My flight landed at 10:00 am on Thursday Sept 9th and the whole trip from MA to Newark to Madrid was very smooth. I even sat next to a guy from Seattle who is on my program. After landing we met up with IES staff, proceeded to a hotel and spent the night. The next morning I met my home-stay mother Ana. I liked her immediately. She is young (43) and stylish. She also has a 9 year old daughter, which I am really excited about. For those of you who know that I don't have the best relationship with animals - get this: she has a cat, (named Gato appropriately) who likes me!!! He hangs out in my room with me.
My roommate, Cammye, is from New Mexico and is really cool. We have been going out and hanging out together. Today being Sunday we finally had some free time and we explored the city a little bit, bought some necessary umbrellas and hair dryers at El Corte Ingles (department store), and finished with some tapas y cerveza downstairs from our apartment.
I'm kind of obsessed with the apartment and its location right now. We live right on plaza Olavide which is a small park with a playground, fountain, tons of benches, and some trees/flowers. Today it was crowded with families and their children playing. It is also really close to lots of metro stops. I'll put a picture up as soon as I get one.
9/11/08 Photo of Plaza Olavida
Now for the fun stuff. Last night I stayed out until the metro opened again in the morning. That is, 6:00 AM. Cammye and I met a group of IES kids in a park around 12:30 AM for botellon, which is drinking in the park. From there we took the metro to one of the largest and obligatory clubs in Madrid. Kapital is a seven- floored discoteca which has a different dance/music theme on each floor. Floor one was techno and had goo goo dancers on the stage. Some of the other floors were Latin/Salsa, Reggaeton, HipHop, etc. The club was pretty crowded. There were a lot of Americans, but people from everywhere else too.
We also had an orientation trip to Segovia (1 hr north of Madrid) on Saturday. What struck me about it was how much history Spain has. I thought Stockbridge was old. Not really, I'm kidding, but check out some pictures:
http://allisonstravelphotos.shutterfly.com/
We have orientation this week but hopefully I can do another update soon.
Hasta Luego
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