Welcome to Spain! I have FINALLY arrived! After planning this trip for almost a year, I have made it to Spain and so far I'm loving it. It's such a different place and it still doesn't seem real that I'll be calling it home for the next 4 months. I guess I'll start this post out from the beginning, departure. Me and Ginny arrived at the Charlotte airport around 9 am to make our flight at 11:20 am. The flight was good, nothing exciting, as we made our way to Philadelphia. We arrived about 30 minutes early in Philly and had about a 5 hour lay-over until the big flight over to Madrid. At the Philly airport we met our first new friend, Megan, who actually is also a student at Clemson! While trying to kill time, we went and ate at the food court, people watched, skyped with friends, and just got to chit chat. As time passed more and more students from ISA showed up and we were able to mingle with them before boarding our international flight. Boarding time came and we headed to first class, where we were pampered! Our friend Megan even upgraded and got to be in first class with us! After take off me and Ginny decided to watch a movie and both picked "The Help", which neither of us had seen. It's a surprise I even made it through the movie because I was sooo tired and the second the movie ended I was out like a light! I slept for the next 3 hours, which made the flight seem a lot shorter and woke up about an hour before landing. Since there were some empty seats where we were sitting, I switched from an isle seat to a window seat so I could see the city from the sky. It was gorgeous. We were flying into Madrid in the early morning so it was still dark outside, but the lights from the city lit up the sky and it was such a pretty view from my window! Our flight ended up landing almost an hour early so we had some more time to kill while in the Madrid airport. While waiting at the baggage claim, me, Ginny, and Megan met some other girls from ISA and went and found some seats together. As we waiting for the buses to come and pick us up at the airport more and more ISA people started to join our little group and suddenly there was 20 names to remember instead of just 4. Eventually the whole ISA group got together and we boarded the bus to head to our hotel. When we got to the hotel we were assigned rooms. Me and Ginny are sharing a room together with an awesome view of a tree lined street with a park not too far. We had a bus toured planned for 6 pm so we decided to go exploring a little bit of the city, and also we were in search of some food! We roamed up and down streets until we decided to try out this little restaurant/bar called "Horoscopo" or horoscope in English (for all of you that aren't familiar with the Spanish language...mom! haha). This was also our first time trying to speak the language...we survived! We all ordered a bocadilla, which is like a little sandwich, and got ham and tomatoes. The ham isn't like the ham in the States because it's more of a dried ham that they cut into smaller pieces and place it on the sandwich. Our snack also came with chips that we could munch on while waiting for our sandwiches. After that we walked back to our hotel and decided to nap. I, however, am updating my blog instead of napping! Who needs sleep?! At 6pm we have a bus tour of Madrid which should be pretty cool since it will be at night and all the buildings will be lit up. After our bus tour we have a mandatory ISA meeting, just to go over what to expect in Spain and a little more about how the program is going to work once we all get to Sevilla. I'm hoping that meeting doesn't take too long because there are some people that I want to skype and update! But tomorrow we are doing some more exploring of the city and some of the history with the rest of the ISA group then we will be heading to Toledo, which is only about 30-45 minutes away from Madrid. We will stay in Toledo for a day and then off to Sevilla we go! I can't wait to see where I'm living and what my new home will look like!
On a side note, I have definitely been getting some stares from the locals. I don't know if it's my blonde hair or my Clemson sweatshirt, but I feel like I stick out haha! And also, me, Ginny, and Megan decided to go into another little cafe and I asked a question in Spanish and the waiter answered me in English...I was a little confused but I guess the waiter understood what I was trying to say because he answered me back. I wanted to say "noooooo, I'm trying to learn Spanish here!" but I didn't want to be rude so we finished the question up in English.
But I say all that to say this, I'm having a great time! It still doesn't seem real and I feel like I'm on a constant vacation! Maybe that will change once I actually start classes...we'll see. And this is on a side,
side note, I've had a lot of trouble with being able to connect to a wi-fi or internet network so I've been unable to use my ipod to text everyone and let them know how I'm doing. Don't panic quite yet, I have bought 24 hours of wi-fi service in my hotel. After that, I might be MIA for a couple of days before I get to Sevilla and figure out the internet there so please, bear with me! I promise I'm still here!
Thanks for everyone who is keeping up with my blog! I hope to keep everyone updated through this so bookmark this page! :)
almost to Madrid!
beautiful buildings
view from my hotel window
¡Hasta pronto!
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