we made it!

After a long flight with some unhappy babies, I landed in Madrid this morning, bright and early! The craziest thing happened in Chicago-I'm assuming I'll know absolutely no one when one of my friends from Mizzou, Maura, is standing in the long line at my gate!! She is studying in Rome this spring and was on my flight! So that was really nice. The airport in Madrid was super empty and I had lots of time before my flight to Alicante-luckily-so I took my time dragging my bags for what seemed like miles. The security line that you have to go through for the second time was a little frantic. A lot of spanish yelling and people pushing made me feel like I should be running or something. Of course I didn't have a boarding pass, so I had to walk another five miles to the Iberia counter before going back in line. I made it to my concourse and read as I waited for Abby to get there. By the way, the Hunger Games could possibly be one of the best books I've ever read. I almost finished the first one on the flight and am addicted!

Speaking of Hunger Games, Abby and I were starving when we got here. The black olive and mini brie cheese I ate for dinner over here did not last long.. I obviously got candy at the airport, some weird sugary gummy bear things I was hoping were like these haribo things I ate everyday in scotland.. Disappointment, they weren't that good.. After our taxi dropped us off, we checked in to our hotel for this first night on our own and tried to venture out to eat. Ok, that was probably THE most difficult thing ever. At least they drive on the right side of the street here, but try communicating with someone who only speaks spanish and talks a mile a minute when you know nothing. If I was confused by the spanish part, I was super confused by the fast-speaking part. We walked by like seven restaurants/bars before we found one that looked open. Tried reading the menu and had no idea what anything was other than something with queso and something with carne. The poor man inside saw us completely confused and KNEW ENGLISH! Thank god. We spent like all our money on this bad meal we didn't know what we were ordering. Asking for something with calimari didn't turn out so bad for us except for we left with a bottle of terrible wine (you can carry open on the street during the day...sweet) and no nutrition because we ate bread and grease. Ick. Hopefully tomorrow with everyone will be better food and easier to understand.

A nice hot shower and nap later and I'm ready to make my second attempt at exploring this city. (We're actually not in the city part, we're out by campus which is a 30 minute bus ride or so from the city where I'll be living). Glad to be here safe and sound with a friend now too. We've got a lot to learn in the next few weeks!!



-k