Week 1

So I guess this is the easiest way for everyone to hear updates and the fun fun things happening on the other side of the world. Lets start with the airport. Steph and Alexa came with Mom and I to drop me off. It was a fun drive, fun lunch, and fun people watching and finding the best kids to take home with us. Finally it came time to board the plane, and I think I started to realize I was going to Spain. Tears started rolling. I hadn't thought about it at all, or prepared myself to not be with my friends and loved ones for so long. We said goodbye, and I went through security and got over the crying. A few steps later, I made friends and forgot I was ever sad. We found people to switch our seats on the plane and got to sit by each other which made the 10 hour flight much more bearable. We got served wine with our horrible dinner and I attempted to sleep but my restless leg syndrome (not a joke) didn't let me. A few miserable hours later, we arrived at the Heathrow airport in London. For some reason they made us stay on the plane for 45 minutes and so we had to run through a maze (literally. I thought I was in that movie Mousetrap) to hardly catch our flight. Oh and this is like 4:30 am our time, it had been a long day. The next flight was almost empty and I finally got to sleep. We then we arrived in beautiful Madrid. The airport was cool, just a long building with a weird roof. Reminded me of Hawaii. While waiting for our luggage, I thought I heard my name followed by a few sentences in Spanish. I thought, no way was that my name. Sure enough, they repeated it when I obviously didn't respond or do whatever they were trying to tell me. I thought this was hilarious, what a preview of what was to come the next few months. Me not knowing what anyone was saying or what was going on. I come to find out that my luggage was still in London and it would arrive at my Universidad the next day. Shoot. Oh well, I'm in Spain. We then took a bus to our hotel where we were staying the first night. Seeing the city as we drove in was surreal. It was a little rainy but still gorgeous. We ate dinner at the hotel the first night, chicken and some soup that no one could decipher the taste, but was still good. We tried to go to bed early, but everyone's body clocks were still way off. Our hotel bathroom had a bidet. Weird. Wake up call was at the great time of 7 am the next morning and then followed by terribly long orientations. We were let loose for lunch and we all looked so lost and confused, not knowing where to eat. Myself and two other guys ate at the first restaurant we saw, and had bocadillos, which are sort of sandwich things. Really they just add bread to things. Our waitress went and bought the bread fresh after we ordered. We got calamari bocadillos, chorizo bocadillos, (some sort of comfort food, tasted as good as linguicia), and jamon bocadillos. The three of us were the only Californians, and it was funny that we all banded together without knowing it. My friend Scott and I went on a mission to find a bank during free time and because of our lack of spanish knowledge, did three withdrawals from an ATM because we couldn't read the directions, and this ATM charged us 15 bucks for that stupid mistake. Sorry parents.

We finally got to move into our apartments later that day. The whole week is a blur so this might all go out of order. But, a nice man named Jorge who is a student at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos took me to my apartment and laughed at my spanish. Our apartment is on the third floor on Calle Maiquez and we have a doorman. Its just like Seinfield, you can buzz people in. But our doorman is African, (I almost put African-American but realized that he probably isn't American...) and speaks spanish and tries his best to speak english to me. Its cute. I met my roommate, Meghan and was so happy because I loved her instantly. She is from San Diego and goes to Cal Poly. Her boyfriend is on the National water polo team here and is awesome as well. They took me out to tapas that night, which means little portions or something. I guess they originated because they wanted to promote not drinking on an empty stomach, and they were little bread things with some fish or something on top. They would also put them on top of the beers to not let sawdust in. Anyways, it was pretty great. We got these fried cod and egg and cheese things, cured ham, tortillas which were actually potatos and egg things that looked like a keish, fried fish, and peppers. We also had drinks and they brought out bread. I also tried anchovies on tomatoes on bread, another tapa they gave for free when you order drinks. I've gotten so brave.

The next morning Meghan walked me to the metro before my orientation because I had no idea where I was going, and we got coffees on the way. Half-way through my spanish test at orientation, I had to run out and felt really sick from the coffee. Big bummer. I also only got 24 of the 85 questions right on the spanish test, which was 23 guesses. Not bad, not bad. We then had what felt like a gillion hours of orientation, waiting, and meetings. Not fun. A few of us needed to go to the city center, Sol, to get prepaid phones. We took a train from Vilcalvaro trying to get to a different metro station, and ended up on the outside of the city, at a station called Vilcalvaro. Confusing. We ended up finding our way and took a few trains and metros and got to see different parts of the city during the sun set. We finally found a place to get phones and all came out with cute little plastic phones that don't even have a volume button and no one knows how to put it on silent. After a night of coughing and being more exhausted than I thought possible, I was rested and ready for my first day of school at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos!

We woke up yesterday morning and rushed to get to the metro to be at school at 9, when my class starts, Meghan and Maria's at 9:30. After arriving at 9:15 and seeing that there was no one in my classroom and running down 4 stories to figure this out, while trying to speak spanish, my class started at 10:25. Phew. We went and got breakfast at the cafeteria and I had no idea how to order toast in spanish so I used some sign language and kept saying pan caliente, it worked. There are only 5 of us in Spanish I, and we learned the alphabet. I'm right where I belong. One boy in my class is from North Korea, and can't speak spanish very well, or english. The poor kid is going to be so confused in June. But he tries. Today, he told us his girlfriend is pretty and nice. He's adorable. I have a bunch of friends from Chicago and I hope I come home with a Chicago accent. And NOT a spanish lisp. We practiced that all day, it's strange. Maria and I went grocery shopping and spent over an hour in a tiny supermarket because we had no idea what to get. Every single thing includes jamon, its different. I also had to explain garlic salt to the worker, and that also took some sign language and saying blanco over and over again. We eventually succeeded and cooked a dinner that was familiar food of salad, garlic bread, chicken and veggies, and ravioli with alfredo. It was the first time I've been full all week.

We went to a little sports pub that is a hole in the wall that Meghan's boyfriend was at, and it was so fun. All the locals were there cheering on Atletico Madrid or Real Madrid, and the rivalry was great. It was fun being in a non tourist spot and hanging out with locals. We took the metro to Plaza Del Sol after the game, and I ended up running into a friend from home, Jackie, while waiting for the metro. It was crazy and exciting, such a small world. I knew she was in Madrid, but this is a big city. As soon as we got on the metro, I ran into another friend from the program too. So weird. We walked and walked and walked around Sol and ended up at a small bar with friendly people. They serve jamon to customers for free, and patatas fritas. Some french men bought us glasses of sangria, and then tried to talk to us and both of our limited spanish made this very difficult. After we left, we walked and walked and walked until it was time to get a taxi and go home, since the metros were closed. After struggling to wake up in the morning, and falling asleep on the metro along with Conor and Joey, we get to campus to find out class is cancelled. I wasn't even mad I wasted 2 euros and an hour of commuting as long as it meant I could sleep longer. I slept all day and needed it badly.

I probably forgot some things. First week in Madrid was quick and crazy, I can't wait for the next four months.