First few days in Europe!

What an amazing experience this has already been. I've already met some very friendly, fun, interesting people while spending our first night in Madrid. Madrid, for me, was one of those things that you can read about and hear stories about, but until you actually are there you don't really understand what the culture is like. Going out at 9pm and staying out until 3:30-4am is very different from the United States. First, not only is it a select group of people (i.e. teenagers) that go out on a random Tuesday night, but it seemed as if the whole city was out in the plaza, at tapas bars, clubs, restaurants, etc. The atmosphere in Madrid was very warm and welcoming and I'm so thrilled to visit again soon. 


Next is Logroño, when we left Madrid I wasn't too sure what to expect. We took a four hour bus-ride here to arrive to nobody...Christina, the director of the academy we are teaching at, was to be contacted when we arrived in Logroño so that she could meet us at the bus station and give us our apartment keys. After waiting in the bus station, arriving at the school with all of our luggage to nobody there and then sitting outside of the school with no idea what to do except stay in a hostel overnight until we could figure out what to do in the morning...you could say all three of us were a little stressed out. Danielle and I decided that the best idea was to purchase "pay as you go" phones so that we could get in contact with the only connections we had in our new city. After about an hour of waiting outside the school Danielle got a call on her phone from Ana (the owner of the school) and Christina's sister. She then gets in contact with Christina, whose number was apparently given to us incorrectly. Christina soon showed up, very apologetic, at the school and brought us to our apartment. 


Now this is where it gets good. Danielle and I were the first to show up at the apartment, as all of the cars here are compact so there was no way we were fitting 12,000 suitcases in it by making one trip. And I sure as hell wasn't about to be the last one sitting outside the school with all of my luggage, alone, in some random city that could practically be Compton for all I know. When on our way to the apartment Danielle and I were thinking, "this is probably going to be some old apartment, rickety cabinets, and twin size beds". Upon our arrival, we were dead wrong. We walked into a beautiful, completely furnished, hardwood floor, all queen beds, down comforter, two bathroom, three bedroom, two deck apartment. Disbelief would be an understatement. Not to mention they left us some liquor! ;) Living here for only a few days has already been amazing. A few trips to the market and walking around the city was such a different experience than living in cozy old Mankato. The only analogy I can make between Madrid and Logroño would be that Madrid is an NYC/LA type of atmosphere where as Logroño is more of a downtown Minneapolis. Quite the difference. 


Our problems here: 
1.) There are four locks on OUR door, it takes all three Americans to figure out how to unlock the damn thing.
2.) While cooking what we thought were hamburgers, and they weren't getting darker while we were cooking them, we figure out they're BIRD burgers, hmm...yes, chicken and some other sort of bird. They were, how do you say, sub-par. Bleh.
3.) Our remote is damn confusing, completely in Spanish, so we're stuck to watching one TV channel. Which consists of Spanish Jerry Springer, which mind you is FAR worse than the American version, and Pasapalabra - some goofy Spanish game show. 
4.) People speak Spanish so damn fast. I probably just look like a deer in the headlights when people speak to me. I just nod, smile, and laugh when they laugh. Seems to be going smoothly so far. And g-damn, my Spanglish has become impeccable. 


It's amazing here and I'm so excited to see what the next few weeks bring before teaching starts!


I'll write soon!

Ciao <3