firend who wanted to get soemhtign out of her bag, (which wasn´t in there) and a big long stupid story and the girl finally left and says, "sorry if i woke you up." I told her not to worry I was just lying in bed with all the light off for fun...

Next day, yummy hotel breakfast, and walk to orientation with new friend, Chad. Long, monotone, interesting, and way too much information morning of lectures, lunch and chitchatting with other teachers. Basically it only served to seriously stress me out, because I really have no idea about how to teach English, or teach anything, and I hadn´t contacted my school at all, which apparently is somehting you are supposed to do, that everyone else had done. Feeling really, really stressed, I came home and talked with my roommate Adrian, a guy from the Dominican Republic, who is really nice. We co-vented for awhile as he as work problems and high cell phone bills and then he told me that Pepa had stopped by that morning and wanted me to go see her.

I brought her her plate back and tried to call the school, which by now (6pm) no one answered. Pepa gave me different sheets because the ones she gave me the day before were too small and we put them on my bed. I was going to go find my school and Victor´s parents decided they would come with me. I didn´t have much say in that or when Pepa bought a 10 trip bus pass and gave it to me. We finally found my school which is way the heck far away and I had a little meeting with the principal or director as they say here and he told me to come tomorrow at 10. I felt better after finding that out and then the 3 of us walked home. Emilio goes out and walks all over the city every morning and knows every thing about Granada. For those of you who have felt a little overwhelmed if I have given you a tour with too much info, Emilio will put you in a coma. He knows EVERYTHING. We left the house around 6:30 and didnt get back till 10. There was always one more thing, he wanted to show me or another story. the crazy thing is, is that almost everything he showed or told me, I didn´t know, even after my knowledgeable year in Granada. I have so much more to see. I loved it, but I was so tired, and so brain dead, and a little wierded out by the whole thing. We stopped for tapas/dinner on the way home, and by 10:30 I was zonked out in bed completely exhausted.

So, to get over jet lag, stress yourself out at an orientation, then go on a walk with Emilio.