El Primer Dia

I made it! After spending a night at Lauren’s in PA, patiently waiting on multiple lengthy lines in the Philadelphia airport, an eight hour plane ride to London, an hour and a half delay whilst boarded on a small plane intended for Madrid (thank you French air traffic control strike), a missed retrieval by our ISA director and a taxi ride from the airport to our hotel, I am safe and sound in el Hotel NH Nacional in Madrid! - Madrid reminds me a little of DC, it's beautiful parks, museums and monuments are surrounded by shops, tourists and traffic (Madrid is more beautiful though...)

The flight was actually very bearable, I would definitely fly British Air again. The only stress came after having our flight to Madrid delayed nearly two hours so we missed the window (1-2pm) for our program director to pick us up and bring us to the hotel. ( Thank gosh for my memory from high school spanish )

We took a panoramic bus tour of the city; very interesting, but I wish I wasn’t so tired, the lull of the bus’ motor nearly put me to sleep. After a meeting with the program directors a small group of six of us girls found a small tapas restaurant for diner (we were starving.) The restaurant specialized in “broken eggs” so we got two platters: 1. eggs, potatoes, green peppers, onions and chirizo and 2. eggs, potatoes, red peppers, chicken. Broken eggs is simply that - a cracked egg in a pan - in case you were wondering. We shared two bottles of wine and some fried goat cheese, which I surprisingly liked.

Now, back at the hotel, tired beyond explanation, I finally have time to reflect on my first day in Europe ... the day went by so fast that I barely had time to appreciate the fact that I am experiencing the greatest culture shock of my life. I can’t wait until tomorrow to continue practicing my spanish (which, fyi, is better than I expected), explore the museums and introduce myself to a lot more new experiences.


Tomorrow’s Itinerary:
wake up call: 8
breakfast until: 9:30
El Prado Museum: 9:30 - ?
Free time for lunch
El Reina Sofia Museum: 3:30 - ?
Mandatory academic meeting: 6 - 7
7pm on ... ?? :) wish me luck!

Buenos Noches xoxo