It´s been an interesting couple of days for me. Yesterday I went out for dinner at someones house. For the first time Ceci has finally let me take the bus alone. This was a BIG moment. I walked to the bus stop (uphill hike but simple enough) then came the fun bit of deciding which bus was the right one! This meant actually having to put my glasses on to see what was written on the buses as they zoomed past. I managed to get the right bus (quite an achievement) and get off at the right stop! The next part of the "plan" was to meet another girl, Amy, outside the supermarket. I had a worrying moment whhen I couldn´t see the supermarket but all was well and I stood in the right spot and waited...and waited....and waited.... I tried to call Amy but I´d run out of credit aah that´s my safety blanket gone. I went to the closest shop but I didn´t have enough cash to buy a top up card. Shouldn´t the phone tell you when you´re running out? I tried to comfort myself with the thought that even if I managed to call the police/ambulance in an emergency my Spanish probably wouldn´t stand up to explaining where I was-strangely enough this thought didn´t end up comforting me!
So now I was getting worried; all alone, couldn´t call for help and was begining to doubt I was in the right place. Had I confused the super-maxi with mega-maxi? Wrong meeting point, being late and no phone is annoying at the best of times but when you´re alone, abroad and you aren´t fluent in the language it´s a tad concerning! Learn from my mistakes please-don´t ever let yourself get stuck at a bus stop alone in a Latin American country. The stares, whistles, shouts and cars beeping was most uncomfortable! (of course if you´re a bulky 6ft man you may get away with it but I still wouldn´t bother if I was you!)
Amy finally turned up (I was at the right place yay) full of apologies. She´d been hugely held up. The positive outcome was we became friends whilst moaning about the traffic jams and useless phones :)
Today I wanted to send a parcel and of course I needed to buy a phone top up card, all boring everyday stuff but I´m feeling quite pleased with myself none the less. I managed to send off my parcel but for that I needed to spell my name, give my adress and phone number all in Spanish which I managed without a hitch. I then managed to buy a phone card and more importantly...read (and understand) the instructions in Spanish and get the credit put on my phone ! I stood in the street working it out and glowing with pride. Nobody else noticed but I was thrilled! I finished off by getting a set of keys for the house copied so I can go out and about now all alone. Gosh, I feel quite grown up now :)
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