What day is today even?

Well, today has been the longest day ever... I still haven't actually slept since boarding the plane in Wilmington and I'm pretty much delirious. We got to Atlanta and ate some food while we were waiting to connect to Madrid. They started boarding the flight an hour before take off. It was one of those planes with 3 rows across with 3 seats in each row. I slept for a little then woke up when they served dinner, which was basically a tastier lean cuisine and watched Tangled while I ate and then watched Country Strong and then I fell back asleep until breakfast. Then for the hour after breakfast was served I watched the little plane fly across the screen and get closer and closer to Madrid.

After we landed in Madrid, we passed through customs. I don't think the guy even looked to see if my face matched my passport. Then we found a little expresso place and jacked ourselves up on some Spanish coffee and pastries while we waited for the last two of our group getting here today to join us. Then we took the metro (and we had to switch lines like 4 times, fuck that shit, dude) and then we ended up near some park which is supposed to be like the central park in New York City equivalent in Madrid. And here's why switching lines on the metro sucks: you have to carry your 60+ lbs of luggage up and down like 3 flights of stairs. Each time you change. Between that and the walking that we did today, I better look like a supermodel when I wake up tomorrow. So we finally get to the place that we're going and we lock our bags into these cubby things at the train station right across the street from the park. Then we set out and explore for a few hours. There's only one train out to where we are so we had to wait for it to come at 3:30ish. We split up and Amanda, Kenzie and I went walking to the park. Up a fucking mile long steep hill. We get in the park and it's just more of an uphill climb so we stop over in the lawn and all 3 pass out for like an hour taking a little nap using our bookbags as a pillow. You have to remember that we're from flat, flat Wilmington. Whenever we all finally woke up we decided we were hungry and went to go get some food. We decided on some ham and cheese tortillas. And to all you people thinking like taco tortillas...wrong, these are like potato omlettes. We were going to order cerveza or vino but decided we'd never stay awake if we did.

Taking a nap in the park!

Jamon y queso tortilla!

We met back with everybody back at the train station and then got on the train to come out here. First I was so intrigued by the new scenery I was staring out the window, despite my serious lack of consciousness and the world around me and then eventually gave in and fell asleep like everyone else. Also, culture shock. This woman decided to breast feed her little baby on the train, and wasn't modest about it at all. AT ALL. I also noticed people don't really wear sandals and they think it's odd that we all had toe nail polish on. Anyways, so we get to the train station 4 hours later and our families start to come pick us up. I now know what it feels like to be a puppy in a pet store while you're just waiting for someone to pick you out.

My familia finally arrives and it's my padre and my brother. Madre was waiting at the apartment. They're very nice people but our ability to communicate effectively is seriously lacking. Madre already worries that I don't eat enough and I can tell she gets upset when I don't know what she's saying to me. I need to work on that. My brother is nice. He's 22 and done with college. He's learning English, so we're helping each other out. We went for a little walk around town after dinner so he could show me how to walk to school in the morning. It's nice that the whole town is very walkable and everyone is very friendly. I'm so glad that it's walkable because riding in a vehicle here is like teasing death. I've never seen so many crazy traffic circles and weird ways to get onto roads in my life.

Well, I can't even think straight anymore and my feet hurt and I still have to unpack all my things before I can sleep. Tomorrow we get to sleep in and class starts at 10 rather than 8 because we're just having orientation. I'm so thankful for that. Except I still have to get up and shower and eat breakfast before I leave. My family has wifi so I'll probably get to be online alot more than I thought I would. I have a million people that I have to skype, I feel like I need a sign up sheet! Well, it is now after midnight over here, which is weird because it's like 6 at home.