Sunday, September 5, 2010

I made it!

Ahhhh I am here, finally!  It amazing/beautiful/hot/crazy/confusing etc...  the list of what I am feeling incorporates any feeling or emotion that you can think of.  So the travel day was an adventure.  I got to sit in the Chicago airport, for a good 4 hours, which wouldn't be that bad if you were in any airport besides Chicago.  Seriously Madison has a better airport.  Once you pass security in Chicago there is NO food.  I had peanut M&M's for dinner, (mom style dinner).  Once on the plane, which I was really excited about having a "world traveler" seat which actually turned out to be the same as economy class.  I sat next to a couple that were moving to Africa to be missionaries, full time.  Once I landed in Madrid I was so nervous and excited that I couldn't hardly stand it.  They had me fill out a customs card on the plane, but I never had to go through customs.....crazy.  Hopefully I am able to come back to the USA next year. 
My host family was waiting at the airport with Susan, my liaison, ready to kiss me on each cheek.  They are really nice and I think I am really going to like them.  We drove home through downtown Madrid and its incredible.  Its such a beautiful city, I can't wait to spend some time there.  The language part is difficult, they don't speak any English but their two sons, Raúl and Héctor do speak a little.  I can understand most of it, but when more than one person in the room is talking or they talk really fast I am completely lost. 
Raúl, Héctor and I went out and met up with some of their friends, one of them is hosting two other American girls.  His friends were really nice and kept trying to get us to speak to them which we were trying but they would get going on these crazy tangents and then we were all lost.  We got back to the house at about 10pm and ate dinner then.  Mercedes (host mom)  made chicken fajitas which she told me were spicy so I was very cautious....however, I soon realized that even though they were all sweating,  I could have used some salsa.  :)  It was quite good though, so at least I know that I won't starve to death. 
My room is sweet.  They live in a row house and I have the top floor (3rd) which has a bedroom and a bathroom and a living area that has a pool table.  I am pretty excited, except for that it is like 110º up here....
Tomorrow's day is packed with meeting type things to figure out cell phones, tour of the city, safety etc.

They asked me what I wanted for breakfast, and then offered corn flakes, not chocolate dad.  :)

Hopefully I will have more exciting stories later on...
Goodnight!

2 comments:

liz vade..... said...

Sounds fantastic. Please tell your new Spanish family, thank you from your American family.

deloreyjmi said...

Awesome ali! I know how it feels. Hang in there and in another 3 weeks, it'll feel like everything slows down a little bit.