So I started off my travels on March 29th in Portland, OR where I said the saddest goodbye ever to my mom and my boyfriend Travis. Once I could finally pull away from them I went through security and then met up with 4 other girls form my program at my terminal. We boarded our plane at 7:40am and took off shortly thereafter. It was about 3 hours and some change from Portland to Dallas, TX, and I met some super nice ladies on the plane sitting around me! One was on her way to Toronto, and the other was on her way to the East coast. The lady going to the East coast has a son who is married to an Aussie lady and she has a grandson with an Australian accent. She visited them in Melbourne, Australia over Christmas, which is coincidental since I spent a month in Adelaide, Australia (the closest other major city to Melbourne) visiting my boyfriend and his amazing family :)
After that my group and I had a 3 hour layover and we got food and basically just sat around. One more girl met up with us in Dallas and then the 6 of us boarded our plane to Madrid! We sat on the plane for about an hour with no airflow and no water (I was SO thirsty) because we couldn't take off until a toilet on the plane was fixed....it was kind of silly if you ask me. Also, there was a big strike taking place in Spain, mainly in major cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, so we weren't given the "full food service" as per usual since the airline had to double stock for the plane of people flying from Barcelona back to the states after us. It was all still pleasant though :)
After we landed in Madrid we had another 3 hour and something layover. I was exhausted once we finally figured out where we were going and that we did not need to clear customs and collect our baggage. We boarded our plane late in Madrid, but only had a short 35 minute flight to Santander.
We went through customs (the chillest/most lax customs I've ever encountered) in Santander, where they asked if I had any food with me. I showed them my chocolates then was sent on my merry way. I then took the bus into the center of town with 2 other girls, and got a taxi from there to my apartment in Santander. I told the taxi driver my address and that my Spanish was poor, so he nodded and smiled, then helped me load my luggage. When we got to my street neither of us knew which building was mine, so he left the car running and went into a shop to ask. He was so sweet and put his hand on mine as I got out of the car to wish me luck :)
My host family is wonderful! I have a host mom, 2 host sisters (I've only met one, and her name is Natalia!), a chihuahua named Coco, and a nice cleaning/cooking lady name Julie (Hoo-lee). I have my own room and a beautiful living space to enjoy. I feel very lucky!
Once I arrived my host sister and her best friend Lucia talked to me and showed me the house. I got all my stuff unpacked and spent some time with them, Julie, and my host mom Ileana. Later I ate dinner and then got a call from another host mom of my friend Paige (from my program) and they asked if I wanted to go out, so I did. My host sister was so sweet and rode the bus with me because she was going out too, and showed me where my stop was. I got off and then met with 3 people from my group - Paige, Jenn, and Michael. We walked around the city a bit, chilled on park benches, and went into a couple of bars. I called it a night, and then came home and crashed.
I proceeded to sleep from around 1am until 4pm today...I was so embarrassed when I woke up haha. We have blinds on the windows that block out ALL light, so I thought it was still the middle of the night when I woke up...man was I suprised when I asked "que hora es?" (what time is it?) and heard 4!
At 7 I went to dinner with all of the people in my program group and our coordinator, Madeline. We were close to my apartment down by the beach. We went to a nice little restaurant overlooking the water called "Balneario de la Concha". The restaurant is on a beach called "La concha de la Playa". We were served cheesy potatoes sliced up and some had tuna on them and some had ham - they were delicious! There were also mini sandwiches with tuna and some with ham and bacon. We got a lot of info about our school and day-today schedules, and then made plans to go out tonight :)
I'll blog about my night out soon. Besos :) xo
