¿dónde estamos?

One of my shortcomings in life is the ability to find my way around. Anywhere. Period. And it doesn't matter if I've been in that area before. In fact, sometimes that just makes it worse. Like I'll find myself on a street in Boston and say to myself "Ah, this looks familiar" when really the Starbucks I had been using for a landmark is three blocks south. I also got lost in CAS once but let's not talk about that.

Obviously this is one of the dangers I can expect in relocating to a completely new city (let alone a city with signs in a foreign language and impossible street names like Alfonso Guzman el Bueno XII). But eventually I find my why around by asking where the nearest Metro station is to situate myself or carrying around a post-it with block-by-block directions. So you can only imagine my horror when during the first day at my internship when I was presented with my first task: accompanying a non-Spanish speaking refugee from the Congo to declare his right to asylum, register for a social security number, and obtain a health card at three different ministries around the city. Yikes.

Let me preface my tale of my first day on the job by describing where I work. The Center of Refuge for Refugees (in its literal translation) is where refugees seeking asylum in Spain go to start the assimilation process. Besides helping them with the registration process and eventually becoming a member of Spanish soceity, the center is an actual housing facility where up to 50 refugees live. They're provided three hot meals, a stipend for clothes, a Metro pass, Spanish lessons, psychological treatment, among other things. They can stay in the center for up to six months after which they have to reapply to remain in the country (and live the center). It all sounds incredibly fascinating and after my interview on Monday, I couldn't wait to start. My supervisor, Ruben, was even interested in the work I had done with micro-crediting in Peru and asked me to do a research project later about ways of establishing an organization similar for the center. Superfabuloso. But my continual nodding and enthusiasm during the interview might have given Ruben the wrong impression i.e. that I'm capable of understanding directions and that I speak Spanish.

First of all, I'm not sure if it's because I appear to be super confident or intelligent (I'm hoping I do) but I have absolutely no idea why someone would ever put that much responsibility on a girl from the U.S. during her first day on the job. This guy's (the refugee) well-being (maybe his life even) depended on getting these forms filed and signed. I was extremely nervous and that always makes my directional skills that much worse. So this blonde girl and this man from the Congo are walking down the street, asking random people if they have any idea where the Instituto de Seguridades Sociales is and trying to find varios Metro stops. I accidently took us to the medical center first and the man at the desk looked at me like I had three heads; apparently I needed to get him a social security number first before they would even look at his application. Oops. Also, there was one word everyone kept asking me about and I had absolutely NO idea what it was. I played the innocently dumb and non-bilingual American card and asked them to repeat everything at least three times. Three hours later, I returned to the center with all his necessary forms and fingers crossed that I hadn't forgotten something. Upon my arrival, Ruben commented how quickly I had finished my errands. Huh....really? Well, why thank you. It was nothing, I suppose.

During my hour-long Metro ride back to school, I realized how excited I still was to be working there. Despite a hectic and information-packed first day, I actually learned and retained a lot. Though being thrown to the wolves is not my favorite way to go about it, I felt pretty confident and adult-like after my internship.

P.S. Thank god for iPods. I don't know how I would commute without one. Today's album: Juanes, "La vida es un ratico." Te ams, Michaela!