Estoy Aqui

¡Hola de España! This keyboard is all in Spanish, so forgive me if there are a few typos! The trip over here went well. The flight from Atlanta to Madrid was about 8 hours through the night, but each seat had a personal, touch screen monitor, and you could listen to music, watch TV, keep track of your flight, or watch a movie! Very cool. There was also a large group of LOUD teenagers and a screaming baby, so we got about 3-4 hours of sleep. We arrived in Spain around 9AM their time-we are 7 hours ahead of you all at home, so usually when you´re going to bed, I´m getting up! I met my family yesterday-Sofia is 39 with a 5 year old son, Alejandro, or Alex. He ran around in his underwear all of last night and kept us laughing! Although, he is kind of hard to understand. There´s another girl in the apartment with me. Her name is Kristel, and she´s from Quebec, Canada. So whenever we have problems communicating, we work together! I also discovered the beauty of hot water...looks like a month of cold showers for Rebecca! It lasts for about 1 minute (literally), so today I planned exactly what I wanted to do while it was still warm! Needless to say, I get ready a lot faster here!

Spain is so very different from America. My first meal here was Chinese-weird, I know. Lunch is their big meal, and dinner is somewhat smaller. And siesta really happens! I definitely took a 3 hour nap yesterday!

Classes started this morning at 9. I also found out that I´m not ¨0 minutes¨from the school-try more like 15. But it´s a nice walk and I get to go through the Plaza Mayor-the beautiful center of town. Salamanca is like stepping back into time-everything is MUCH slower paced. We went for lunch in a cafe today, and the only thing open at 2 PM are the cafes and food places. All the stores and shops close down. Their usual business hours range from around 8 or 9 until 2, then they close and open up again around 5 and stay open until 8 or 9.

The architecture here is absolutely amazing. Very old, and quite a few cathedrals in Salamanca. Me and two other girls, Missie, from MSU, and Lucy, from London, walked around this afternoon, getting lost and then discovering where we were. All of the streets are black cobblestone. I can´t describe it-you´ll have to see the pictures.

As far as communicating goes, it´s going pretty well. Sofia talks very fast, but usually I can understand her. We ordered lunch today and asked where the grocery store was, so we´re doing pretty good! My teachers are very nice and the nice thing about Spaniards is that they ENUCIATE very well! They do have sort of a slur to their words and some letters are very soft, but all in all I think we´re going to be ok!

Well! There´s day one in Salamanca! I´m not sure how often I´ll be able to write to you-today was lucky. Probably every few days. Oh, and my Facebook currently isn´t working, so if you wrote me something, I´m not going to get it until I can figure out what´s going on!

Tonight we´re going on a tour of the city and probably out for tapas and sangrìa! Night life here is loco (crazy). They stay out until around 3-5 in the morning! They are insane! But my house is close to the Plaza, so at least it´s a short walk. Hope you´re all doing well!