Finalmente.

Travelling is a funny thing, almost surreal in a way. I left mi casa in Lima at 9:00am on Thursday, waited in the airport until 2:30, flew to Washington D.C., waited while our plane was delayed for "security reasons" (great, that's what everyone wants to hear, right?!), left D.C. at 7:30pm, arrived in Spain at 2:30am (8:30am their time!), waited for our luggage, then napped in the airport. Finally, after what easily could have been 5 days, but was really only about 24 hours, I arrived in Alcala at mi casa nueva (my new house!). Thousands of miles away. How crazy is that?

After many comments of “this is not real life!” and expressions of our nervousness, my travelling companions and I didn’t feel like we were actually going to Spain. To live. For 4 months! Now that I’m here, I’m still not sure it’s real! My host mamas are both named Pilar, and they chat at the same time in Spanish while I try to follow as much as I can! My Spanish is suuuuper rusty, but I hope I can learn quickly! At dinner Pilar made us fried fish and delicious salad—I love Spanish food already. It’s almost as fun as the conversation that comes with dinner!!!

On the 8 hour plane ride from D.C. to Madrid, our seats were messed up so I ended up sitting by a lady with her four year old daughter, Samira, and her 2 year old son. They spoke only in Spanish at first, and I chatted with the girl a little. I assumed they were from Spain because of their fluency in Spanish but they were actually from the U.S., visiting the women’s family. I quickly saw that her daughter, as well as she and her son, could fluidly switch from Spanish to English and back again—second nature to the children. I was amazed at their bilingual abilities, and also superrr jealous. I’ll be struggling to learn this language for the next 4 months, and probably the rest of my life, when they could just switch back and forth flawlessly. Between my quick naps and my new friends, the flight went quickly but we were all sooooo relieved to finally land in Espana!

Tomorrow we have orientation and a tour of the city… and I’m assuming the jetlag will really set in. Who thought time zones were a good idea??? (It’s 10:30 at night here… and 4:30pm in the Ohio…!!!)

Hasta pronto!
Ana

Our flight was delayed :(

My room! :)

The view from my desk!