My Arrival to Madrid

Hi everyone!

So I have officially arrived in Spain! My airplane ride to Amsterdam was great, but of course I barely slept even though I was exhausted. Even though I was told that I shouldn't watch it before I go, I saw "Taken" on the plane, which didn't scare me too much and it was a pretty good movie.

On my flight to Madrid, I met a girl named Kelly from my program and when we arrived we took the metro to our hotel together, so that worked out really well.
My hotel room is really nice and it is bigger than most of the other students because I have 3 roommates right now: Kelly (the one I met on the plane), another Kelly, and Lauren. We are all in the same level, which means that we will be in the same classes throughout our time in Spain.

Later that day, we had our orientation, which pretty much just consisted of meeting the four instructors and going over the basic rules. I found out that we are going on a day trip to Toledo on Thursday, so that will be pretty awesome. I think that there are more excursion trips (like to Sevilla and Portugal) that I can go on that are put on by the program, so I will probably do those. I had originally planned to go to Sevilla and Toledo already, so these trips work out really well!

During the day, I went around the city with some people from the program. We wanted to go to the Rastro Flea Market, but we didn't end up finding it so we just explored the city. We found the Plaza Mayor and had lunch (I had my favorite, tortilla patata), explored some more. and then stopped at a little place for sangria. Jill, Jenn, Mike, and John, I am pretty sure that this place was right next door to the place we had lunch that one day when it was just us in Madrid.
After the Orientation meeting, we went to dinner at some little place. We got this huge paella, and a few tapas (patatas bravas, jamon serrano, and croquetas). It is a huge advantage that I have been to Spain before because I actually know what I am ordering and what it really looks and tastes like.

Also, I think that it is important to note that I really haven´t suffered too much jet lag, which is probably due to my flight that left at 4 pm Michigan time. I just took a little nap when I got to the hotel, and then I was all set.

Okay, that's all for now!
Rachael