Mi primer día! (My first day!)

Hola! Unfortunately I haven't had the energy to update my blog until my second day here in Spain. I'm still suffering from a bit of jet lag, but pulling through! Everything's been great so far and now it's time to recount what's happened since my last post!

Boarding my flight!

I flew from Cleveland to JFK--that was no biggie! To my delight, Matt Couch was the name of the captain on the flight! For anyone who doesn't know, Matt Couch is an amazing student affairs professional at Ohio State and is a current idol of mine! I figured this would be a great flight just based on the mention of his name! Once I took my seat, I began talking to the man sitting next to me, a 37 year-old pharmacist from Egypt. Ironically he began asking about how much houses cost in Ohio--he had recently spotted a house he loved during his business meeting in the Akron area. He showed me a video of the houses he was driving by and it turned out that he drove right by my development! How crazy is that?! Needless to say, flight #1 wasn't too bad!

Yay! No luggage problems!

After landing in New York I still had about 4 hours to kill before boarding my flight to Spain, so I walked around exploring JFK for a while. I bought some delicious New York pizza and a water bottle...and paid $10! Gotta love those New York prices! After a couple hours I met up with Katelyn, a student from Notre Dame, and Hannah, a fellow Buckeye! At about 6:20pm we prepared to board our flight. Katelyn called me out because I apparently looked freaked out--I couldn't believe I was actually flying to Madrid! The flight itself wasn't too bad. I surprisingly enjoyed the dinner and breakfast they served us; however, the man sitting next to me caused several unwanted disturbances. Needless to say, I got no sleep on our 7 hour flight. Thankfully an adrenaline rush kicked in when I heard Frozen's "Let it Go" playing as we landed in Madrid. We got through Customs without a problem, my luggage appeared on the belt (what a relief!), and we soon met up with a director of our study abroad program. Before we knew it, we were on a bus to Toledo!

Madrid Airport

Passport stamp!

View of Toledo from a window at the Fund.
 It's breathtaking!

In Toledo we immediately went to La Fundación Jose Ortega y Gasset y Gregorio Marañon. Yes...that's the name of the university at which I'm studying...such a long name, right?! We call it "the Fund" for short! After eating la comida (lunch), receiving a tour of the Fund, and listening to an information session about host families, I finally met my host mom, Rosario! We greeted each other with besos (kisses) on each cheek and enjoyed some tea and desserts in the Fund's cafeteria. Funny thing to share--my host mom pronounces Brittany as "Barney!"

I soon met my host dad, Miguel, and their daughter, Paula, a 6 year-old they adopted from China. They also have 2 biological sons--Cristian who is 24 and Oliver who is 26. I have yet to meet their 2 sons--Oliver does not live at home and Cristian was helping his friend work at a bar. To my surprise, I discovered there are also 3 other Americans living with my host family but studying through a different university in Toledo: Molly and Michaela from Nebraska, and Hayley from Tennessee. It makes me feel a whole lot better to have them here!


While I was unpacking, I noticed my mirror broke during the flight. When I showed my host mom the mirror, she immediately offered to take me to a "China shop" to buy a new one. We soon began traveling through the streets of Toledo to shop around a bit. My host mom bought me some delicious "menta de chocolate" ice cream on our little walk! Ella es muy generosa! Moreover, gun shots kept sounding about every 10 minutes during our walk. I finally asked my host mom why I kept hearing gun shot after gun shot, and she explained that the gun shots are part of a celebration in Toledo known as Corpus Christi, which celebrates the belief in the blood and body of Jesus Christ. A procession takes place in a couple days (Thursday) and travels throughout the streets of Toledo. It's such a big deal that everything is closed and classes are canceled! I still don't fully understand why there must be gun shots; however, it has something to do with the Virgin Mary being carried during the procession. I couldn't quite understand everything my host mom told me about this, but that's the gist! I'll have to wait to learn more on Thursday!

At 9:30pm we sat down for dinner. I am beginning to see how different eating times are from those in America! We eat lunch, the biggest meal of the day, at 2pm and dinner around 9:30pm. My host mom prepared bread with ham, cheese, and tomatoes. She also had a plate of salami and some other breads that unfortunately were not my favorite. I think the breads I disliked had olive spread on them, but overall everything was pretty good! During dinner we all spoke in Spanish, and although it was a little tough and I asked "qué" many times, I think the comprehension and speaking went fairly well! I can't wait to see how much I improve! It helps that there are 4 American girls and we can all collaborate together to explain ourselves!

After a very long day and after not sleeping for about 36 hours, I finally got some sleep in my cozy little room I have all to myself! Although there's no air conditioning, a nice breeze comes through the windows at night, and I slept pretty well! I'm very thankful to be here and am grateful that my first day went so smoothly!

Although I just finished my second day here, I gotta get some more sleep! I will post about my second and third day tomorrow I hope!

Buenas noches!