26th January: Hey There, Lonely Girl

It is now my third full day in Spain and I still have no Internet connection or any housemates to speak of. The closest I’ve got to a proper conversation today is the shouted Skype call I managed to have with my parents in the loudest Internet cafe known to man. On the plus side, the weather is already looking up, and I’m writing this whilst sat on the balcony of my flat, where it’s actually warmer than inside.

Yesterday went more or less as expected. I arrived at the induction a few minutes before it was due to start; the entrance was easy to spot, as it was surrounded by groups of people speaking foreign languages. I’ve said it before but I have never been so convinced that the worst kind of loneliness is the kind you feel when you’re surrounded by people. Glancing through the crowd, I seemed to be the only one who was utterly and completely alone.

When I finally heard some English coming from the little group in front of me, it felt like there might be some hope after all, and when we sat down in the auditorium it was a relief just to be able to chat to someone without having to rack my brains to find the right words. Afterwards, I bumped into two more English girls and we ended up going to lunch together.

That afternoon, I went with one of the girls, Annalisa, to look into getting a Spanish SIM card and sorting Annalisa out with some Internet. She showed me a big shopping centre at the other end of town, where there was also the huge French supermarket Carrefour and even a Lidl. It was after 6pm when we parted ways, agreeing to meet up that evening.

When I got back to the flat, I cooked myself a makeshift chilli without any meat, which actually turned out all right. By this time it was approaching 9pm and it wasn’t until 9.30 that I realised my new Spanish phone wasn’t sending any messages to English numbers. I’d already given up on the idea of going out by now and decided to leave it until the next day.

Today, I woke up after 11 once again, despite the fact that I’d gone to sleep before midnight the night before. I’ve never slept like this before; maybe my subconscious is aware that I no longer have a life and therefore no particular reason to get up in the morning? This morning I actually dreamt that my flatmates had arrived and that I woke up to a huge breakfast platter presented by our landlady for us; how disappointing it was to wake up to the reality.

Anyway, I took my time having some breakfast and getting ready, before doing a bit more reading and revision and having my lunch. (If things don’t start looking up soon I may have to give up writing this blog for lack of readership, since all my readers will have died of boredom.) Then I made an optimistic but vain attempt to get Internet access at the university, which was closed, before finally finding a cafe with Wifi but no plug sockets, and loud music which made a successful Skype call nigh-on impossible (although my parents nearly did that on their own, before I reminded them they might need to switch to the laptop with a webcam and microphone).

Now I’m sitting on my balcony with the tune to ‘Hey there, lonely girl’ in my head, wandering what to do next. It’s half-past-five so I think I’ll kill a couple more hours with some Spanish revision and text Annalisa to see if she’s free. If not, it’s another chilli for one and a Vampire Diaries marathon.