The last three days have really run together in my head. At midnight, 4 hours before I had to leave my house for the airport, I realized that one of my suitcases was of a lot cheaper than I thought. My good old 25'' inch red suitcase that I lugged back and forth from school and home was now ripping at the seams and busting open. So LESSON NUMBER 1: Pack your bags to the maximum capacity at least 24 hours before your time of departure, so you don't end up frantically searching for a suitcase at midnight the night before your flight. (Guess Mom was right about the dangers of waiting until the last minute to finish things). Luckily, Marc Rios (my little brother from another mother) brought a suitcase to my house around 1 am and let me take it to Spain, for possibly the whole year. The only other suitcase that I could have brought didn't have a working handle to roll it... so thanks Marc, you're the best.
Saying bye to my parents was so hard. Many tears were shed as we said our goodbyes and gave hugs. I'm going to miss them more than anything. They better visit me for Christmas!
Anyways, I slept all the way from LAX to Dulles Internatl. Danielle and I got lunch during our layover and got more and more excited for Spain. I think our flight from DC to Madrid was about 7 hours... but I'm not sure because I my concept of time is totally thrown and I slept most of the time. Between naps I watched The Joneses and few episodes of Sex & The City. On my second flight I also met a few other girls in my program. Each of them were traveling by themselves. I don't know how they did it. It would have been hard to do all this without Danielle... it's nice to have a buddy :)
We arrived in Madrid just in time for the sunrise. It was beautiful and surreal. I can't believe this is my home for the next 6 months- year! In the airport it was weird to see this room for smoking... It was right near the luggage belt and close to the exit. But it was filled with people huffing and puffing. The funniest part about it was the room only had 3 walls...so all the smoke was coming into the main area anyways.
Our taxi driver barely fit all of Danielle's and my luggage in the car. I had to sit with my MONSTER of a backpack on my lap. Conversing with the taxi driver actually made Danielle and I feel like our spanish wasn't that bad... until we to El Corte Ingles, a department store, to get cell phones. I don't think we would have been able to get phones without the interpreter on staff. After looking at the different plans, we ended up using Vodaphone. It seems to have the cheapest SMS and calling internationally, but whatever, I just wanted a working phone. All day I kept carrying around my blackberry like a security blanket even though it's really just a paperweight.
Dinner was interesting. We found a place near the Plaza Mayor called Restaurante Europa with lots of outside tables. Most of the chairs at the tables were on the same side, so that everyone could people-watch comfortably. SO COOL. One of the waiters, an older man, was very nice to us. But the other, a guy that actually looked kinda asian, was pretty rude. We ordered the house white wine and figured it would be safe to go with the 1/2 chicken on the menu. The chicken was pretty bland and the fries were mushy. I thought the chicken was going to be yummy because the waiter told me there was salsa on the chicken...? I learned that salsa= just sauce.
Since our internal clocks are off, we ended up eating pretty early...around 6. So we went out for a snack around 11 tonight. I love that it's a tuesday and the streets still have people socializing and cafes and restaurants are busy. I'm going to love my time here :)
