i am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.--maryanne radmacher

Wow. That’s all I can say. Life is so different, yet still the same. Everything has changed in one week, yet I’m still me. Weird. Anyway… so today’s the first day that I’ve really actually had internet. Long story short: NEVER assume anything is easy to find in another country. Especially a country in which you don’t know the language. Definitely should have gotten an AC adapter back in the states… but I’ll get into that later. Okay so basically I’m just going to summarize a few of my journal entries from the past week. Every time I’ve traveled (except for my roadtrip this summer), I always get lazy and don’t write anything down… and then I forget what happened… and then I am sad… so even though I usually don’t write down a play-by-play of my days, since I’m traveling and want to actually REMEMBER things, I did (and I looove my journal, turtle! Already like twenty pages in!)

Saturday, January 2^nd, 2010 @ 10:53 am

So I almost had a heart attack this morning. Everything was going so smoothly with debarking from the ship etc (btw, eating 6 prunes and then getting on a 30 minute bus ride is a horrible idea!). Then I go to check in at air tran (in Ft. Lauderdale headed to Atlanta to pick up luggage that I stored in a locker in the airport then catching my flight to dallas that connects to my flight to Madrid---so this is obviously an important flight. Oh and I only have a two hour break between when my flight from ft. laud lands in atl and when my flight from atl to dallas takes off. Confusing enough?) and the first thing I’m told is that my flight to Atlanta has been cancelled due to mechanical errors with the plane and they would get me on a flight tomorrow. Eff me sideways. WHAT?!?! That’s when I really wished I’d worn more makeup and less bra. And the way he told me was so nonchalant, too. Um, excuse me. No. You don’t understand. I HAVE to get to Atlanta. So I proceed to explain my situation to the controller of my fate (I’m a broke college kid with no money to buy another ticket to Spain) and said I’d sit on the wing of the plane if I had to—anything to get me to Atlanta on time—although I’m really, really glad it didn’t work out that way. Would have made for an uncomfortable flight. Maybe he had pity on me or maybe it was the ass-pants (yes. Ass pants. Tight black spandex work out pants that make my ass go BAM!) or maybe a little of both, but he ended up majorly overbooking another flight and giving me a seat. I could have kissed him!... but since he was old and kind of strange looking, I just smiled and gave him a tip. Probably tipped more than I should have but whatev. I was so nervous/relieved/excited, I’m just glad I didn’t rip off all my clothes and go running around the airport. It’s been known to happen. Maybe not at an airport (yet) but still.

Monday, January 4^th, 2010 @ 21:43 (gotta do military time since that’s how it is over here!)

Alright so I made it. I’m here in Madrid, Spain, sitting in my hotel room right now after a full day of exploring the city. Saturday was a full day of flights. Nothing fancy. Most of the flight was through the night and apparently (according to a girl in my program who I coincidentally sat near), I kept falling asleep on this Spanish woman next to me, and the Spanish woman and her friend were making fun of me. I was wondering what they were laughing about! I’ve been so jet lagged that I’ve basically just slept through everything that has happened the past couple of days, and it’s been really icky/rainy… Today was the first day I really remember. My hotel roommate Lauren and I basically just explored the city together today, and it’s gorgeous! She knows a lot of Spanish, so I’ve learned a lot already. Missing my rotten boy…

Wednesday, January 6^th, 2010 @ 11:21 am

Yesterday morning we took the bus ride to Toledo. I don’t even remember the bus ride, to be honest. So out of it. Toledo’s a really cool city. Very old. All walled in. Cobblestone streets. Surrounded by a river. I couldn’t really understand much of what the guide was saying. I can pick out words and phrases but am definitely not able to put together concepts yet. I’ve learned a lot, though! My favorite thing so far has just been to fall a little behind the group and take pictures. I really wish I had a nicer camera, but not enough to actually spend money on one. Esta bien J

We’re on the nine hour bus ride to Barcelona right now. I’m a little nervous about meeting my host family because that’s always a little awkward, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Part of me misses home, but I think it’s more of the comfort of familiarity I miss. I just have to force myself to get a new frame of mind because if I just compare everything to home then of course I’ll miss it. It’s almost like I’ve put thoughts of home in a little box inside of me that I won’t open until the end of April. Let go of my comfortables and move into the unknown. The one thing I miss more than anything is my rotten boy. I miss him terribly.

Thursday, January 7^th, 2010 @ 20:25

Today was a big, scary, overwhelming day, and I’m exhausted. I met my host family last night and I LOVE them. When I walked off the bus, the first thing I saw was this little peppery, firecracker of a woman holding a sign with my name. She grabbed me into a hug and kissed both of my cheeks and then we scampered off towards the car. Oh and by the way, no one in the family speaks a lick of English. So it’s been interesting, but this is exactly what i wanted. i'll learn SO much faster this way! They (she, her daughter whose name I still don’t know how to say, and her ex husband) zipped me around town in the car, stopping at Sagrada Familia. Oh. My. God. I guess that’s pretty sacrilegious to say about a church… or maybe it’s just the right thing. It’s amazing. Definitely going back to visit and take pictures. Still not used to the whole late night dinner thing because we got back to the apartment around 19:30 , and I was starving but it still wasn’t even close to dinner so Pilar (my host mommy) took me around the circle that surrounds their apt and pointed out things to me in Spanish to help me learn.

I slept really well but still jetlagged so it was hard to wake up in the morning. I was kind of nervous about the whole shower thing because everyone has repeatedly emphasized taking short showers since water/electricity is so expensive here. I literally had my stopwatch set for exactly five minutes but for the first two, the water wouldn’t warm up. Not just warm up… but it was absolutely freezing. And I was already cold. No effing way I was getting in that thing. Finally, Pilar knocked on the door and showed me this switch I have to hit to heat the water up. Ooops….

I was pretty nervous about finding the school from the metro near my house, but it was actually relatively easy. We took the Spanish placement exam this morning---and when I say “we,” I mean everyone but me. I took one look at the test, had no idea what to say/put down, told the instructor, and she let me leave. Obviously, I’ll probably be teaching a few advanced Spanish classes.

Friday, January 8^th, 2010 at 23:55

How does this always happen to me?!??! I guess it’s because I refuse to use maps. They just confuse me. So here’s what happened: I had my first class today and there were definitely some hot guys in there… Well, me being me, I had to make sure I was noticed. So after class, I walked up to the group of them and asked in Spanish where the closest metro was. Anyway, long story short, I got on the wrong metro. Actually, I didn’t even get on the metro!! I got on this weird train thing that’s not really a train… and rode for an hour before I realized “oh hey… i only live like 20 minutes away from school.. this isn’t right.” Getting off the train thing, I found myself in the total ghetto—but I was more pissed than scared cuz I knew I’d get home eventually (well, assuming I didn’t get kidnapped or killed)… Just didn’t know how long it’d take. Anyway, that was definitely WAY more of a test of my Spanish skills than that placement test was. But I found my way home eventually. Serves me right for being vain.

Saturday, January 9^th, 2010 17:41

Went on my first run this morning since I’ve been in Spain. It was the perfect morning. I ended up running for about an hour, and it felt so good. My poor little legs have been dying to go free. I actually DIDN’T get lost for the first time in 3 days! Progress! Anyway, I’ve been searching for an AC adapter for almost a week now, and they’re nearly impossible to find! But I was wandering around this morning and meandered into this little hardware store/hole-in-the-wall place and actually found one! So yay! Internet! As silly as it sounds, I’m so proud of that little ac adapter! It represents so much! My ability to navigate in a foreign country and speak another language…

Okay, so that’s a summary of my past week for all of you who wanted to know how it’s going! I didn’t want to write the same thing in a billion emails… I still have a lot more to say as far as my actual thoughts on the city/people etc go… and my next blogs will probably be more about that and less about what is actually happening because soon I’ll have a routine. Anyway, enough for now!