My First Week In Spain

Well, I finally got around to writing my "study-a-blog" (just for you jamie). I have only been in Spain for 8 days now but so much has happened I don't even know where to start...

Flying to Spain was the first time I had ever been on a plane alone before, which was kinda nerve racking. Saying goodbye was hard (those of you who saw me off in LAX understand :)). I had a 2.5 hour flight from Chicago to Philadelphia, a 4 hour layover in Philadelphia, and then another 7 hour flight to Madrid, Spain. I slept most of the way to Philadelphia because I hadnt been able to sleep the night before (the nerves). Once in Philadelphia, I happened to start talking to this girl (Amanda) who was also waiting to fly to Spain as well. Turns out we were both in the same program! I was so relieved to have someone else to fail the Spanish airport with. Boarding the plane, Amanda and I had to split up, but oddly enough another girl studying with us, Atlee, was sitting directly in front of me. The flight over to Madrid was much more interesting. I starting talking to a woman from the States (Valerie) who had retired and was now living in Mallorca, Spain. She gave me a few cities she thought I should visit and tried to talk to me in Spanish a little....she was not very good. I also met Francisco on the flight. He was from Madrid but was coming back after touring the states with the band he manages. We talked a lot in Spanish and he also told me places to go. Unfortunately, he then invited me to his record store and then to go to Mallorca with him...it was nice but awkward. Of course i just attract awkward situations.

We landed in Madrid and were picked up by two of the program directors Eli and Alicia. They took us to our hotel "Hotel Moderno" and gave us some free time to explore the city. Madrid was amazing! It is a beautiful city however filled with tourists. We were warned about not taking siesta because of jet lag, but i just couldn't help it. The U.S. should really pick up on this lovely practice. The first night, after some meetings, we were treated to an authentic Spanish meal (which is like 13 courses). We ate lots of food; squid, croquetts, jabon, cake, enchiladas, and cheese :) lots of cheese!! After dinner, instead of going to bed, I took a walk with my roommate Jess around Madrid. Not surprisingly, we got a bit lost. But we did get some good pics of the city at night.

Day 2: We slept in a little bit today, got some breakfast, and walked over to the Prado museum. We spent a few hours led by a tour guide looking at paintings by Goya, Valezquez, El Greco, and mucho mas. I enjoyed our tour guide but she seemed to skip over a lot of things...or maybe I just couldnt understand because I was exhausted and she was speaking in Spanish. We had some more free time after the museum so Jess and I grabbed some bread and decided to take a walk. We got lost....again. This time we actually made it from the southern part of central Madrid up to the northeastern part, over to the northwest part and finally back down to the center of the city just in time to walk over to the royal palace. The Royal palace was huge! I think it has like 2800 rooms in total and all completely dripping in decoration and detail. One room even had wallpaper made out of strands of silk, silver, and gold. It was beautiful but seemed like a waste of money.... After the palace we had some more free time and some more meetings. Then a few of us went to grab something to eat before joining the rest of the students for a pub crawl! After the first pub crawl fell apart, it took us a little while before meeting John from Britain who was also leading a pub crawl (with Pablo and Marcus). It was probably not the best idea to just follow random people but it turned out fine in the end. The whole group went to three different bars. I met lots of people from all over the world (Spain, Britain, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia...) and got to practice my spanish a lot. After most of the group left, 4 of us continued to pub crawl to a salsa bar! It was by far my favorite place. I returned to the hotel at 4am (where I had been locked out), I was up until 5:30ish and had to wake up early to take a ride to el escorial.

Day 3: It was a 30 min bus ride to el escorial. We then took a 2 hour tour of the building. Our tour guide was very funny but most of us were not feeling very well haha. We saw the second best library in the world, the caskets of all the kings and queens in Spain, etc. After the tour, we headed back to Madrid. In the afternoon, I went to el Museo de Reina Sofia. I saw a lot of work by Dali and Picasso including la guernica. We had to get up early to leave for Toledo and Granada in the morning but that didn't stop a few of us from going out that night again. Only 5 of us ventured out but I didnt pay one cent the whole night :) and I got to go back to the salsa bar!

Toledo-Granada: We left very early and took an hour drive to Toledo. In Toledo, we took a bus tour around the city, then we walked around the city and looked at different religious buildings (one even housed a painting by el greco). Our tour guide took us to a square in the city, pointed out some good places to eat, and let us wander. After a few hours in Toledo, we got on the bus again and took a 5 hour bus ride to Granada. Getting in at 8:30pm, it was time to meet our families! I was terrified! My host mom Maria was there to greet me. She has been doing this for 10 years so she is pretty good at it. I absolutely adore her but she talks very fast so it is hard to understand her. She led us home and showed jess and me our room. Then while she was cooking dinner, she let us unpack. She is very very clean and i am not at all clean so that could be a problem but so far i am doing just fine....it has only been 4 days though. We had a tour of the city the next morning and stopped at the program office to sign up for some excursions (alhambra, san jose, paris!) We went back home for lunch and then, skipping out on siesta, went to find phones for some of the girls (that was a disaster and it took my roomie 4 days and 4 trips to the phone place to finally get her phone working). Back at Maria's for dinner, we met our Italian roommate Angelica. She is 30 years old and a spanish professor in Italy. She was going to take classes here but now she is headed back to Italy on Sunday because she got a job. We arent sure if we will be getting another roommate or not...

That night, Jess and I tried to meet up with some of the other students but it was too hard so we got to bed early. The next morning, we went to explore some markets in the city, took a 2.5 hour siesta, and then went for a walk to wake up. What happened? We got lost again!! haha. Our quick walk turned into a 2.5 hour walk. I got so turned around and we ended up on the other side of town. After running into other students from the group, we were pointed in the right direction and headed home. After dinner, we finally got a hold of some of the girls and had plans to go that night. We started at a tapas bar and got free tapas with our tintos de verano. Then we continued on. We had planned to go to a discoteca because apparently the entrance fee was free (it really wasn't so we didn't end up going). While we were stopped trying to figure out what to do, we ran into a bunch of Spanish men celebrating a bachelor party. I started talking to one man and when i told him I was from Wisconsin he asked me if I was from La Crosse WI. Creepy right? Turns out he had studied abroad in La Crosse during high school. apparently talking to me made him very emotional because it brought back many memories....his words not mine.

Maria made fun of us for sleeping in so late on Sunday, but I think she was really glad we went out the night before. I think she really misses her daughters (who dont live at home anymore). Our program had planned for us to go to a bullfight that evening so we walked over to the ring. I must say, I am glad I went to experience that part of the culture but i will never go to another bullfight ever. I could only stay through half of the fight. I found it to be very cruel and actually started crying at one point (along with many other students). One of the bull fighters got trampled a little by a bull but I dont think anyone felt that bad. On the way back from the Bullfight, we got to see a procession in the city for I think the patron saint of Granada. We had planned on going to bed early but instead we watched 2 movies with our host brother.

Today, I had 2 meetings to go to. I went back and relaxed for a while, took a 2.5 mile run with my roommate (who knows why) took a nap and then relaxed around the house. I dont' know how to entertain myself right now because i dont know much about the city but once classes start (on Oct. 7th) I will meet people who can entertain me :) I also have an intercambio set up with Tomas this week and a few trips with the program.

So thats brings you up to date....I can't imagine anyone in their right mind reading this whole thing beause it is ridiculously long! I love Spain! The food is a little different, the language barrier is sometimes a problem, but nothing I can't handle. Of course my sleeping pattern is still bad but when there is so much to see who needs to sleep.

I dont know when I will write next (I do have a lot of time actually and we get internet in the house because we steal it from the upstairs neighbor :)) but I promise it will be sometime before May 2010 haha. Leave comments and questions, add me to skype if you want to chat sometime or if you want a postcard leave your address and I will see what i can do. Once I find the paper with my address and number I will leave that here too! Buenas noches amigos! Hasta Luego!