Finally in Spain!

Hey everyone!!

Well as you probably already know, I am now in Valencia, Spain which will be my home for the next 4 months!! I am so excited to finally be here, but this last week and a half has been beyond crazy!!

I left the states on Tuesday, January 15, and, with a 4 hour layover in Philly (which by the way is most def NOT the city of brotherly love), i ARRIVED IN Madrid at 10 AM on the 16th. The flight wasn´t too bad thanks to my ability to sleep absolutely anywhere, and the adrenaline from all the excitement kept me going for the first few days. When we arrived in Madrid, one of our leaders, Rosario, pick up a huge group of us from the airport and we took a bus for about 20 minutes to our hotel, the Hótel Husa Princesa, which was gorgeous. I got put in a room with two other girls, Molly and Sheila, whom are absolutely fabulous! From the get go, Molly and I have been like 2 peas in a pod, I honestly feel like I have known her my whole life...she always jokes around and tells people we were twins in a past life because we are so alike. But anyways so the first day I went out and did a little exploring with a group of people, and found one of the main staples of España, EL Corte Ingles. This is a crazy like 10 story EVERYTHING store; you can seriously find everything from fresh meat( which they display as like a whole animal) to auto parts, it is insane. There we bought a few bottle of pink champagne to celebrate our arrival, which each cost about 1 euro (equal to 1.50 in the US) and thus I don´t need to tell you how they tasted....

I also had my first Spain meal that day which was a Tortilla con queso. In Spain there are no tortillas like in the States, so my tortilla con queso was basically a cheese omelet, but it was good none the less! The next day we had tours of 2 museums, El Greco and El Museo de la Reina Sofia. I enjoyed them both, but I liked the Reina Sofia better because it was almost completely Picasso and Dali, which I love! Unfortunately by the time we got there I was exhausted and my feet were killing me from all of the walking so I just wanted my siesta....El Greco was great too, and had amazing Goya, Velazquez, and Greco works.

That night got a little crazy, I am just going to warn you now. After dinner, which was at about 11 PM, we went to a bar called CATS that one of my good friends Amy knew about because she studied in Madrid last semester. It was really chill, with pool tables, good music, and dancing. Oh by the way EVERYONE here dances! La la love it! The music that they listen to cracks me up tho, because its all techno, shakira, beyonce, and other music from the States. They really love the 80s hits too. But anyways after we left CATS at about 230 AM we were going to take the bus to La Plaza del Sol, but then we encountered our first Spanish boys. We went with them to a discoteca across the street from the bus station, and it was AMAZING!!! I absolutely love the nightlife in España, it def beats the US, and everyone here is so friendly and will talk to us Americans despite our broken Spanish, which is improving immensely by the way! But long story short we danced the night away until about 5 AM (which is early for these Spanish party animals) and then decided we should go home since our bus left the next morning at 9 for Toledo.

OK thats all i have time for now, but next entry I will cover El Escorial, Valle de los Caidos, Toledo(my fav), and finally my arrival in Valencia!!! And i PROMISE to put pics up soon, I just haven´t had the time because I am too busy having THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!!! :)

I love and miss you all, and hope to hear from you via email or facebook or something!!

¡¡Te extraño muchisimo!!

xoxoxo

b

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