Estoy in España!
I'm here! I arrived late this morning after a smooth trip going from Los Angeles to Toronto and Toronto to Madrid. No lost luggage or delayed flights or anything like that this time! After going through customs and waiting forever to get my bags, I took a taxi to the university. It took me a little while to figure out where I was supposed to catch the taxi, but after that it went smoothly. Thankfully, I had a note from my university telling the driver where to go, because the driver didn't know English and my Spanish wouldn't have been enough. However, the driver and I did talk a bit on the trip over, so I started getting practice in my Spanish right at the beginning!
At the school, I checked in, then the sister of my host señora picked me up and took me to the apartment where I'd be staying. The host señora herself (her name's Luz) was picking up the two other girls who are staying in the apartment, Jo and Claire. Luz doesn't speak much English, which was a bit scary to hear at first, but communication has been going pretty smoothly, especially since Claire speaks a bit more Spanish than I do (Jo speaks a bit less). I have my own room, which is nice, and Jo and Claire share a room (Luz put them together because she thought they knew each other, though they actually just met while traveling). Also in the apartment live Luz's three young boys. I'm excited to meet them, since they are currently on vacation with their grandparents in the country.
After getting settled in, Jo, Claire, and I went to take a walk around the city. We're living right in the center of Madrid, a couple of blocks away from the Opera and the king's palace. It's a wonderful location! We walked a bit around the shops and plazas and got something to eat at a sandwich shop. Unfortunately, I left my camera back at the apartment, so I wasn't able to record my first impressions. But I'll take pictures and perhaps post them later! Speaking of forgetting cameras, I left my brand new one back at home. It's really disappointing, because I was really looking forward to using it. But I did get to use it at Disneyland, and I did bring my old camera (which is still pretty nice) to Spain just in case. Anyway, we weren't out more than a couple of hours, because we were all exhausted, but there are tons of places I saw that I want to go back to even just in the small area we walked around in. Thank goodness I'm here for four months!
Once back, I called my family via Skype, which was cool. Before I went to Morocco, I bought a subscription to Skype that I'll keep until I come home in December. For a little less than $3 a month, I can call any phone in the US! It's really nice, though the time difference (9 hours between here and California) makes things a tad more difficult.
Luz made us dinner, and we ate early at 8:30pm (I'm not used to the European eating schedule, but my body clock is so messed up anyway that it didn't really matter) because we were all tired. The food was quite tasty! We had tortillas made of potatoes and eggs, cold noodles, salad, bread, and watermelon or yogurt for dessert. Luz is quite talkative, which is fun! I definitely need to work on my Spanish, though...
Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow, we have orientation, and I'm not sure what else we'll do. On Friday, I leave for an orientation trip to Andalucia, which I'm excited for (though people keep telling me it's hot there). Classes don't start until my birthday (i.e. Wednesday, Sept. 3).
Good night!
At the school, I checked in, then the sister of my host señora picked me up and took me to the apartment where I'd be staying. The host señora herself (her name's Luz) was picking up the two other girls who are staying in the apartment, Jo and Claire. Luz doesn't speak much English, which was a bit scary to hear at first, but communication has been going pretty smoothly, especially since Claire speaks a bit more Spanish than I do (Jo speaks a bit less). I have my own room, which is nice, and Jo and Claire share a room (Luz put them together because she thought they knew each other, though they actually just met while traveling). Also in the apartment live Luz's three young boys. I'm excited to meet them, since they are currently on vacation with their grandparents in the country.
After getting settled in, Jo, Claire, and I went to take a walk around the city. We're living right in the center of Madrid, a couple of blocks away from the Opera and the king's palace. It's a wonderful location! We walked a bit around the shops and plazas and got something to eat at a sandwich shop. Unfortunately, I left my camera back at the apartment, so I wasn't able to record my first impressions. But I'll take pictures and perhaps post them later! Speaking of forgetting cameras, I left my brand new one back at home. It's really disappointing, because I was really looking forward to using it. But I did get to use it at Disneyland, and I did bring my old camera (which is still pretty nice) to Spain just in case. Anyway, we weren't out more than a couple of hours, because we were all exhausted, but there are tons of places I saw that I want to go back to even just in the small area we walked around in. Thank goodness I'm here for four months!
Once back, I called my family via Skype, which was cool. Before I went to Morocco, I bought a subscription to Skype that I'll keep until I come home in December. For a little less than $3 a month, I can call any phone in the US! It's really nice, though the time difference (9 hours between here and California) makes things a tad more difficult.
Luz made us dinner, and we ate early at 8:30pm (I'm not used to the European eating schedule, but my body clock is so messed up anyway that it didn't really matter) because we were all tired. The food was quite tasty! We had tortillas made of potatoes and eggs, cold noodles, salad, bread, and watermelon or yogurt for dessert. Luz is quite talkative, which is fun! I definitely need to work on my Spanish, though...
Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow, we have orientation, and I'm not sure what else we'll do. On Friday, I leave for an orientation trip to Andalucia, which I'm excited for (though people keep telling me it's hot there). Classes don't start until my birthday (i.e. Wednesday, Sept. 3).
Good night!