So, between Friday and Saturday, I had done all the following:
1) Flew across the ocean alone to a new country
2) Got zero sleep on the above flight
3) Arrived in Madrid Barajas Airport
4) Made it to the hotel and meet up with other students
5) Despite extreme exhaustion, explored Madrid with a local Madrileño friend until late that night
All of these things have been a whirlwind of emotions and excitement and amazement. Exploring Madrid my first day was incredibly exciting. My friend who lives in Madrid showed me around his favorite places. We went to Parque Retiro which is like the Central Park of Madrid with a big lake in the middle which people canoe on. We walked some of the giant park and heard music in the streets and talked lots, but mostly in English because at this point my Spanish was not ready to function very well.
We also saw Bernabeau Estadio where Real Madrid plays. There was a match as we walked by it. Outside there are a lot of vendors that sell souvenirs and it seems the most popular souvenirs are scarves labelled "Real Madrid." At the moment we were walking around the outskirts of the stadium, Real Madrid was crushing the opposite team 4-0 as we walked by.
After, we headed over to the Plaza Mayor of Madrid and it was beautiful. The plazas here look just like they do in movies and pictures--they're huge, brick fortresses with beautiful balconies and at night, lit up, they are incredible.
Near the plaza, we ate at a popular chain restaurant here (not sure if it's popular around all of Spain or mostly Madrid) called "Vips". My friend got a dish with rice and chicken and I'd just had the breakfast/lunch/french fries dish that morning so I stuck with café con leche. The literal translation of that is coffee with milk but its a white coffee with frothy milk and it is delicious. There's lots of coffee shops here and they all have it.
Since there will be lots of these, a brief but funny story: I didn't know "aseos" means "baños" which means bathrooms in english--I only knew the word "baños" so I spent a good 10 minutes walking back and forth past the "aseos" sign in the restaurant trying to understand why the waiter had told me the bathrooms were this way.
Finally, after a meeting at the hotel with the Emory Salamanca group, despite complete and utter exhaustion, I went back out again to meet up with my friend and his family.
We finished our night at a Starbucks in the downtown area of the city. I practiced Spanish with his mom who was incredibly patient and kind. Another funny story: I had been corrected earlier on in the day about how you greet people with a kiss on each cheek so I proceeded to do so when I met his mom and his dad and his brother. However, the men laughed at me because apparently that's not typical to do when meeting men. Now I know and now all of you reading know, thanks to my great awkwardness.
It was pretty cold in the city that night and we had a long walk back to the car but I didn't mind because we walked around a lot of smaller backroads with bustling bars and a lively night-life atmosphere. It was beautiful.
I got back to the hotel around 12:30 am after running on zero hours of sleep and the exhaustion hit me hard. I showered and went straight to bed.
The next morning, it was time to head over to Salamanca to meet our host families, move in, and see the university.
