We made it!

Yesterday's/ Today's travels turned out to be quite the adventure.

We arrived at the B'ham airport at 11am in the pouring rain. Five delays and five hours later we actually board the plane headed to Atlanta. We finally took off at 4:45pm and arrived in ATL around 6:25pm. Our international flight was scheduled for 7pm so we took off running (mostly for dramatic effect, we probably could have made it walking) through the ATL airport and made it for our flight. Needless to say, one poor girl coming from Tennessee didn't make it so we're still waiting on her to arrive in Madrid.

All of the waiting turned out to be a God-given time to bond with the group coming from Birmingham. We played phase 10 for a really long time and just got to know each other. It's a really good group going. they were all really open to meeting new people and trying new things.Fun-loving and Jesus-loving... exactly what I was praying for.

I was exhausted by the time we took off and forced myself to stay awake through dinner. And I thought I was going to need Benadryl to put me out... haha. I felt like I just shut my eyes for 5 hours and no sleeping actually occurred sitting up. Oh well.

Me and Courtney are proud to say we did not participate in "siesta" today because we want to go to bed early and be DONE with jet lag.

So we arrive in Madrid, board a bus and head to meet our madres at Estudio Sampere (our school). From there we meet sweet Carmen who grabbed us a taxi and took us to her cute but tiny 3 bedroom apt. To our surprise, she still has 2 study abroad guys from Washington and Lee in Virginia staying in her other bedroom. So, we got to chat with them in English which was good for our tired brains. They gave us tons of suggestions and insights and then us four: Jack, Max, Courtney, and me all took the metro to the Puerta del Sol and then walked to the Plaza Mayor. It was breath-taking! There were so many people and little tables set up to eat in the plaza. We shared tapas for lunch outside and we had:

patatas bravas (basically potatoes covered in some type of hot sauce),

tortilla de patata (omelet with potato which was my favorite),

calamari (yes, I did try this... it's kind of like a chewy onion ring),

bread,

and croquetas (fried balls of ham and cheese= delicious).

The city today is crazy because of the futbol championship game that will happen tonight. Germans and Italians cover the city and the metro and continually scream their equivalent of a fight song.

The guys that showed us around will be leaving tonight or tomorrow and another two girls will come to live in this apartment too. Who knew? I've already learned to be super flexible this trip so "suceda lo que suceda" (come what may).

The plan for the rest of the night: Eat dinner, maybe explore the cute shops on our block, and head to bed early. I can't wait for a good night's sleep.

Statue of King Charles III in the Puerta del Sol.

The bustling Plaza Mayor.

Courtney and me eating tapas in the Plaza Mayor.