Not my ideal start...

Sitting on my bed in my apartment, eating peanut butter out of the jar (the only food I own at the moment) and contemplating over the past 48 insane hours...

The flights were long and uneventful. I still have this really bad uncontrollable cough that wrecked havoc on me all throughout the travel process, and not sleeping didn't help much. But all in all things went very well!

I got onto the Metro with 2 other girls and we had no problems heading towards the language center. Madrid is really similar to San Francisco! I know comparing is not the best thing to do when adjusting to a new culture, but seriously Madrid feels/looks like SF, minus the bums and litter, plus attractive and stylish people, and warmer nights. I love the buildings from what I've seen of them in the dark.

And here comes the fun part...
The nice guy at the language center hands each of us keys and directions to our different places we're living along with a crude map and address, essentially saying "welcome to the country, good luck!" He didn't sound too encouraging about taxi drivers and said it was close by, so I ventured out confidently to find my new home. Come 2 hours later, I'm still lugging my bags around the sketchier back alleys of Madrid trying not to look lost/foolish, getting hit on by a guy on the corner, blisters from the handles of my luggage, and squinting at the tiny signs of streets (which, incidentally, are not actually on the streets)! Finally got a clear answer from a guy at a restaurant, and I made it home a little after 11.

So, hooray for my first Spanish Adventure! One day I'll look back and love that I have this experience under my belt, but today is not that day.

It seriously sucked, but it was positive in a couple ways: God TOTALLY protected me, kept me calm (praying kept me from crying), got to practice my Spanish skills in the real-world, now anything hectic that happens will probably be a breeze, I know to take a taxi if I must, and I decided to be a "light-packer" from this day forth!

I'm all settled into my place. Have 4 pretty cool apartment-mates, a better shower than the one at my old dorm, a cot-like bed (joy), and classes officially start Wed morning! Hopefully I get to see Ash this weekend, if everything works out!

I survived my first night, I am proud!



Requests:
Please pray for my health, it's not improving and after all the stress/travel of late I might be going further downhill. Also for no more unwanted sketchy-trekking by myself... It was definately not cool.