¡Viva España!

I´m finally posting a blog about my adventures in Spain. I´ve been here nearly a week and so far it´s been a little crazy. Just so everyone is up to speed let me explain briefly...

As many of you know, I left Washington on March 29th at o´dark thirty. Both of my flights (Seattle-Chicago, Chicago-Madrid) were relatively uneventful. The only hitch was that I couldn´t sleep at all. Talk about frustrating. I arrived in Madrid expecting sunny, spring-like weather only to find that it was barely 40º outside. Talk about disappointment.

By the time I finally managed to get my shuttle and get to my hotel I had been awake for over 24 hours and was pretty much delirious. Thank goodness they let me check in early at the hotel. Once in my room I proceeded to try calling my wonderful husband only to find that I couldn´t get my phone card to work. Exhausted, frustrated, and homesick already I direct dialed, praying that it wouldn´t cost an arm and a leg. Hooray...a familiar voice.

I spent one night in Madrid, met there by another girl from my program and on Saturday we took the train from Madrid to Linares-Baeza together. The train ride went quickly and we were at the station before we knew it. Only a taxi ride away from our final destination, Úbeda, we hailed a cab and were on our way. Difficulties arose when we discovered that not only did the cabbie not know where the language school was, nobody in the city bothers to remember street names. Ugh! We were following a nice, old gentleman to the tourist information center when David, one of the proprietors of the school, spied two obviously foreign girls lugging around heavy suitcases and assumed we were looking for him.

Now, five days later I´m settled into my apartment with four housemates and classes are going well. Our first field-trip is this Friday and I´ll post more pictures afterward. For now I am just discovering the city and enjoying the festivities of the biggest Semana Santa celebration in the Andalucian province.

¡Chao!