El arribo

¡Bienvenidos a España! It's currently Tuesday morning around 11 am, my second official full day in Madrid. (I did arrive this pass Sunday, but that day consisted mostly of unpacking and sleeping off the long days of traveling and jet lag.)

The inside of the door to the apartment.
This door is huge, heavy, difficult to unlock,
and covered in padding and a carpeted tapestry?

Now that I have this blog, I feel like I have nothing noteworthy or interesting to say..so, while this may be boring, I know it will make my parents happy knowing that I am alive and well; here's to you Mom and Dad. Spain is beautiful. As soon as the plane touched down in Madrid, (after two long flights, overcoming my fears of flying..sort of..and an extremely hectic layover in London) I noticed how amazing the city looked. I cannot be more excited to spend the next 4 months here exploring and finding out everything there is to know about Madrid, Spain, and the rest of Europe.

Upon our arrival, we got our luggage and hopped into 2 cabs to take my three roommates and I, Maggie, Kate, and Hillary to our host family's apartment near the center of Madrid. Though I was pleased to discover that cars drive on the same side of the car and the road as the United States, I was a little less excited about the "no rules" style of driving. It seemed to me that the laws for obtaining a license are similar to that of the drinking age here, pretty much non existent. Many hills, narrow cobblestone streets, roundabouts, and turns later, we arrived at our apartment. getting out of the cab and standing on the side of the street with nothing but an address was definitely my first "now what" moment of this trip. We found the right building and rang the doorbell, after which our host mom met us in the lobby and helped us up the teeny tiny elevator to her apartment on the 2nd floor.

The toilet in the master bath...and the bidet.

Our host family is wonderful! Mar Luque is our "mother". She is petite, really friendly, and very nice. She's married to Fernando (Nando for short) who is a professor at a different university. They have 2 sons Luis and Miguel; I'd say they're about 8 and 11, and very cute. They're always smiling and say hello to us when we see them. Their abuela also lives with us, and never ceases to give us advice about the mass schedule, public transportation, and how not to get robbed when we go out. She's about 4 ft tall I'd say, and just loves chatting.

Maggie and I share a room with Kate and Hillary next door. We also have another roommate Emma who has a single across the hallway. She's from New York and seems...interesting.

The first day, we had dinner prepared for us by Mar of chicken, rice, and lettuce covered in corn. There is bread at every meal, and lots of it. (I'm definitely not opposed).

Lots of deep, bold colors in Madrid.
This is our room, I love it!

After dinner, we set out on an adventure to find a hair straightener and blow dryer, as well as shampoo soap, and some toiletries. We finally found a store and much confusion and translating later got everything we needed. Side note...of my 5 roommates, I'm really the only one who speaks Spanish, so I've found myself translating between the host family, store clerks, people on the street, etc. My Spanish is getting a lot better and I'm trying to be more confident in speaking to people on the streets!

As soon as we returned, I took a shower, popped 2 Advil PMs, and went straight to sleep. The showers are weird, there's only a handheld showerhead with no hook. The whole rinsing/shampooing process was quite the challenge.

Though I am extremely excited to be here, the unknown and the huge changes have me a little overwhelmed at the moment. Tomorrow we make our way on the metro subway system to the school's campus for orientation. Wish us luck!

Rachel