The Start of Something New...

Hi everyone! This will be my first post giving you an update about what has happened in the past three and a half weeks! First let me tell you, I was very nervous when I left home. Nine hours on a plane by myself without knowing anyone was a daunting to me especially since I hate turbulance! Fortunately as soon as I got to my gate in Minneapolis, I saw my friend and LearningWorks co-worker Natalie. It turned out we were facing the long flight together! I was ecstatic especially when we traded seats and sat next to each other and caught up.

We stepped off in Madrid and all of a sudden it was a whirlwind. I was exhausted having slept off and on during the flight and all of a sudden I had to start speaking Spanish to figure out where I needed to go. Nat had left me after being whisked away by a taxi driver and I tried to get my self oriented to find my director of the program. Everything worked out well and an hour later I met my group of 12 other American students. It was so great to meet them finally and all during orientation I got to figure out why they were coming here to study and find out a little bit of everyone´s story.

These past three weeks have been weeks of adjustment for me. Let me tell you a little bit about my life here. I live in Alcalá de Henares which is a smaller town about half an hour outside of Madrid by train. It is very famous for being the place where Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, was born. I am staying with a host family which includes a mother named Nuria and a daughter named Elena. Elena and I are discovering our love for all things Disney Channel, Hannah Montana, and Crepúsculo (Twilight). She is fourteen but we are bonding much faster than I thought we would over our similar interests. Nuria is a great host mom who always makes sure I am eating enough. Here, we eat at about 2 PM and 10 PM. My stomach has finally adjusted to this crazy schedule and I am finding I eat about twenty times healthier here than I do at home. It is wonderful! Right now, I am attending classes at El Instituto de Ben Franklin which is part of the university but is designed especially for exchange students. The classes are very small and the professors are really there for you to improve your Spanish. Right now, I am taking two classes to improve my grammar and writing skills and one class that focuses on 20th Century Spanish literature. I am also taking one class at the regular Universidad de Alcalá called Teaching the Spanish Language. Classes for that will actually start next week. I am a little nervous but the professor for this class is very nice and it is a pretty small class so I guess I will just have to wait to see what happens!

During the week, I am staying pretty busy. I have joined the University choir with my American friend Mark and we are singing every Tuesday and Thursday evening. It is pretty intense and we sing for weddings, funerals, and graduations. This next week we are going to be singing for a funeral in Madrid. Also, I am thinking of joining the volleyball team here but that is to be debated. I also in October will be joining the gym near my house so I can keep doing yoga and erging when I can. There is a nice running path near my house that I have been running on these past three weeks. During the weekends, I try to relax and do homework. The nights here are crazy... nothing really starts happening in Spain for young people until 2 or 3 am. Last week, I went to Madrid and I didn´t get home until 7 am. Fortunately, I knew this would happen and had done all my homework prior so I could sleep the day off.

One story before I leave you for now. This past week I experienced La Noche en Blanco with my friends in Madrid. It is a night where they open all the museums in Madrid and let the public in for free. We got to go to La Reina Sofia or the museum for Modern art in Madrid. And I got to see Picasso´s famous ¨Guernica¨painting. I couldn´t believe I was so fortunate to stand in front of this work. I have studied this painting in many of my Spanish classes at Madison and to see it personally was breathtaking and I was very emotional. It was the first time that it really hit me how amazing this whole experience is and how fortunate I am. I only hope each of you has an experience like this at least once. That´s all for now folks!