Madrid: Dia Uno

¡Hola todos!

Today was my first day in Spain! It was a grueling 9.5 hour flight, but it's been worth it. I love Madrid! It has beautiful architecture and the people have been very nice.

When I arrived in Madrid Airport, it was frustrating because 1. My plane landed 30 minutes late 2. It took 20 minutes to just get from Terminal 4 (after I went through customs and baggage claim) to Terminal One Arrival Hall 1 where my ride was. 3. I missed the 11:00 pick up time so I had to stay until the 2:00 time. Their airport is very…modern in its style. It strangely has DEA stations…which are defibrillator stations….but I thought Americans were the heart-diseased fat ones? I find it funny these are in Europe but not the states.

The architecture all around Madrid is BEAUTIFUL. While walking down the streets and exploring the city with other students, we happened upon a huge park (it's like the central park of Madrid, though not THAT big).

 Though I'd like to post lost of photos, this internet at our hotel takes forever so I'll have to pick my favorites. This view of the Alfonso VII ("Pacificador")'s beautiful monument and the lake behind it is breathtaking. And then their was the general view from a monument balcony overlooking the 'bosque' (a jardín in my opinion…bisque means forrest) in front of the Museo del Prado.

We had a nice spanish couple take our picture after we had taken several of theirs for them.

This was very weird. They had a mickey mouse guy AND tigger in their park. I was like…Disney World? Just strange.

A pretty picture of the stream I took when we were walking out of the park area. 

 For lunch I had an especially unhealthy dish. (I had patata brava for breakfast. Which was weird. like a pimiento cream sauce over potatoes.) Churros con chocolate!!!! Their chocolate is much thicker than say hot chocolate in America. It's more like a melted hershey's bar. You stick the churro in it and then eat it…yum:). I justified it by telling myself it was traditional and something everyone has to try when they go to spain, right?

Right before all the meetings and blah blah blah our ISA program leaders had, they took us for an hour bus tour of Madrid, which was neat. It was difficult for me to take pictures though since I didn't have a window seat. I did manage to get one good one, which is of these arches. I'll be honest, I've forgotten this morning (its 8:35am in Madrid right now) what the significance of these are. But they're considered like 4 of something in the world. This tour took place at 6:00 because you don't eat a 'light' dinner until like 9:00. Which I went to my first tapas bar for:). Really good cheap wine. Their wine is like half the price of what it is in America since it's wine country and isn't taxed like it is here. I got the red wine ("tinto") and proudly figured out how to tell the waiter we wanted our change in small bills and change (with a party of 8 you get one check so you make change between yourselves.) I also got their chorizo for my tapa…pretty good!

All in all, great first day in Spain! Today we get to tour lots of places that I'll write about later:). Please excuse any typos. I typed this early in the morning for here.

Pre-trip

Due to the insistent advice (if not begging) from my mom, I have decided to try my hand at blogging for the four months I'll spend studying abroad in Granada, Spain. If you haven't heard of Granada, by all means look it up! I'm attaching some pictures to look at of the city. It is a beautiful spanish ciudad located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains ( "Snow-Covered-Mountain-Range Mountains" in English. It's a lot simpler in Spanish.) in Andalusia, Spain.

The trip does have a purpose beyond adventure and fun however. Hopefully…by the end…I will be fluent (or at least proficient) in Spanish! If not then my parents just fitted a huge bill for me to go have fun traversing through Spain and perhaps other parts of Europe for a semester. But eh, either way I win! But a lawyer who can speak spanish would really win the big $$$ so I'm rooting for linguistic success. 

Since I'm a Letters-Constitutional Studies major (basically a liberal arts major with a concentration in the areas of constitutional studies) at the University of Oklahoma, I'm SUPER EXCITED for the historical opportunities of Europe.  I'm nerdy enough to currently be reading a Spanish history book. Yes it's odd but really the culture and sights are so much cooler when one knows the context right? I mean, for example, that first picture was of the La Alhambra (pronounced "lalambra"…yes all one word and DO NOT PRONOUNCE THE H. Or the spanish teachers might send you really dirty looks). It's beautiful and all, but would it impress you to find out its construction began in the 9th century and was the Moorish palace for their stronghold of Granada? Okay cool so it's a palace. How about it was the last palace to be conquered during the Reconquest (a several centuries long fight by the Christians in the northern Spain to retake control of Spain). King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella even held court in its halls and refurbished the place to flaunt their success at pushing the Moorish empire out of Spain (these two monarchs joined the two kingdoms of Castile and Aragon together to begin the modern idea of "Spain"). So historically, its more than a pretty palace. In fact, the moorish influence is still everywhere in Granada! It would be hard to understand the importance of their culture in Granada without understanding their occupation of the city for centuries. 

So I'm done with my history rant on the picture, the point was that it's much cooler when you know a little bit about it. 

As far as the overall trip goes, I'll be visiting lots of Spanish cities and I might go outside of Spain. I hadn't original planned to go outside of Spain but my roommate wants to go to Paris and London…but if possible why not! I am really excited about where she and I will be staying since our host family lives in the center of the city (that's in walking distance of everything)! Though I don't imagine living there won't be without its challenges. European apartments are definitely smaller than they are in America, but that's part of having an authentic experience right? When you look up apartments in Spain, small is the norm. They're different from what we are used to. Here are some pictures (I personally love the Dora the Explorer comforters)!

bedroom for Sarah, my roommate, and I:

Kitchen and Living room/dining room combo. At first the combo seems odd to us Americans but lots of apartments there are set up that way.

I bought a nice digital camera with killer zoom capabilities to take some awesome pictures throughout it all too! It hit me a couple weeks ago that I get to go to school and just have fun…I can just walk around , take pictures, and see places and people. I don't have a job! I want to experience it all….even the mediterranean food that I know will be challenging for someone raised in Oklahoma (I even struggle with catfish, which most Oklahomans like :/ ). I wonder how often I'll break down to find a cheeseburger place that offers the "American dining experience". 

I'm sure it will be exciting and at times funny when I'm in a place that is completely foreign to me and I make major cultural mistakes with the new experiences. For now, I'm just hoping I successfully fly to Spain on August 27th and not to become a passenger of a missing or shot down flight! (Recently my boyfriend had the wonderful idea of trying to get me to watch plane thriller movies…NO.)

Excited yet Anxious Maegan:)