Day 1 in Espana!

Hello everyone!  Thank you for all your prayers for travel safety- all of my trip went quite smoothly.  For this blog, I will try to introduce everyone to a little spanish- so you will see selections of spanish in my postings.

Friday:

Llego al aeropuerto y dije "adios" a mi familia- I got to the airport and said goodbye to my family

It was sad to say goodbye, but everyone held up very well, knowing that this trip is God's will for me and that He is going to do much good through it.  There I met (conoce) the other members of my group.  It is a really fun group of people to be with, and I'm sure I'm going to be good friends with all of them in 3 months.

We hung out in the terminal of the airport next to our gate for a couple of hours (por una pareja de horas), and then finally we got on the plane.  We flew to Newark, NJ first- circling around the airport a couple times before landing, and then quickly hopped on our next flight to Madrid- the all-nighter.  The Newark airport is huge!  Similarly huge was the plane we boarded for our trans-atlantic flight.   On both flights I sat next to my friend Nate, who is studying economics at Nc State.

I tried very hard to sleep (yo trato mucho de dormirse)  but it was very hard on the plane- I couldn't stretch out enough, even when I moved back to a row where there was one unoccupied seat.  In the end, I think I only fell asleep because watching House in Spanish was so boring...

I spent 7.5 hours in between sleep and being awake, but finally the plane arrived in Madrid's Barajas airport.  We stumbled off the plane and into Madrid, where it was quite chilly (about 35 degrees).  (A side note: I have yet to see any of the warm, sunny Spain I was dreaming about).  One girl lost a part of her luggage, but for the most part we were fine.  We met our tour director, Greta (I'm sure I'll talk more about her later), and boarded a big orange bus bound for Santander (about 6 hours away).  

Our driver's name was Pablo, and he was the first person I talked to who only spoke Spanish (except for the flight attendant who laughed at my sleepy attempts to ask for assistance in Spanish).  But he is a funny guy whose favorite soccer team (equipo de futbol) is Sevilla.  He also says the Pau Gasol is the best basketball player in the entire world.  Our trip went smoothly- most of us slept (we arrived in Madrid at 3:00 am our time, so we were exausted).  I tried not to sleep and I think only slept an hour.  

Some things that suprised me as I looked out my window at northern Spain:

- Spain is very, very hilly.  There were very few times we were driving through flat terrain.  The peaks and valleys were often breathtaking.  

- There was snow everywhere!  Every single area, not just the mountains, was covered in snow, and it even snowed pretty hard on us during the trip.  However, as soon as you get toward the cost, the snow turns into a miserable, cold rain.  

- I haven't seen any religious statues yet. I have seen many monasteries and little churches, but not much religious art. Me sorprende mucho! I'm very suprised!

Anyway, we arrived in Santander a las seis, at six.  Santander is a very old-fashioned city which I will tell you more about later, but it is very pretty and very close to the sea.

As soon as I got off the bus, I met my homestay mom- Victoria.  She is so nice, and really interested in learning about me and america, and pretty much anything.  She has no problem talking to me, which is very kind of her considering how bad my spanish is.  I am hoping that we still have things to talk about after the three months, because we have already covered my family, Obama, homeschooling and race relations in the first two days!  Her husband, Luis is also very very nice, with a good sense of humor.  He is a history teacher at a local high school.

I will post next about my apartamento or house, but it is plenty of room for me, Louis and Victoria.  I can see the harbor from my window.  

Today we went to the Martime Museum of Santander and then to a local tavern.  It is still rainy, so not much fun to walk around, but I had a good time.

This post is getting long, so I will post more tommorow (manana) or martes, Tuesday.

Now it's time for a spanish quiz!  Que significa estas palabras? What do these mean?

Llegar (llego)-

Adios (easy one)-

Familia- 

Conocer (conoce)-

Pareja- 

Hora(s)-

Tratar (trato)-

Dormirse- 

Equipo de futbol-

Sorprenderse (Me sorprende)-

A las seis-

Apartamento- 

Manana-

Martes-