so thinking about having to recap multiple days since i didn't begin my blog upon arrival kept me from starting, so i figured that today, on my one week anniversary, i would begin my blog with a quick week one recap and go from there.
the trip began in ideal fashion
- assuming the weight limit was 70 lbs and not bothering to check, one of my bags was a good 14 lbs overweight. clearly too much to warrant any redistribution. so i paid my $30 fee, checked my bags and proceeded to the long security line while returning waves to my mom about every two minutes.
- plane 1 took off about an hour late, which was not to bad being that i discovered an abundance of wisconsin people waiting at the gate. we by far dominate the other schools in terms of representation
- the plane was gigantic, 2 x 5 x 2, and i sat in one of the sets of 2 next to a lady from Valencia, a city outside Madrid. thanks to tailwinds, what i expected to be a nine hour flight only took seven and a quater hours. apparently the return trip is about 10 - something to look forward to. dinner was served about 8 somethin home time after which i slept until being woken up by breakfast at what would be 2AM in madison. nothing like a croissant and muffin around bar time.
- the lady sitting next to me forced me to bust out the spanish conversation much earlier than planned, but i followed along as best i could and learned all about her and her family and spain. before leaving she gave me two phone numbers and an email address and told me to call her with any problems. que bueno
- i also figured that sometime during my travels i would feel like a contestant on the amazing race. and lucky for me that also occurred earlier than planned. plane 2 from madrid to sevilla was supposed to take off an hour and 20 minutes after landing, but by the time we made it to the gate and deplaned the bunch of us had about thirty minutes until take off and signs informed us that it takes 26 to make it to our concourse. the travels through trams, customes, security, and concourses ended in a mad dash to the gate. we arrived right at scheduled take off time and the airplane was sitting there waiting for us to board. que suerte
orientation (3 days)
- information, tours, walking, meals, sessions, walking, games, walking, drinking, walking, flamenco, walking, walking, tapas, walking.
- that pretty much sums it up
- we met everyone from our program. i met my new roommate jen. and on friday morning we got picked up by our host padres - josefina and damian
days 3,4,5,6
- the padres are adorable and hilarious. its like living with grandparents.
- they have been so nice so far, making us feel welcome in their home. the padre makes all of the meals, all of which have been edible with some better than others. last night we had homemade pizza - que delicioso. the mom loves to talk. last night she spent a good twenty minutes telling us about how she went back to exchange sizes in a skirt and it had gone from 70 E to 9 E. she then brought out the receipt to prove she wasn't lying and finally the skirt to show us how pretty it was. i also spent a good hour the other night paging through HOLA magazine (spain's US weekly) looking for pictures of dresses for her to tear out to bring to the dressmaker. the son is getting married in march and she's going to the dressmaker later this week to plan the dress.
- one of the best parts of the homestay is the grandkids. inez (4months) cecilia (2) lucia (4) and guille (6). they were over all of sunday and we played operation with the older siblings, while cecilia ran around
- thank god for american bars in downtown sevilla. the lonestar salloon (tex mex) bar showed the packer game on saturday and was filled with all the american students. it started at 10:30 here so we could make a night of it and hopefully we'll have 2 more nights like it to come
- the intensive 3 week language class started monday :( mines at 9am. luckily though my apartment is directly across the street from the business school, so i can leave exactly three minutes before class begins and arrive on time
- the lack of sleep, jet lag, going out, etc has already caught up with me and left me with a bad cold and sore throat so i've been taking lots of siestas the last 2 days. hopefully tomorrow will be better and i can go explore
Spain's Flag
Map of Spain