Vale

Hello from Spain!

I cannot believe I have already been here for half a week, loco. It has been such an adventure from the beginning and I must say that I love everything about Spain.

I live in an apartment with a sweet woman and her twelve year old son and with my roommate Megan. So great! Mama is the kind of woman you would expect to see in TV shows because she is sweet, loves to talk about how perfect Spain is, and LOVES to talk about boys. Every night she tells us "to go out and meet cute boys, because Spain has the cutest boys...the boys in the south are the cutest, but also the north, well basically everywhere". Sometimes we make up stories about our nights out just so she will smile real big and get excited!

Living here has definitely been a humbling experience because the people here are very conservative, if they don't need it, they don't have it. It's very different from the United States in that regard and shows me how much we have that we don't even realize. Megan and I are really fortunate because we have a fan in our room, there is no air conditioning. Also, the hours are so different. I will see little kids and strollers walking the streets at midnight or later. The funny thing is that I do not really see it as strange because a night owl such as myself wants people to stay up with them when they aren't tired at night, now I have a whole city to join me:)

This weekend a group of us went to Madrid and it was "everything you want and more". Ha, but in all honesty it was a great trip. We saw the Palacio Real and went to different parks. At one park, a few of us went exploring while the others took a siesta and we found this gorgeous park with the prettiest trees and flowers and hidden ponds. We pretended like it was our own secret garden and of course skipped to the broccoli looking trees. After something that beautiful we just knew that the Botanic Garden would be even better! Sadly a let down. There must have been a drought and the entrance guard overcharged me (silly american). Perhaps I am just stingy and prefer a secret garden gratis.

Esto es solo un poco. I am at a loss for words now because my brain is in Spanish mode so sorry if this is jumbled and full of Spanglish (Adam Sandler would be proud).

I will leave you with two things: As much as Americans say "ok", Spanish speakers say "vale". Do you understand? Vale. And, it is impossible to disguise yourself as a foreigner... I have tried many different ways but they just know...speaking English in the streets doesn't help though, ha.

Adios amigos, it's naptime.