Morning in the Park

This morning Alex and I met up with our friend Liz at the park, el Parque de Retiro. The park is even bigger than I originally thought! We met on the steps of a huge statue by a small lake and walked around for a couple hours. It was so nice just to walk and talk and it's a beautiful day here in Spain, per usual. We saw El Prado, one of the most famous museums in Spain, and walked near the downtown area. There are a lot more tourists just a few block from where I am-- it was nice to hear more people speak English! After our walk, Alex and I stopped at a little shop in the park to drink a Coke and have a snack. Perfect morning :)

Whenever you order a drink, the waiter brings you a snack (tapa) too. YUM! Four glasses of wine for seven Euro-- so great!

This is where Alex and I met Liz

There are stray cats all over Spain, not sure why that is exactly!

Boating on the lake :)

Picture in the park!

Street signs

And street performers

El Museo del Prado

An anchor for Sophie



The perfect snack



My second day in Spain

What's been great about my first couple days here? NO JET LAG! I'm not quite sure how that happened, maybe it was the ridiculously strong Spanish coffee. But I went to bed last night around midnight and woke up this morning at 9:00, which is very normal for Spain. I actually think I went to bed too early-- people are out and about all night long! But this morning I woke up, felt totally great, and it feels like my body is acclamated to the time change.

I had fruit and coffee for breakfast and spent the morning catching up with my family. SO nice! Then Alex and I met up to walk around and have another cup of coffee... I might get addicted! We went to a teeny little shop just before 2:00 and stumbled our way through ordering coffee. All of a sudden, while we were drinking our coffee, the place got packed with people. Now I realize that must have been because it was siesta time. The siesta is something almost everyone does here in Madrid. Lots of people who work take a two/ two and a half hour lunch break and nap around 2:00pm. But the funny part was that everyone was drinking a glass of beer or wine and it was the middle of the afternoon!

After coffee, we decided to take "un paseo," a walk, around the park. The park is one block away from my apartment and SO beautiful. It's also HUGE. Alex and I walked through just a small part of it and found the beginning of a track/bike path. We decided we're going to go on runs there in the park three or four times a week. I wonder if this will actually happen, haha! We went to the park around 2:30 and it was full of people exercising, laying out, and walking around. Do people here ever work?! From the little that I've seen of the lifestyle, it's so completely different from the United States-- more much laid back and relaxed. I love it! Alex and I are going to the park again tomorrow to meet up with our friend Liz who is in Spain as well, so there will be more pictures to come!

Another one of my roommates, Roxanna arrived today. She is from DePaul too, so that's nice to have that in common with her. We walked around for a little while after our siesta and went to a HUGE department store called El Corte Ingles. It's basically just a gigantic store with a million things in it. I got two books in Spanish, para practicar mi espanol, and some chapstick :) On the way back from the store, we stopped at a little shop to get some ice cream. Pictures!!

And a few more pictures of the street that we walked down, Narvaez, which is just around the corner from my apartment...

Sorry about the ridiculously long blog posts ALWAYS, I've been blogging like Sophie writes in her diaries! Just one more thing and then I'm done... So this apartment isn't the biggest place in the world and is definitely very different from apartments in Chicago and Lincoln. One of the things that I think is just so funny and cute is how the hot water works. There's a white box type thing in the kitchen above the sink (there's a picture below) and whenever you want hot water you have to light a match, stick it inside of a little hole in the box while pushing one of the buttons, then push the next button, which makes the flame burst into this crazy fire inside the box, and when you're done you push the NEXT button and that turns it off! So different than what I'm used to! Also, the washing machine is right next to the dishwasher in the kitchen (no dryer, but my host mom does my laundry so who knows how they drying business happens) and the refridgerator is really skinny and really tall. In every bathroom there are two toilets-- one for boys and one for girls-- so funny and strange! But I didn't take a picture of that... Ew.

Okay, I promise I'm done for the night! It's time for bed here, I just got home from a bar where Alex and I met up with two other girls from DePaul, Katie and Lauren. We're considering going to Valencia this weekend with them... We'll see! It was nice to get together with some girls from Chicago who are in the same boat as us! I also watched GLEE, so good, Roxanna found a website for me to watch it on.

Espero que tenga un buen noche!
I hope you have a good night!
:)

A few pictures from my walk around the block yesterday

This is my lobby. The lovely doorman sits to the left and always has something nice to say while I'm walking in and out.

The outside of my aparment building!

Right across the streete from my front door. There are tons of shops and restaurants along the block.

There's so many just little pieces of artwork everywhere. This is between two steel garage-like doors on the block.

This is the street that intersects with mine, la calle de doce de octubre. If you walk a few more blocks down, there is SO much shopping (bad for me!). I'm also really close to about 10 different bus stops and 2 train stations, which makes it really convienent for me to get around.

Ibiza is famous for its seafood-- I'll let you know what I think when I try it!

One of the little bars/restaurants around my block.

Blanca, el Autobus, y VALE

First of all, more on Blanca (my host mom). She is THE BEST. Whenever we talk it's totally a one-sided conversation. She talks, I nod and smile. Once in a while I'll ask her a question in broken Spanish and she lifts one eyebrow and laughs. My Spanish is definitely a little rusty...

My address is Calle de Doce de Octubre 11'4. How cool is that?! The doorman is very sweet, he always has something or other to say on my way in an out. Also, I am not the only student here. There are so many other people living in this apartment. There are two medical students from Mexico, but they will be leaving on October 5th. Another roommate is Colleen, from a school outside of Philadelphia, who is here for classes and an internship. Then there will be another girl from DePaul coming tomorrow and ANOTHER girl coming the day after that, also from DePaul. Full house! And only one bathroom for the six of us... Wish us luck!

This afternoon Blanca made a DELICIOSO Spanish lunch for me, which is served around 2:00pm. Very different food, but very good. Tons of vegetables and tons of oil on everything. I realized I am not the biggest fan of cabbage. But the best part is that she makes everything "sin gluten" (gluten free) for me. She so sweet and accomodating. Her brother came to visit and we all had dinner together and this meal is served around 9:30pm. We talked about Nebraska and Chicago, my family and friends. Blanca has hosted so many students and she had lots of stories to tell me. But what really made me feel good was when she and her brother told me I understand a lot of Spanish and am speaking it well for my first day. That was a relief!

I took the bus before dinner to visit Alex. It was so easy and WAY nicer than the Chicago busses and everyone here is so friendly. It was only about a 5 minute bus ride but I asked four people on the way there and four people on the way back if I was going the right way. They all were very friendly and nice and I'm sure I seemed like such a tourist. Oh well.  Alex's host mom is such a sweet lady too. She told me to come visit anytime.

The two things I've noticed about Castillan Spanish are the accent and the use of the word "vale." Everyone here pronounces "s" like they have a lisp, it's very different from the Spanish that I'm used to. Also, EVERYONE says "vale." Literally every other word is "vale." This means "ok" or "sounds good." I keep saying "ok" and then correcting myself to "vale." It's something to get used to!

Now it's just about my bedtime, seeing as I've gotten very little sleep the past couple days. Ciao!

Hello from Spain!

I have safely arrived in SPAIN!! It was quite a hassle to get here though... On Friday my original flight that left Chicago on Tuesday afternoon was cancelled and rescheduled due to a transportation strike in Spain. Luckily, American Airlines rebooked my flight and I left a day earlier on what I thought would be the same flight as my friend Alex. Unfortunately, this gave me one less day to be physically and, more importantly, emotionally, prepared to leave the U.S. I emailed the details of my new flight to the CEA, the people in charge of this study abroad trip and the transportation from the airport to my homestay. But I didn't hear back from them until Monday morning, just a few hours before I left Chicago. This=STRESS.

But it all worked out and I called a cab Monday morning. I had a great conversation with my cab driver and finally started getting excited to leave. Sadly, Alex and I realized we were on different flights to Spain and I was the one getting there earlier, of course. So we got on the flight from O'Hare to JFK (New York airport) only to realize it was delayed an hour and a half. My connecting flight from New York to Spain was supposed to leave an hour an a half after my O'Hare flight arrived. This=I would miss my plane to Spain.

After lots of phone conversations with AA, we finally left the O'Hare airport and luckily we made it to JFK with just enough time to grab dinner, thanks to my flight to Spain being delayed as well by half an hour. I rushed through dinner, checked back at my gate, and my flight by then was delayed for an hour and a half, which seems to be the magic number for AA. This=more phone calls regarding my airport pickup in Spain.

We finally boarded the plane, after I called and cried to each of my family members. Then... someone hadn't shown up for the flight but their luggage was still on the plane. This=another hour of waiting on the plane. This also=Alex and I getting into Spain at roughly the same time, even though I was scheduled to get there three hours before her.

But I got here in one piece and after that, everything was simple! The Madrid airport was fairly empty and my luggage arrived with me (PHEW!). I found the lady from CEA who was there to pick me up and she was so nice. We talked for a little while and she arranged transportation to my homestay for me. I don't know how I would have done that without her! I spoke to her in English but I had to speak to the man in customs in Spanish (which was pretty easy but he totally pegged me as a first-timer in Spain).

The shuttle to my homestay was really nice and I felt so excited to FINALLY be in Spain after almost 24 hours of travel. Everything here looks so different from Chicago and definitely different from Nebraska! I noticed that on the radio they play a mix of popular American songs and Spanish music, which was kind of funny.

I arrived at my homestay around 11:30. My host mom greeted me outside of her (MY!) aparment with her daughter in law and two of her granddaughters. She kissed me on both cheeks right off the bat- I forgot they do that here in Spain- and took me inside right away. Her name is Blanca and she is so welcoming! She offered me a cup of coffee (which by the way is MUCH stronger in Spain than in America) and I talked to her about the fact that I'm gluten-free, which was one of my biggest worries. But she is so accomodating and very friendly.

My room here is SO CUTE, I totally love it! There are two other girls living here from my program through DePaul and another girl from Philadelphia. Lucky for me I got here first so I have my own room! Blanca just left to run some errands, after explaining to me that she didn't have any rules for me to follow, just to be a good roommate (WOW, so easy!) so now I'm facebooking and blogging and emailing away!

I'm so incredibly excited to be here! More updates soon! And here's a few pictures too!

These two are from the Madrid airport. How cool does it look?!

Me looking super excited/jetlagged and nasty on the way to my homestay.

These were all taken during my ride from the airport to my homestay. Madrid is BEAUTIFUL.

And these are pictures of my darling room! Que linda (How cute)!

Sending you all love from Espana!

the eve of my departure (you know, like christmas eve!)

I LEAVE FOR SPAIN TOMORROW!!!

I'm really excited, but also so nervous! The past few weeks have been a blur between my 21st birthday, sorority recruitment (GO CHI O!), and catching up with all my friends in Chicago. It's been so wonderful but also bittersweet.

This post is mostly to kick off my blog and get everyone to follow my blog. So get excited for my next few posts-- more on my birthday, recruitment, and what's been happening before I go!