And here I sit in my cute little room in Spain...

I’m in Spain, wait…what?!

After waking up at 4am in California, flying from San Francisco to Philadelphia for 5 hours, a lay-over for an hour and a half, flying over the Atlantic Ocean for 7 hours, with a total of 24 hours of traveling, I have made it to Madrid safe and sound. I’m living in a cute little apartment in a city named Alcala, which is right outside of Madrid.

My travels were...interesting. I think you might find it fun to read...

I met with my roommate, Vern, at the San Francisco airport. All seemed smooth until a lady working for US Airlines insisted that Vern's carry on was too large. She made her test it in one of those luggage tester thingys and sure enough it didn't fit. So, what did Vern do? She literally began ripping clothes out of her bag, putting more layers on, and jumping on her bag to make it fit. But after all that hard work, getting the bag stuck in the testing thing and having my mom, Vern, and I have to all 3 work together to get it out, she sadly had to check it for $70...boo. We finally were able to walk through and the poor handle of my carry-on broke...all throughout the rest of my travels it began to break more and more...It has no handle at all now.

The 5 hour flight from there went smoothly and we landed in Philadelphia. We had a lay-over there for an hour and a half. It was fun walking through the airport and recognizing all the people from Europe. I had my first chance to speak spanish there when two Spaniard ladies behind me were unable to communicate with a guy working a food station and I was able to translate. It was awesome!!:)

We then boarded our flight to SPAIN!!! Vern and I got a middle isle of 4 seats all to ourselves. It was really nice! Although it was a 7-hour flight, there was a lot of entertainment. There were movies, games, etc. 

Then we landed:)

We got our luggage, got some food, and headed to the place we were to meet the rest of our group. Slowly girls from our group began to show up. It was so fun meeting them.

NOW FOR A SCARY/FUNNY STORY...

Have you seen the movie Taken? Well, if you have it felt like we were in the movie.

There was me and about 8 other girls just sitting and talking in the airport when some random man walks up to us awkwardly. It suddenly got quiet. He began with, "Merry Christmas." Weird. He than began asking us where we were from and such. (He was from Russia). He then said, "Do you girls want to come to a party tonight?" UMMMM...if you have indeed seen Taken, sound familiar? Of course we denied, but he continued to ask us many questions. He asked one girl for her number and she said no. Finally our instructor then showed up and the scary man immediately felt nervous, he could not look anywhere but down and became silent and left. Yep, scary.. but what an experience. We have now been told to not smile or laugh at any scary men. Be rude, give them a mug shot, and they leave. Bam.

We then took a bus to La Plaza. A beautiful place here in Alcala and got picked up! The lady that picked us up is named Maria. She a very sweet lady. She took us to the little apartment we will be living in for the next 3 months. We live with Maria's daughter, Encarna, and Encarna's 13 year old son, Roberto. I love them already. Honestly, some of the nicest people I have ever met. Maria lives in the building next to us but says she comes here very often. They are so kind! 

Encarna and Roberto gave us a little tour of how to walk to La Plaza and our school. I loved walking around Alcala. There were so many people out walking around. It is so beautiful here. I have also already had the chance to try some foods here! 

Encarna is so sweet. She only has a couple rules for us. She said she doesn't care how late we are out, but if we go into Madrid, to always let her know. She said no boys in the house. She said only speak spanish so we can become great at it. She said we are not allowed to clean our dishes or anything because all she wants us to do is study. She said she does our laundry. Lastly, she said we have to at least try her foods so we can experience food from Spain, but if we don't like it just tell her and she doesn't care. I like her a lot already.

So here I am, in my little room in Spain about to have the time of my life. 

Here are my thoughts so far: I'm loving it. Man, am I blessed to have this experience. 

Well, its 10:30pm here, so I should probably get some sleep.
Goodnight:)