Well, I have arrived in Spain.
This is after the following events -- stressful packing and playing clothing survivor, last American meals and tearful goodbyes, driving to Atlanta in rain and shine, 2 hour airport delay because of lightening storms, finally making it on a plane but getting moved to the very last row because we had to take a different plane, getting creepy chicken because that was all that was left for dinner when they got to the very last row, falling asleep at the end of The Hurt Locker, sleeping in the most awkward positions ever, finally arriving in Madrid, very happily finding that my suitcase made it too, waiting around in the airport, finally getting on the bus to Alcala....
When we arrived in Alcala, we were met by our host families. I have a single woman who is widowed. She has three children, all in their thirties. Our apartment is nice, except for the fact that Rebecca and I are currently sharing a bedroom separated by a curtain. Awkward. Apparently this situation will be resolved soon. Hopefully we will get to stay here though, because our host mom is super nice and we are in a good location and we have wireless. Which is very, very important.
After arriving, I definitely took a shower ASAP. It was great. We unpacked a little bit then settled down for some lunch. Who doesn't love white rice with a fried egg and tomato sauce on top? Plus sausages. Haha, yes, it was random, but it was actually pretty good. Apparently that is the go-to meal in Spain, like if you're trying to feed a picky child --- their version of chicken fingers. Interesting.
Our host mom is nice, but I'm pretty sure she thinks we are both really dumb. My Spanish is just really rusty-- I'm sure I'll settle into it after a few days. Right now I have a killer headache though.
After lunch we took short naps then got ready to go on a tour of the city and dinner with the group. Our mom walked us to the meeting area, and since we arrived early we walked around this little arts fair that was set up in Plaza Cervantes. She bought both of us these cute little handmade bookmarks, which was really sweet of her.
We met up with the rest of the group then divided up to do walking tours of Alcala. It's not very big, but it's pretty confusing. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it in a couple of days. Everything here is named after Cervantes because it's where he's from and he's only the most important writer in Spanish history. I'm looking forward to visiting the Cervantes museum in his house.
We finally reconvened to wait...forever...and finally sat down to dinner as a group. We ended up having tapas, which was really cool. We had...bread, sausages, cheese, some questionable fried thing, calimari, lettuce with anchovies, shrimp, something that is basically a potato omelet, really strong like baked brie, and probably a million other things that I just can't remember right now. Then, once that was all over we had like 2 plates of all kinds of desserts and each got a piece of pie. It was intense. So much food, but it was really really good. And it took like two hours, because that's how the Spaniards roll.
After dinner our host families met us and took us home. Our mom had a friend with a dog, which got into a little argument with another dog we walked past -- hence the title of the post and something I know everyone was wondering about.
Tomorrow is a busy busy busy day so I must sleep Ciao!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
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