¡Madrid!

The view from our hotel window!

¡Hola! It is hard to believe that I am really in Spain, but here I am in my hotel room in Madrid with the balcony door open listening to the accordion player in the street.

We are just here for the first week to do some orientation, sight seeing, and language practice, and then we will head to Granada on Friday and stay there the rest of the semester.

The past 36-ish hours have been a whirlwind! My flights were pretty uneventful, thankfully.
I didn't sleep as much as I should have, though, and we were all just exhausted last night from traveling, walking around Madrid a bit, and eating dinner at 9 pm. There are 7 other girls and 1 boy (don't worry, he's bearing it well) in the SIT program with me, all from various colleges across the U.S. It's nice to be in the same situation with others, and so far everyone has been really supportive and inclusive. We are a little overwhelmed by our program director speaking only Spanish to us. Let me just emphasize that my Spanish is currently very limited, which is part of why I'm here! As you probably know, immersion is the best way to learn a language. I'll be honest, I could only understand about 25% of what Antonia (the program director) was saying yesterday, but I already feel like I understood more today. I was even writing something in English earlier today and kept finding myself saying all the words in Spanish in my head! This experience of being totally inept at Spanish is good for me- I know that I can't be too hard on myself because it's a lot to learn, and that I actually comprehend more when I just relax and let some things go (lesson learned after concentrating so hard last night at orientation that my head hurt).

Right now is siesta time (it's real, people. Take note, America.) and later on we will do more orientation, but this morning we went on a walking tour of Madrid and toured the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace. Every photo you've ever seen of a winding street with cobblestones and beautiful buildings lining both sides is pretty much completely accurate of Madrid.

The palace and cathedral across from it are AMAZING. The cathedral is not even that old or ornate compared to so many in Europe or even in other cities in Spain, and I still thought it was awesome. But the palace beat them all. I could not believe how big it is (over 2,000 rooms inside), and I really can't explain how beautiful the inside is. The paintings, both on canvas and the ceilings of most rooms, are just magnificent and beautifully preserved. There were crazily huge chandeliers, a throne room, and one of the kings who lived there even had separate dining halls for each meal. Unfortunately they did not allow pictures in the palace, but I'll post some now of the exterior and some from walking around Madrid.

Puerta de sol (Gate of the Sun)

The point that distances are measured from in Spain. Classic tourist picture!

The Cathedral

Palacio Real

The view from the side of el Palacio Real

I am so grateful for this opportunity and still can't believe I'm here. I've been dreaming about going to Europe my whole life, and after such a long period of planning and waiting for Spain, it is just surreal to finally be here. Many of the things I was nervous about have already proven much better than expected, and I just hope that continues as I meet my host family, get used to Granada, and start classes.