First days in Madrid!

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Hello All!

I am safe and sound and loving the city of Madrid. I'm not sure how we thought we could navigate the city on our own without speaking Spanish, so Carlos (my friend from Madrid that studied at Drake) has been very helpful. Our first night we spent in a hostel in Sol (the center of the city; and the actual dead center of the country of Spain. Since, we found an apartment a little outside the city in a nice neighborhood near our school. Michelle and I share a bedroom and share a space with another roommate from Mexico. We have a kitchen, living room, bathroom and the best part...3 closets! : )
The city is beauitful and my favorite part is the buildings and architecture. We came at a great time, because they have been celebrating Three Kings Day the past few days and tomorrow is the actual holiday. Here, it is bigger than our Christmas.
Yesterday we went to El Rastro (the market) which took up an entire section of town (La Latina). The market has anything and everything you could ever need. We have been taking the last couple of days to settle into our surroundings, navigate the metro, get our passes and figure out every section of the city and what is has to offer. I feel very safe here and everyone seems to be very friendly. I'm exicted to start school and learn some spanish!
The water is very amazing, everyone seems to have mullet haircuts, fashion is huge, our landlord Antonio's favorite song is "Listen to your heart" by Roxette (which he sang to us), we seem to get lost a lot, every two feet there is a shop that sells ham, and life is great! Can't wait to hear from you all and no worries...I am having a great time. Hope all is well.

Paz y amor,

Kaitlin

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