Week 1

Monday, January 11, 2010

12:45 PM

We are sitting in the Paris airport waiting to get on our flight to Madrid. Our first flight was cancelled because of snow on the Madrid runways but we are scheduled to take off around 5:00 Paris time. The flight over was pretty easy considering I slept the whole way. A lot of the others watched movies the whole time and are sleeping now but we should be leaving for our gate pretty soon. We got free sandwiches and drinks because of the cancellation; I got a decent chicken sandwich with some weird mustardy sauce but it was pretty good. Other than that nothing much is going on at the CDG airport, the University of Alcalá is sending a bus to come get us from the Madrid airport as soon as we land and then we have a 15 minute ride to campus, where Pepi Pozo will pick up Chandler and me.

We arrived in Alcala around 10PM and Pepi greeted Chandler and me. She is such a great lady, single mother of 3 boys. We later found out that her husband died in a tragic terrorist attack by the Eta group, he is a hero by any standard. Pepi is a Jehovah’s Witness and is very interested in other’s religions. Julio is the youngest son; he is 21 and still lives at home. He plays for a 7 on 7 soccer league and plays attack, we went to one of his games, they won 4-1 and he scored 3 goals, stud. His body is his holy ground; he works out everyday, and never drinks. He does work as a bartender though, which should be convenient for the rest of us. We ate salad, rice, bread, and ham for dinner, which is a classic Spanish meal, and all 4 phases have lots of Spanish taste, the salad dressing is delicious.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

7:24 PM

Computer is about to die haven’t gotten an adaptor yet, everything is great campus is beautiful group is fun sending email don’t have wifi for free at our house but will work on that. I got a “movíl” (cell phone) for 5 euros and put a 10 euro plan on it where I can call all “movistar” cell phones for 5 cents a minute. Also from 8 PM to 8 AM Madrid time I can call America for 15 cents a minute, but its 1.90 euros during 8 am- 8 pm.

I am getting my campus “wee fee” (wireless internet) password tomorrow so ill write more then.

Hasta luego,

Drew

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Wow, what a great country. Chandler and I just ate “telepizza” with Leanne and Camille, and that really was the first taste of America that we have had. I got pepperoni and Chandler got barbeque cheeseburger pizza, which looked awesome. This morning was our 2^nd day of business Spanish and advanced Spanish, (9+1030), both of which we have the same teacher. She is nice but is tough on her students, which will benefit our skills vastly. After class we came back home, were pretty hungry and ate fish with rice and a mixed up vegetable soup. She grinds up all sorts of veggies and serves once a week to ensure we eat what we need. Pepi believes in eating healthy, and is extremely generous with her portions. Its not an insult to say “Estoy satisfecho” (im full), but it does make her curious why we cant eat 3 pounds a meal like Julio. After classes and lunch I got in bed for a siesta and didn’t end up waking up until around 8 when Leanne called to meett up for dinner with us. Other than that not a busy day at all, the socket lost power Julio thinks we may have messed it up but “no pasa nada”. (Don’t worry about it). Tomorrow is my later class day, (1030+1230), and I have a 30 minute break between the classes so we will likely go to “Porton”, which is about a 2 minute walk from campus. Pepi just came talked to Chandler and I and told us of 2 guys who stayed here in the past and wrote journals every day, which we are going to start more in depth now. She also said that she is only kind of hungry and when I asked her what she was going to eat and she said she didn’t know, “Cuando uno no sabe que debe comer, juevos.” (When one doesn’t know what he should eat, eggs). Anyways. Porton is a great spot to get café con leche, (coffee and milk) with a piece of some type of cinnamon or ginger bread for 1.10 Euros, and it is extremely tasty. Im about to start plugging in things from the past few days and then hit the sack because after class tomorrow we are going to go to Madrid. We are going to take the train around 3 and do some sight seeing until Senel gets done with his class. (He got a job with American Express and starts next Monday but is having to take classes all week to prepare) When he gets done Im sure he has some good ideas for where to go and what to do. Senel truly is a great guy, he has the big brother protective instinct but knows how to show us a good time. If tomorrow is anything like our last trip to Madrid I’m sure we will have a blast.