Madrid, en unos dias...

Ok I don´t even know where to start. Oh, here´s a place... I flew into Madrid Friday overnight and by the time I got here it was already 10:15! My host mom showed me the apartment and left to go back to her tienda (this will be a growing theme). I slept most of the day away on medications and jet lag and read and sat by myself. Finalmente, preguntó la señora sí tiene el internet. She told me no, and didn´t even know where I could find it besides school. That´s where I am now, talking to just a few of the people that I miss dearly :) It´s always very difficult to type in english because I am already thinking in spanish, can you believe it?

In any case, it was very difficult to get contact with my mom because there was no internet and no working home phone and I have yet to figure out how to use my stupid international pre paid phone card! Que pena. By the time I found a phone and called home I was in tears. I miss everyone so much, and more so this weekend. My roommate didn´t arrive until about 10:30 pm so when we finally saw each other we both broke down. Me, because I had no clue what I was doing and was completely disconnected from todo el mundo and her because she lost her papers and todos de los copies of all of her credit cards and identification, including her passport. She´s still working on that one. We are both just sitting there bawling about how hard it was to make everything work in the first day in Madrid. When does the honeymoon period start?

Well, I have answered that. It starts today. I think that we´re moving to a different host mom, one that can actually be around for more than 3 meals a day to interact with us, one that welcomes us into her house not just a little tiny bedroom in the corner where we can disappear. One with connection to the rest of the world.

In Madrid many people wear fur coats. Half the population smokes. They all seem to own dogs, and they let them do their business virtually anywhere on the sidewalk. Tha kids are so much cuter and actually look happy. There are so many differences, some that they told us before and some that I am just coming across. I can´t wait to tell you everything. And noone speaks english, unlike what people were telling me. I have been getting by, it´s probably even good for me... I have bought a few sweaters and even a teléfono movil prepago. I am capable! :)

Still, I think I will be much more comfortable and emotionally stable when I move to my new home and connect to the internet and begin finding my way around on the metro and learning the ways of my new school.

It snowed on Friday here for the first time in 11 years, so when I got here it really wasn´t THAT much different. Pero ahora, now it is getting warmer and looking like a real european city, without a trace of Minnesota, even los estados unidos... I look forward to the temperature here, being able to walk or ride the metro virtually anywhere without a hat or mittens or being just plain freezing. I think I may spend my last term, one month, in Alicante, enjoying el sol y el mar. I must apologize again for my spanish interjections, I never thought it would come this fast.

Anyway, I´m off to explore a little more. Muchos besos.