¡Dios Mio. Estoy hablando Espanol!

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As all adventures must inevitably start with a mode of transportation, we’ll start my journey there. While I usually can’t wait for trips to start, this one certainly started of quickly - about 7 hours before I anticipated starting it. Continental (by far my favorite airline right now) called me at 10 am to tell me that my 5 pm flight had been cancelled. They rebooked my on a 2 pm flight to Newark, where I would be able to make my connection to Madrid at 10 pm. At the end of the conversation, I understood that there were thunderstorms in Norfolk. Turns out that they were in Newark. Anyway, at 6 pm my 2 pm flight was finally able to leave. But once we got to Newark, my connecting flight was also delayed. At 11 pm we finally left the United States and headed for Europe.

Two weird observations from my flight - 1) we left Newark at 11 pm and were served dinner at about 12:30 a.m. I know that people in Europe eat late, but seriously - I would have preferred skipping that little treat - especially since the airlines are trying to save money. My flight was decent and all, except that there were newly-weds next to me. When we hit a pocket of low pressure, the girl screamed at the top of her lungs… I dunno… it’s seemed rather rude at midnight, but what can you do. An hour before my flight landed we were served “breakfast” which consisted of a roll, butter and strawberry jam and a bowl of fruit (which contained 3 grapes, 2 pieces of cantaloupe and 2 pieces of honeydew). I’m not really sure what they served for dinner because I slept through it, but it seemed like they could have skipped that and given us a better breakfast. But then again, I don’t like cantaloupe honey dew, so I guess that could be part of it. 2) My flight was extremely cold. I actually asked for two blankets.

Anyway, we land in Madrid and I take a cab to my dorm. Let’s just say that I now understand where drivers in Mexico learned to drive. I really don’t know why they even use their turn signals here - it doesn’t indicate the direction in which they are heading. I guess it can be best described as “creative driving.” One thing is for sure, I’d drive through New York at rush hour ten times before I try to drive in Madrid. I checked into my room, which I will post pictures of when it’s not dark. Then, at about 4 pm a bunch of the people here decided to go to lunch. I had a really good ham and cheese sandwich… which I am grateful for now because I did not enjoy dinner much.

We walked around Madrid for a bit and finally returned to our dorms for an orientation meeting. The people who spoke seemed to have very interesting and colorful profiles - I can’t wait to start. Then everyone met up and most people decided to out to bars. It seems funny to me that people here left to go out at about 11 pm. I realize that it doesn’t really seem that late… but considering that we need to be up and ready to go at 8:30 am, I decided to skip out on this social bit. Tomorrow I’m going to hunt down Madrid’s version of Walmart.

Well, that seems to cover it for now! Hasta Luego.

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