August 25 – We leave the States. After about 3 hours of driving and another 3 hours of waiting, we get on our first flight to Philly. This was a quick flight, not even 30 minutes after we finally took off, but the next one I knew would be a long one. We took off from Philly to Madrid at about 6:30, and we flew away from the sunset. it quickly became night. I tried to sleep, but my nerves, anticipation, and excitement made it impossible to. I had been awake for around 12 hours already, and I knew that if I wanted to make my first day better, I knew I would have to sleep. However, I did the next best thing: I watched Endgame.

August 26 – We land in Madrid at about 7:30. The sun is just rising, and the sky is a nice blue color. We walk off the plane, get our passports stamped, and proceed to the meeting point for our program. Other people start showing up, and at 10:30, we leave the airport to go meet our host families. Our host mom’s name is Zaida (pronounced Thaida) and she is one of the nicest women I have ever met. However, She immediately starts speaking rapid Spanish, and my lack of Spanish experience and sleep deprivation make it extremely difficult to understand anything she says. She takes us on a quick tour of the city in a taxi and takes us to the apartment, which is a little place right next to the train station Atocha. We try our hardest not to sleep, and it kind of works. Gines, her husband (I think…) was also speaking rapid Spanish to us, and by the time we were finished talking, my brain hurt more than if I took a timed math test. By that time, I knew I really sucked at Spanish and would have to work really hard to learn. Well, good thing Zaida is a teacher, so it should not be that hard. By the time our first orientation session finished, we went to bed at 8:30 and didn’t wake up until 7:00 the next day. As Zaida made dinner, I went to nap, but when dinner was ready, Panth could not wake me up at all!! No amount of shaking could wake me up, so that night, I did not eat dinner. Oh well.

August 27 – After our second orientation from the ISA program at 8 in the morning, we went on a walking tour of the city. We saw the Plaza Mayor, the oldest restaurant in the world, a couple of tapa bars, the Eastern Royal Palace, and the Eastern Garden. After that we went home to have lunch, which for that day was Arroz con Pisto. Pisto is like a soup without the water, and it had potatoes, zucchini, carrots, and peppers, and it tasted very good. Everything that Zaida makes tastes amazing, which is a definite plus for us. Now that my brain had rest and I could finally think properly, I started learning Spanish better and faster. If, when Zaida was talking to me, I did not know a word, I would ask, she would tell me, and she would continue with her sentence. With her, conversations are not as scary, because when I horribly mess up with a sentence, I could just say it in English and she would tell me the correct translation. But with Gines, it is very hard for me to understand him, and he doesn’t speak a lot of English. So I floundered a lot when we talked lol!!

August 28 – 30 – After the same routine for a couple days, and talking more and more in Spanish, I can understand Gines for the most part, I can order wine at a bar, and ask for my food to-go, and its not even the end of our first week here (Imagine if I had only taken Spanish 1, and that would be my level of Spanish when I first got here). By the end of the month, I should be able to make complete Spanish sentences in my head without having the translate them from English first (hopefully). The hardest for me right now is a lack of vocabulary (but I can overcome that easily) and ALL the conjugations of the verbs, as well as being able to understand others. I know as time continues, I will get better, but its hard right now.

August 31 – September 1 – A friend from VCU, Isabella, and her friend Emily came to Madrid, so for the past two nights, we explored Madrid with them. We went to a couple of outdoor cafes, tried some different drinks, and saw some amazing views! You can see some of those pictures in my gallery. Bu we went down Calle de Gran Via, which can be compared to 5th Avenue in New York City, with a lot of expensive shops and very large stores, the likes. Very enjoyable day. Also, the ham here tastes very different. They love their ham, and usually sell it by cutting straight off the leg of the pig, with the hoof still attached. That was a… fun thing to look at to say the least.

Classes for us start next Wednesday, and we register for classes Monday. Panth and I will be able to take all the classes that we need to stay on track at school, so everything is ok for now!! From a lot of the local students at the school, we heard that the engineering classes are very very hard, but will go easy if we tell them that we are international students (so imma play that card hardcore!). Before we plan our trips around Europe, Panth and I want to see how difficult these classes will be, but hopefully they won’t be that bad. Hopefully.

Please go look at all the pictures I uploaded!! I will upload them periodically as the program continues, so keep coming back. Hasta luego mis amigos, y que te vayas bien!!

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