I can't believe I'm finally here! After 12 days of adventure, exploring, and trying new things, I finally have the time to sit down and let you all know what I've been up to. It feels like I've been here for months, and I can't believe it hasn't even been 2 weeks. I've packed a lot into a short period of time, and I can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of my time here.
One of my good friends, Molly, is in this program as well (we've been dreaming about this since we met in Spanish class freshman year!), and on January 13th we reunited at our layover in Atlanta for our flight to Spain. After what felt like 8 hours of straight turbulence, we had arrived! We came about 5 days before our program started, and I am SO glad that we did. We stayed in a hotel and spent a lot of time with the Gutierrez family in their home in Madrid. (Sidenote: Sara Gutierrez, one of the daughters, stayed in my dad and Kelly's home with us for a month during the summer of 2010. The summer of 2011, I spent a month in their home with her mom, dad, and 5 siblings.)
I was so happy to be back in their home and see everyone, and I couldn´t believe how different some of the kids looked aftter 3 years. Their family has been nothing but far too kind and welcoming. We were able to eat all of our meals there, and it didn't take me long to readjust to the Spanish eating schedule:
Breakfast: when you wake up (very small, such as café or milk with crackers or toast)
Lunch: 2p-3p (easily the biggest meal of the day, often with multiple courses)
Dinner: 9p-11p (smaller and simpler than lunch).
We were very spoiled with lots of delicious traditional meals (I'll definitely have to dedicate a post just to food, I'm in heaven here!)
Ana, one of the daughters, was a huge help our first week in the city. She took us to get our Spanish phone numbers and played tour guide taking us to all of the sights in Madrid. I was surprised how close everything was together and loved walking around the city. After our little ¨vacation,¨ our program started on the 19th and things started to get real. I moved in with my host family and I´m halfway done with 2 weeks of nonstop orientations, and I´m currently picking out which classes I will be taking and finding a
piso (apartment), neither of these being easy tasks. Everything is very overwhelming, but I truly feel at home and am so happy to finally be fulfilling this dream. There are so many opportunities here and I cannot wait to take advantage of as many of them as I can! I´ve already visited the beautiful city of Toledo, the Museo del Prado, and climbed a mountain, but that´s a different blog post. :)
Un beso!
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| La Puerta de Alcalá |
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| Ana showed us around the whole center of Madrid! |
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| La Plaza Mayor |
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| El Palacio Real |
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| La Puerta de Alcalá |
