Hola Madrid~

We have arrived! After eight hours, gross airplane food, 2 movies and no sleep, we landed in the most beautiful city with the sunrise. Let the longest day ever begin. Culture shock hit hard from the get go as our crew attempted to give directions to our host family’s house to the cab driver in spanish. We failed so we ended up just showing him the email our host dad sent us. We know a bit of spanish but they speak extremely fast for our us it takes a couple tries to get. "Repite mas demasiado por favor" (Repeat slower please?), is a common phrase. When we arrived to our house our host dad Luis welcomed us with open arms. He lives with his wife Maria who we met later in the afternoon and they are the most wonderful people. We haven't even spent a full week with them and we already feel like we have known them forever. 

We took the afternoon to get unpacked and explore the neighborhood around us. After that we took on the metro and headed to Sol! La Plaza del Sol is the main hub of the city and has many side streets skirting of to shops full of clothes and trinkets. After exploring and also getting dreadfully lost, we met up with some SLU friends and stopped for a 9 o' clock spanish dinner (which is the norm in Spain. ¡Muy delicioso! I wasn’t totally sure I would adjust to the different foods in Spain but wow I am loving it. Maria and Luis are 4 for 4 on their dinners as well (paella, tortilla y patatas, lentil soup, pasta con tomate). The roommates and I all agree our favorite part of the day is sitting down for family dinner and sharing all of the crazy stories from the day and laughing until our abs hurt. 

Once the sun sets Sol is a whole new city with lights, sounds and street performers everywhere. We decided to give the city a whirl at night and see what goes on. Very surprised to find out their nights don’t even start until 12 am, our tired selves pushed aside our sleep deprivation and took on the streets. After walking miles around the city traveling from spot to spot we returned to our new home, all exhausted but also excited to be here in Madrid! This will definitely the best semester yet, so many adventures to come :) 

                                              View from the balcony of our new home!    

 First night out with the Roomates!

Back: Me, Shelby, Emma, Alex

Front: Sarah, Greta, Taking Picture: Betty

Getting Anxious!

Two days until I leave and I just can’t wait for Madrid! Some friends have already arrived abroad and have settle themselves in and i for one am ready to join them. My To Do list is all checked off: I’ve made my errands, I’ve bought some clothes, I said goodbye to all my camp and SLU friends, now all that’s left is fitting my stuff into my bags. At least I’ve got my cute little niece Maddie to hang out with until i leave. A trip to the Bookworm Garden and a little painting sure was fun! Fair warning about this blog, i am not a great writer and also may forget to post sometimes but hopefully this will help me remember all the memories from traveling around Europe!