Twenty-four hours in Madrid

at Jessica's the night before I left

Greetings from Madrid! Biz arrived here yesterday morning and I came later on in the afternoon and met her at our hostel. I came later than her because #1 my flight arrived later than hers and #2 they left one of my bags in London! Fortunately I have backup clothes! It was supposed to arrive last night, then this morning,but... I haven´t seen it yet.

Biz was definitely a sight for sore eyes! The plane ride was long, and "plane sleep" just isn´t the same as sleeping in a real bed. And seeing another American was refreshing--especially my friend ;). I had a long layover in Chicago, which allowed me to call people and say my last goodbyes. That was nice. I looked out of the plane on the flight from Chicago to London a couple times (window seats rock) and saw a beautiful waxing gibbous moon over misty clouds far below. It was enchanting. Flying into Spain was similar--foggy mountains by the beach in the morning, and, closer to Madrid, Olive orchards and houses with tile roofs. Madrid had a dusky pink cloud above it from the plane , which was charming from a distance, not so charming to be in it. It´s so dry here! I took the Metro from the airport to my hostel, because it was $35 cheaper, and had to carry my one sixty-eight-pound bag plus a backpack full of books all the way to my hostel, up stairs and everything. I asked a police if he knew where my hostel street was and he didn´t, so he asked another man who happened to speak great English (which is very rare here, unlike most of Europe), who ended up walking me all the way to the hostel and helping me with my bags! What a great first impression of the city! But, by the time I got there, my throat was just parched--you know the feeling. It´s just so hot and dry here. I´m becoming thankful for my humid roots in the South. ;)

I really think I´m going to love it here. We had orientation today and got to meet some of the other people in the program--a few really cool girls. Biz and I are probably two of the younger people teaching, but they´re all around 22-27, probably. I feel much more comfortable with Canterbury now that I´ve been to the first day of orientation. It seems like they treat their employees well, though we´ll probably be pretty busy with classes for the next several months. Most of the classes are offered from 5:30-9:30 at night. By the way, Biz and I are seriously considering taking a Spanish class for the month before we enroll in the TEFL course. We want to be able to eat (we tried to order at a restaurant last night and were brought surprise dishes--fish, octopus, and rice soup and a mystery meat...)!

We´re staying in our hostel till tomorrow night--then we need to have or be finding an apartment. We would prefer to share an apartment with Spanish people so we can practice our skills (or, acquire skills?). There are some sweet parts of Madrid we wouldn´t mind living near, too--the Plaza Mayor or near the city center would be nice. Canterbury´s been pretty helpful, just by letting us use their internet! We don´t have to wait in line at the hostel for the single computer :).

My impression of Spanish people so far: they´re less intimidating and more casual than I was expecting. A lot of people have dark features, but some of them don´t at all. My mom´s Black Irish--she has dark hair, light skin, and light eyes--from Spaniards settling in Ireland hundreds of years ago. A lot of people have that look. There are also a lot of South Americans who have moved to Spain, and I´ve noticed several Asians here, too--speaking Spanish, which always throws me off guard. It´s awesome--hopefully I´ll be speaking Español by the end of this :). I see a lot of thin younger people, but not all of them are super hip, like I was expecting. They dress European :), but they look pretty middle class. Our orientation leader, John, was telling us that when the Euro came to Spain, prices for everyday goods went up 60% but salaries never increased. I don´t know how or why that happened. But that also means that if we´d come here six years ago, the US Dollar would have had a GREAT exchange rate. It´s ok--we´ll be paid in Euros and get used to the price difference. Esta bien.