Mis Primeros Días en España!

We made it! After a quick flight from Charlotte to Philly, we boarded our plane for Madrid and realized that about half the passengers were IES students heading to Madrid, Salamanca, or Seville. You could see how excited everyone was to finally be on the plane and starting our adventures in Spain. Around 8am Spanish time (or 2am for everyone back at home), we landed at the aeropuerto Madrid-Barajas! Following a quick trip through customs, we grabbed our bags (they all made it!) and headed for the taxis where we were greeted by the IES staff. While there was some Spanish spoken on the plane, the real "oh wow we're in Spain" feeling didn't hit until the staff starting giving us directions to the hotel in Spanish. After a few "ques" and "comos," we managed to get directions and head to the hotel Husa Princesa where we would spend our first night and begin orientation. Once we managed to get all of our bags out of the cab, Lizzy (my roomate for the semster) and I made it to our room where we decided it was time to enjoy a quick nap before all the students met for lunch at one.

After our much-needed naps, we met up with Laurie, our neighbor who goes to school in California, and headed upstairs for lunch and orientation. We grabbed a table with Will and Thomas and were joined by Melissa and Kaitlin, some of our new amigas from Villanova, as well as Danny, another Will, and Peter. There are around 100 students in the IES Madrid program, but we're doing our best to keep meeting everyone and keep track of names at the same time. As for lunch, I'm not sure if it is this way in all of Spain, but so far everyone in Madrid makes sure that you do not leave hungry! We started with sausage, salami, and bread, followed by grilled veggies, and then enjoyed veal and asparagus for our main dish. And if that wasn't enough, they brought us cake and coffee for dessert. The IES staff then introduced themselves and gave us our orientation schedules, maps, class schedule, and a charla about safety in Madrid.

Having been given the afternoon off, we walked to Corte Ingles, a seven story store that has everything from a supermarket  to a department store, to get our Spanish phones. After lots of questions using our Spanglish, all seven girls got their new phones and headed back to the hotel where we hung out until we headed out to dinner around 10. The meal schedule is a lot different in Spain. While breakfast is still in the morning, you don't eat lunch until 2:30 or 3pm and no one even thinks about dinner before 9:30pm. Needless to say, Lizzy and I have been stopping for snacks to hold us over until we adjust. After walking the streets near our hotel, Lizzy, Will, Thomas, Becca, Kayla, Melissa, Kaitlin, and I all enjoyed a wonderful meal  at El Parque, then headed to El Chapandaz (the cave bar) to celebrate Will's birthday.

The next morning, we had to wake up early for orientation during which we learned about the rules for our homestay, as well as the academic expectations. We don't start classes until the 31st, so the first two weeks is solely orientation and our language and culture class. When we finished with those, we headed upstairs to pack our bags and meet our madre! Lizzy and I are living together with Cristina, nuestra madre, and her dog, Greta. Cristina is very nice and was just as excited to see us as we were her. After once again cramming all of our bags into the taxi, we headed to our apartment on Zurbano in el barrio Chamberí,  a beautiful neighborhood that is primarily residencial and known for being tranquilo. Once we arrived, we got a tour of the apartment and then moved into our rooms! Lizzy and I each have our own rooms and share a bathroom. Here's mine!

And here's Greta!

After settling in, we ate la comida (what they call lunch) with Cristina, who made us zuchinni soup and bread. I was a little hesistant at first but it turned out to be delicious. Once we ate, Cristina showed us the way to school, which is about 30 minutes away. We take a bus for the first 15 minutes and then walk the last part. It's a beautiful walk, part of which is through a park and hasn't been too cold, so we've enjoyed it! Once we got to school, we took our language placement test for orientation and then made our way back home. It took a little while to find which bus we needed to take but we enjoyed the wrong turns and found lots of places that we want to visit soon! Later in the evening, Lizzy, Cristina, and I took a tour of the barrio with some of the other madres and students in our neighborhood. We went to Gran Via and took the metro to a few places. Jet lag began to set in so when we finished the tour, Lizzy and I walked around the neighborhood looking for a good place for dinner, only to settle on a delicious Burger King meal. Once we polished off our chicken fingers, we headed home to get some sleep and prepare for our first day of language class. More to come later!