El Primero Día

My first day in Madrid was a whirlwind. I arrived in the airport at 7:30 am and after getting through customs and finding the baggage claim, I left for my home stay. My host parents, Marina and Carlos, are so nice, we talked for about an hour and a half and they told me about their four children and the school of theater that they own. My roommate Casey arrived two hours later and we both took a pretty long nap soon after. After our nap, we wandered around the Puerta del Sol area and got some coffee. Madrid has many beautiful buildings and is quite historic. The streets are windy and make no sense to me, but they're pretty cool at the same time. I need to start taking a map along with me when I wander around so I stop getting so confused!

Some buildings near Puerta del Sol

Later in the afternoon, we met the rest of the students in the program and had orientation. The ISA office was closed Sunday so orientation was held at a chain restaurant called Pan & Company. We had bocadillos y papas fritas as we received our personal metro cards and spanish cell phones. There's about 30 people in the program from all over America, and I'm the only one from UT!

The Christmas Tree in Puerta del Sol

For almuerza y cena, Marina cooked for us and it was delicious! Lunch was a torta de jamón y queso, which is basically a puff pastry with ham and cheese, and dinner was a mixture of rice, bell peppers, chicken, and peas tossed in habenero salsa. Marina and Carlos are originally from Argentina, so they love comidas picantes. After dinner we ate some carmelized pecans that I brought them as a gift from Texas, and they loved them! Pecans aren't found in Spain so there isn't a spanish word (that we knew of) for them, so Casey and I taught Marina y Carlos how to say it.

Around midnight Casey and I decided to go for drinks at Dubliners, an Irish Pub a few streets away from home. Most Spaniards don't go out until 1 or 2 am, and many stay out as late as 6 or 8 am, so we were having quite the early night. The pub was filled with americans and a football game was on TV. It was hilarious, but a great break from speaking spanish all day. My roommates from this past fall were in town for a couple days so they met up with us there, and it was so great to see familiar faces.

Overall, it was a fantastic first day and I can't wait to get going in this semester!