I'm here!

I'm in Spain! It's been quite an adventurous two (or so) days but I'm happily settled in Madrid.

International travel wouldn't be exciting if it didn't involve delays, and my flight was no exception! :) I originally booked a flight from Columbus to Chicago and then Chicago to Madrid, leaving Columbus at 2:30 and Chicago at 4:45. I arrived with my mom at the Cbus airport at noon, only to discover that I needed to get on a flight that was leaving for Chicago at 12:45 because they were about to shut down all outgoing flights because of the weather. So I quickly checked in and got through security (thankfully no one was in line!) and then got to my gate in time. We sat on the runway for about an hour, and then finally took off and landed in Chicago at about 2pm. When I got to Chicago, I found out my flight was delayed until 7:20. The plane ended up not arriving at the gate until 8:30, and we couldn't board for another hour. Then we sat again on the runway until about 11pm when we finally took off. It was a very full and cramped flight, but thanks to my sleeping mask, ear plugs, and Tylenol PM I was able to get some rest while flying.

We finally got to Madrid at around 1pm, when we were originally suppossed to get in at 7:30am! We waited for our bags (the Madrid airport is completely bilingual, so we had literally no trouble finding where we were suppossed to go) and then I got in a taxi to take me to my señora's house. I live with a wonderful woman named Paloma, who looks a lot like my grandma. She greeted me with a huge hug, and I soon discovered that she speaks no English! The last Spanish class my roommate Dominique took was 3 years ago, so it makes me the primary translator in our apartment! EEEK! But I've been surprised at how much I can understand Paloma...I don't get every single word she says, but I can usually figure out the gist of what she's saying.

Last night Paloma showed us how to use the bus system to get to campus and took us to a store called El Corte Ingles. This is quite possibly the biggest store I've ever seen: think Macy's meets Sears meets Wal-Mart. Literally. They sell anything you could every think of. According to Paloma, "puede encontrar todo: comida, ropa, y un novio"- "you can find everything: food, clothing, and a boyfriend."

Today we had our first day of orientation, which included a lot of random information (campus tours, local shopping stores, how to use Spain's free health care system, etc.). They also had different student groups come and explain how to get involved on campus, and it seems as if their campus ministry has a lot to do. I'm already planning on going on a pilgramige to the Basque Country of Spain, where Ignatius Loyola basically founded the Jesuits. I think there will be a lot here to keep my busy! :)

After lunch, my group traveled to a town called Aranjuez about an hour outside of Madrid. We did a walking tour of the city, which looks exactly how you would think a European city looks: small, quaint, lots of side streets, cobblestone roads, adobe colored buildings. We finished our tour and then I did what I consider my biggest personal victory since arriving to Spain: I navagated myself on the Metro all the way back to Paloma's apartment! I am dominating European transportation, one mode at a time! :)

So, that about brings you up to date for the past two days! Tomorrow I will be going on a tour of the city of Madrid, so hopefully I will have some fun pictures to post of my new home!

Love you all!