Little Late- 5/27/2010

So this one's gonna be extra long since I have already been here for 13 days and havent posted yet. Lets back it up to the beginning shall we? Day 1: Departure for Madrid. Saying goodbye at the airport, 100 bucks in hand to exchange for euros at the other end, some sleeping pills, music, a couple books, and nada mas. Plane ride: seat moved from lovely window seat to aisle seat in exit row in which I had nowhere to put my stuff but the bins above. Great start. I sat next to an older Italian gentleman on his way to Italy to perform a wedding for someone in his family. He was reading biblical text the whole time. Slept a little on the plane but mostly I couldnt sleep because I was too nervous/excited. When we finally landed it was 8 a.m. the next day. Luckily I ran into a group of other ISA students right away and we "helped" each other find the rest of the group. It was a little overwhelming at first considering I was jetlagged and I was suddenly shoved into a group of 100 stangers who were about to start the same adventure as me. After a LOT of waiting, we finally made our way to the buses and took off for the hotel. The landscape was unreal, I felt like I was in a dream. Which mostly had to do with the fact that I was half dead at the time. We all unloaded our many bags and piled into the lobby out hotel in Madrid and waited another LONG time to get our room assignments. We were paired with our roommates for our homestays which was nice because it gave everyone a chance to get know each other. My roommate's name is Dana and I had the pleasantry of meeting her when she came to the room and interrupted my ill-advised catnap. They say you are not supposed to sleep when you are jetlagged and they unfortunately are right. Before Dana arrived, I went out on the town for a sandwich and some beer with my newest friends Chris and Adam. We took a nice stroll around the block and even stumbled into a pet store which contained such animals as alligtors and comodo dragons. They rest of the day everyone took it easy. We had a meeting with our program guides and then Dana and I grabbed some Spanish McDonalds, which wasnt any better than the U.S. They serve beer though so thats that. After dinner I ran down to the lobby for a quick half hour of WiFi and it was off to bed for me. Look out Spain, here I come! Day number one, down for the count.