The Three Longest Days of My Life ... so far

¡Hola a todos!

All I can say is wow. I have learned so much in the past few days. It's going to be tough to smush it all into one entry, but I'll try. Let's do it in chronological order.

On our first plane to Dallas, we were a bit delayed because a women went unconcious 2 rows behind me right before takeoff. She came back real quick and just needed some oxygen. I sat next to this man on the plane from Austin, Texas who was probably in his 60s. He was what I would call a "straight shooter". We talked a bit about life in Texas and Minnesota and talked a bit about Minnesota hockey compared to Texas football. He works in the insurance business and dressed quite dapper. Good guy.

We connected in Dallas to our next flight to Madrid, Spain. We arrived in Dallas around 4:40 and needed to hustle to get to the next gate since we were delayed. And so began the 8 hour flight. I sat next to a woman probably in her 50s named Fiorenza who was on her way to Italy. (I think she was from there) Our 767 departed and there were TVs along the top of the plane for us to watch; An episode of Parks and Recreation, 2 episodes of The Office, and the movies Horton Hears a Who! and Yes Man. I probably only got a couple hours of sleep. Fiorenza couldn't sleep much either so I lent her my iPod and after that was when we started talking a bit more and she started calling me "babe" because I don't think she knew my name. But she wasn't hitting on my or anything.

And so we arrived in Spain. The only problem was it was 2AM Minnesota time and 9AM in Spain. So those 2 hours of sleep had to do for a night's sleep. The two hour bus ride from Madrid to Valladolid was quite scenic; lots of hills and mountains all around. We passed through some small towns and I even took some pictures that I'll probably put up later. We arrived in Valladolid and our host families were waiting near the bus stop in La Plaza de San Pablo. It was a 10-15 minute walk to our house from there. My host family is very nice and quite funny. There is the mother, Carmen, the father, Louis - a taxi driver at night, the sister, Mónica - 16 years old, and the brother, Eduardo - 13. They also have a little dog (a Dachsund I think) named Cohen. He is a real treat to have around. Very friendly.

I unpacked and was a little tired and actually a little homesick right away. I thought I would be able to converse with them a bit more fluently but, they speak very very fast. We had a meal while watching television (they love American television, we watched Family Guy in Spanish - sorry Mom). I've been able to eat all of the meals here thusfar. The first dish I kind of had to stuff down with some effort. It was creamy and had peas in it and I think tuna (I hate tuna) but I didn't want to be disrespectful. Needless to say, I finished it, but didn't go back for seconds.

I finally was able to take my long-awaited siesta. After that long nap, everything got a bit better. Eduardo woke me up around 6:30. No one sleeps past then because I think they don't want people to be too awake later on when they have to go to bed. We dinner later around 8, which was a bit better, and then I met up in La Plaza Mayor with the other students on this trip. Our coordinator who teaches at St. John's, José, showed us around a few bars. We broke off and wandered around town to enjoy the nightlife. There are lots of bars, but they're all quite small so it's very easy to jump from place to place. My night ended up at a dance club, a discoteca, where it was me and about 6 other guys dancing in the middle of the dance floor trying to get others to dance with us. No one really wanted to join us. It was 3:00AM. I went home after that. It was a great way to spend my first night in Spain.
[time to eat lunch, more to come soon]