January 2, Madrid

After a long flight I finally made it to Spain! Getting there was an interesting experience. Our bus driver dropped us off at a random spot in the Chicago airport. No one really knew what we were doing. We asked a bunch of airport workers where our airline was located and we ended up having to take a train to the other side of the airport where American Airlines was located. Checking our bags went smoothly. Everything was set for our flight from Chicago to Dallas, except for the time. We were roughly 3 hours early for our flight. It was alright though, because our group was able to get to know each other.

            The flight to Dallas went by quickly and easily. After we landed we found our terminal for our flight to Madrid, Spain and only had to wait a short amount of time. This plane was a lot bigger but it came with some extra perks. We got a blanket and pillow, dinner, breakfast, and we were able to watch a couple of movies and tv shows. I saw the movie Rango for the very first time. The flight was long, it lasted somewhere between 8 and 9 hours. Plus it was hard to sleep on the plane.

            When the plane landed in Madrid all of us were sweaty, exhausted, and overtired people. But we didn’t have time to rest. Everyone found their bags easily and we exchanged cash for euros. Then we were off. We met the “Spanish Learning Program” directors and they brought us onto a bus. Driving through Spain for the first time was exciting. The roads were thin and hilly.

            We made it to hotel Convencion and were assigned rooms with our roommate. We only had two hours to rest before lunchtime so most of us showered and napped for as long as we could. At lunch we met up with the students that are only staying in Spain for a month. There were a lot of them. Lunch was buffet style. They had really good potatoes; they seemed like a cross between a sweet potato and a normal potato. None of the food was crazy weird. Most of it was normal stuff just cooked and seasoned in a different way than us.

            After lunch we had another 2 hours to rest. Then we met in the lobby for a quick orientation. Javier warned us about basic things like how not to get pick pocketed and how we can stay safe. After that we headed to the streets of Madrid. The molding and detail on all the buildings was intricate and beautiful. We walked for miles. One of the important sites we saw was Congress and Cibeles. An interesting fact about this is that this is the first time a woman has ever been in charge of the Congress and Cibeles. This was a huge castle building. As it got darker all the lights came on. The lights on the Congress and Cibeles building turned from red to purple to blue. All over the town there were lights. They are kind of like Christmas lights but they are year round. We also saw the Puerta Del Sol. In this plaza there was a huge Christmas tree made out of lights that was as tall as the surrounding buildings. The tree actually is not a representation of Christmas; it is a symbol of Madrid.

            The weather is nice here. It is comparable to early spring or late fall in Wisconsin. The rest of the night will be filled with resting and dinner. It is hard to find internet around here and when you find it there is either a time limit on how long you can be on or how much you have to pay to use it.

That’s all for today,

Steph

(I will post more pics later, they take too long to load)