LO SIENTO

Ok, so I am terrible and haven't even blogged since I have been here but I have been so so busy and had no time to sit down and do this so bear with me because this will probably be long and boring! And I'm going to do 2 so its not so long! Ok so we arrived in Madrid at 10 in the morning after being awake since 7 in the morning the day before (minus the time change). Needless to say we were all exhausted but knew we wouldn't be sleeping for a while longer! I have learned from experience not to go to sleep until night time because it messes you up in the long run! So we drug our suitcases two blocks to the hotel and got settled, freshened up and went to a little bar with a few other people to eat lunch. I got a grilled sandwich with grilled brie cheese and it was wonderful!! Later on we went on a bus tour of the city and went to another bar where I accidentally ordered something that was very greasy and nasty looking so my big bag of peanutbutter crackers are definitely coming in handy ;) Soon after dinner we passed out and woke up early in the morning to go to the Prado art museum, a walking tour of Madrid, and a tour of the palace. Everyone here is basically fluent in Spanish except for about 12 peopple so all of the tours and some of the meetings are completely in Spanish! I guess this really is imersion!! I understand some of it but they talk way to fast and they speak a different kind of Spanish than what I learned in class! All of the c's sound like "th" so gracias sounds like grathias! Very hard to figure out! After dinner in La Plaza Mayor and churros dipped in warm chocolate (YUM), we went to bed and woke up to get on the bus to Toledo. Toledo is absolutely gorgrous! It is alot smaller than Madrid and very cool with lots of character. We had another walking tour (thank you dr. scholes) and for lunch we went to a place that sold kepabs which is NOT chicken and veggies on a stick like i was expecting!It is a sandwhich like thing with mystery meat and some other frighteneing ingredients so I tried it and it didn't taste terrible but the sight was disturbing so I couldnt eat more than a few bites. Our hotel was outside of Toledo and we ahd a 3 hour meeting there and we were all too tired to go out for dinner so peanut butter crackers again! (I didnt eat much in Madrid and Toledo which, in hindsight, was good because once we got to Granada I started being force-fed) We woke up the next morning and took a five hour bus ride to Granada where we met our families!! Driving through the countryside in Spain was gorgeous!!! We were surrounded by olive trees, vineyards, and snow covered mountains!! So cool!!




I have met so many cool people on this trip from all around America!! Ashley, Devin and I are the only three that knew eachother before and the only southerners and people know us as "the Tennessee girls". We have all talked about the stereotypes of the north and south which is always funny. One girl asked if we are taught that the south won the war and we are going to teach everyone to line dance soon! Still tryign to get used to the Spanish schedule which is breakfast at a normal time, lunch at 2 or 3 and a siesta after lunch (which has not been a problem for me) and dinner at 9 or 10. Also, people act very different here. They dont make eye contact and smile and if you do that they will get the wrong impression. PDA is running rampid in Spain. If you go to a pretty fountain or park there are couples everywhere basically making out... Very strange. People walk everywhere here and I will most likely get lost a thousand times but I guess its all part of the experience!!