Estoy Aqui!

I made it to Spain! (In case you were worried). I have actually been here for just about 30 hours already (and I thought if I went any longer without writing Corley would pout at me or something - jk). So, vamanos!

After a long flight - 8 hrs 40 min - from Atlanta, I landed in Madrid at about 10 am Sunday morning (that would be 4 am Georgia/Florida time). The flight was good. I met one of the other Stetson students in the program, Olivia, at the gate. She flew from Orlando to Atlanta and then we were on the same flight to Madrid. My seat mate was a student at Duke who was also flying to Madrid to study for a semester. In fact, the flight was full of study abroad students which was cool. I didn't end up being able to sleep much on the plane - I had an aisle seat - but the hours passed relatively fast (quickened by Date Night, Kick Ass and an episode of 30 Rock).

Upon landing in Madrid, Olivia and I passed quickly through customs and baggage claim and then met our residence director, Isabel and the other Stetson students, John and Marie, who had arrived on an earlier flight. We all went by bus to another terminal to pick up the 10 students from Marist University who make up the rest of our program.

Isabel then proceeded immediately to drop us off at our hose families. We stopped one at a time on curbs near neighborhoods where cute, older Spanish ladies waited to pick up their charges. My stop was the second to last. My Senora, Elena, is much younger that most of the other host families but I think I really lucked out. She's in her mid-thirties and lives alone in the cutest apt in Madrid. I love her sense of style and decoration. I've put up pictures but they don't truly convey the fantastic compactness of this apartment. It is small but makes such a great use of space that there's plenty of space for Isabel and I to live quite comfortably. She even has a garden/patio in the back! This will be a wonderful place to study. Plus, I have a view of it from my room! My room is lovely by the way. It is decorated adorably and is plenty of space for me. Isabel has had one other host student stay here before - a younger girl (about 14)

named Grace stayed here last summer. I am going to love coming hometo this house. Also,

Elena is better than I could have hoped for.She is so friendly and easy to talk to. She is patient when I struggle for words and is really taking the time to get to know me. She is kinda more of a Spanish big sister than the usual grandmother-type Senora and I love it. She is so hospitable and I think that the experience of staying with her is going to be fantastic! I feel so lucky - especially because my host family was one of my biggest worries 48 hours ago. Yay!

Moving on, we had a couple of hours to meet our families and eat lunch. When I arrived at Elena's her aunt was also there. She is an older lady who was chatty and fun to talk to. The fixed me a lunch of arroz con pimientos, carne, una ensalada de tomates y cebollas y pan. Then the took me via metro to the central metro stop of Madrid - Sol. From there our senoras left us (after ensuring that we could make it to our stop) and we went on a whirlwind waking tour of the city. Basically everything we saw I want to return to ... so I'll tell you about the sights when I come back to them. The tour helped to orient us a little and was a nice walk around the town. I still need to lear my way around more - but I plan to explore the city thoroughly. We had "tapas" at El Museo de Jamon (famous for its Spanish ham) and then returned home. I made it to my home on my own and am very proud of myself ... ok more later. adios!