Las Primeras Dias

Hola a todos! I am finally here and settled in after a very long trip. The morning began with some good news that my Aunt Darlene had upgraded me to first class as a last minute surprise. I have never flown first class until then, and I felt like a princess! It was such a great experience and I was able to watch whatever movies I wanted in a nice reclining seat. I landed in Madrid from Chicago at 8 AM (2 AM your time) and sprinted across the airport to make my flight to Sevilla, which was on the smallest plane I think I've ever seen. I made friends with a man who has kids my age and the time passed pretty quickly.

I arrived in Sevilla to find out that my luggage had been lost, and I had my first challenge in explaining to the woman at the airport where I could be reached and what my bag looked like. Luckily my bag arrived this morning at the exact time I was heading to my family (more about that to come).

I happened to meet up with a girl from my program while I was in the Sevilla airport and we shared a cab to the hotel that we stayed in the first night. After I cleaned up a little bit we went exploring a little bit and found a cheap sandwich shop and the university that we'll be taking classes at starting in February. We tried to talk to some of the local people and they thought it was really funny. I'm pretty sure we looked very American to them. Once we got back I met my roommate, whose name is Maggie. She's great and we've gotten along very well so far. I took a little nap and then met up with everyone in our group for dinner. The group leaders took us to a restaurant which is tucked back in the historic district of town, and it was beautiful. We passed by the famous cathedral, and it is absolutely massive.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep, since we had to get up at 8:45 to come meet our families. Maggie and I were the last to leave the hotel, and our house was only a few blocks away. Our senora is very sweet and treats us like her own children. She has 3 kids who are so much fun! Luis is 12 and he is obsessed with the NBA so he was very excited to hear that Chris Paul went to my high school and Michael Jordan went to my college. He is a Lebron James fan, but I'll work on changing that and bringing him away from the dark side while I'm here. Maggie and I are planning on going to his basketball game in a few weeks. Maria is 9 and Carmen is 4 and they are fulllll of energy. The three kids will probably be the most help with my Spanish skills because they talk super fast. They definitely make the meals much more exciting though, and I'm so happy to have them around. Apparently most of the other families are older single ladies and I can't imagine that they are quite as fun as our new brother and sisters.

We had our first day of orientation today and found the school after getting lost about 3 times. The only complaint I can make is that Spain needs to invest in street signs...there isn't a single one and it makes getting anywhere with a map nearly impossible. But we made it just in time and hopefully that will be enough to get there again tomorrow!

I think we are going to try a Flamenco dance club that our house mom suggested tonight. I'm pretty tired but I can't wait to explore the city more and we don't have anything to do until 5 tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll post again soon, with pictures next time! Until then, I hope you are all doing well and holding down America for me!