First Post, Second Day

Hola a todos :] Estoy en España!

I am SO tired! Jet-lag :/

Pero... me encanta la ciudad!

It was quite the journey, but here I am.

The other eight Bethel students left Chicago last Wednesday, arriving in Spain Thursday.

Due to Alyssa's amaaaazing wedding on Friday, and having maid of honor duties to attend to, i had to [as jason derulo would say...] 'ride solo'

We [my dad and I] left Battle Creek at 10:30am Saturday morning, my flight left Chicago at 4:40pm Chicago time and I arrived in Madrid, Spain at 8am Sunday Madrid time [8 hour flight]. I then had to find my luggage in the massive airport, find a taxi, and tell the driver [who spoke NO english] the right train station to go to. So my full immersion to the language started the minute I landed, not necessarily bad, just not necessarily easy! I'm thankful he drove like a maniac, making my trip quicker, making my bill smaller ;], once at the train station I had to buy a ticket, not as easy of a task as I thought, and then wait until my train left at 11:40am Madrid time [5:40am Battle Creek time; I was exhausted by this point but forced myself to stay awake until I got on the train, not wanting to miss it!]. The train arrived at 1:54pm Sunday afternoon and I was greeting by my professor Scott DeVries with a big hug. I was more than relieved to see a familiar friendly face.

Here's some math for you. 3 hour drive + 2 hour wait + 8 hour flight + 15 minute taxi + 2 hour 30 minute wait + 2 hour 30 minute train ride = 20 hours and 15 minutes of traveling. yikes.

I live with a host mom, Antonia, and her daughter Julia who is 16. They try their best to talk to us [Chelsea my roommate and me - and she speaks very very little Spanish] and I can 90% of the time understand and 50% of the time know how to reply back :P It's been ok though, with Chelsea having a hard time understanding/speaking I have been her translator, giving me even MORE Spanish practice! This will be a great experience in gaining confidence, vocabulary, and general improvement in my Spanish!

Today was the first day of class. I have an hour of writing class, hour of conversation class, hour of listening/responding class [we listened to music today and tried to translate/interpret], and an hour of grammar. Today was rough. I still feel like I'm in Michigan time sometimes, and this morning I for SURE felt it! So for the next couple days, class will feel like 3am-7am :] There are only 5 other people in class, one from Bethel, two from Scotland, one from China, and one from Germany. It's quite the experience when the common language is Spanish :]

A few "pics of the day" for Alyssa Allen [when i first started typing your name I started to write Eubank - but now you're married, a wife, with a new last name!!]

The room Chelsea and I share - very small, but it does the job!

This is my view when i stick my head out our apartment bedroom window :]