Arriving

Today has been an interesting day to say the least.  Disclaimer: I have been awake for going on 30 hours, so I apologize if this post doesn’t make too much sense.  It just took me about 15 minutes to even figure out how long I have been awake, which is a great testament to how exhausted I feel physically.  I’m just trying to push through til I can sleep tonight and get adjusted to Madrid time, but apparently in Madrid dinner doesn’t happen til 10 or 10:30, which means I will be pushing 40 hours of being awake…

Where to begin?  On the flight over I met two guys from the University of Iowa who were going on a similar trip to what I’m doing after Madrid, so it was nice to chat things over with them for a bit.  However, I had the misfortune of sitting next to an LSU fan for the duration of the 8 hour and 45 minute flight, but that ended up working out alright haha.  Something that didn’t end up working out alright… the whole taxi thing.  I’ve never had to actually “get” a taxi before, so the idea of waving one down in a foreign language was a daunting task.  Little did I know, that should have been the least of my worries.  I can now speak from experience that one of the most frightening things in the world is to be in a foreign country with no form of communication and nothing but an address where you are staying.  It is especially frightening when you ask the cab driver if he knows the address, and he responds, “No… Is that even in Madrid?”  I felt like I was on an episode of the Amazing Race gone wrong.  Then, my cab driver screamed into a walkie-talkie for half of the ride, laid on his horn for the other half, was going 130 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone, got in a near accident with a larger tanker truck that had a picture of a dead fish and a dead tree on the side of it (who knows what it was carrying), and dropped me off on the street but told me he didn’t know where the actual address was.  Needless to say, I was slightly freaking out.

Things weren’t much easier as I tried to get into the apartment building, but when I finally was able to, it was wonderful to finally meet my host mom, Chelo, and her sister, Carmen.  They are awesome.  Quickly I acquired the nickname “Chema” (don’t ask me how; I have no earthly idea), and I was relieved to find out that they actually knew my name but just like Chema better.  I went grocery shopping with them for a bit, explored the city, met my roommate, and then had lunch… at 2:30… this meal timing thing is gonna kill me.  One of the first things Chelo and I talked about was how I needed to find a good Madrileña girlfriend that didn’t speak English… I’ll post updates on how that goes haha.  But for now, I’m off to take some fotos of Madrid so that I don’t fall asleep.  Only 3.5 hours til the latest dinner of my life…

Hasta luego!