Finally here!

Note: Meant to post this yesterday but had internet problems/ran out of time. So, pretend it's yesterday!

So I’ve been in Spain for about two days now, though it feels like it’s been weeks. Yesterday - the day I arrived - was the single longest day of my life. I slept for about two hours on the plane but Wednesday and Thursday felt like one long continuous day.

There is so much I could say already about the two days I’ve been here but I’ll try to keep it short. I almost missed my flight to Madrid from Philadelphia because I only had 50 minutes between flights, reduced to 40 because we left Charlotte late, reduced to 25 because we were stuck on the plane in Philadelphia for an agonizing 15 minutes while they figured out some technical problem with the jetway. By the time I got to the departure gate for Madrid (thankfully only fifty feet away from my arrival gate), everyone was lined up to board - I just made it. My luggage wasn’t so lucky and did not make it to Madrid with me, but I packed a change of clothes and a toothbrush in my carry-on so I was okay. And thanks to Miguel, one of the program coordinators, my luggage was delivered to the hotel today so all’s well that ends well.

Right now we’re staying at a hotel in Alcalá (one of the two program sites, about 30 minutes outside of Madrid) for orientation before we move in with our host families on Sunday. Only about seven or eight of us arrived yesterday as scheduled because of all the snow. It was kinda nice though because it gave us a chance to acclimate ourselves, get to know each other, and adjust to the right schedule before orientation starts on Saturday. It was almost like a pre-orientation for freshman year at Tufts. But it’s nice to have lots of people here now, and it’s cool to meet the kids from Skidmore also doing the program.

Plaza de Cervantes - our hotel is right off of this

I’ll just give a little summary of what we did yesterday: After relaxing at the hotel for a little while, the whole group (all eight of us, plus the Alcala program coordinators) met for lunch at 2. In Spain, lunch (el almuerzo) is the biggest meal of the day and yesterday’s lunch lasted 3 hours. There are usually three courses: a light first course, like a salad, a heavier second course (your entrée), and a dessert like fruit or chocolate. And always, vino with your meal. It’s really relaxing although a bit hard to get used to, for me anyway. I can be impatient and like to get things over with, but I’m learning to enjoy lingering over meals. After lunch we explored Alcalá a little bit. It’s a really pretty town, and very old. We went into a few shops and a museum, el Museo Arqueológico Regional, and then returned to the hotel to rest before dinner around 10 at a crowded tapas bar. There was a huge fútbol game on TV between two local rivals, Real Madrid and Atlético, and the restaurant went wild whenever anyone scored. After dinner we went to a club (overrun with Americans) for a little while. By the time I went to bed around 2am I was exhausted and slept soundly for ten hours.

Today we did basically the same thing, except with more people. A few of us went to another museum, el Museo Cisneriano, and took a guided tour in Spanish. I had to concentrate really hard and not let my mind wander, but I could understand most of what the guide said. I just need to practice more!

This post is already reeeeeally long so I’m going to end here. I miss everyone very much and hope you’re all doing well!