Jun 30, 2008

  Madrid, Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands
Monday, June 30, 2008

Once again, service is not their thing!  I woke up this morning and called the reception desk to see if we could get some towels since they didn't put new ones in our room the night before.  Their response - come down and get them.  OUCH!  I don't think I've been told that before...but, it's just different!
 
After leaving the hotel, Lindsey and I were going to take the bus to get on the metro so that we could make it to our dorms but we decided to be musclewomen and walk to the train station.  So do you remember those 500 meters?  Imagine 500 meters with 50 lb luggage and 50 lbs on your back?  That's not it...imagine a 100 meter upward hill.  IT WAS HOT!  My goodness...I didn't think we'd make it.  But, we did!  I must say, all that working out last year really paid off because I didn't die on this walk...thanks "R. Kelli"

The walk up the hill...(this is Lindsey)

 
So, I think, on the metro, home free, right?  Nope...wrong!  To transfer trains, have to carry those shiznits up the stairs (my luggage, that is) to get to the next train.  My goodness...that was horrible!  Then for the final walk to the dorm...more tugging...needless to say, that morning was NOT fun! 
 
Finally...at my home for the next 5 weeks...Colegio Major Jaime del Amo!  Upon check-in, I got a key & a fan...oh my goodness...after all that walking across the city of Madrid, I wasn't going to have a minute to be refreshed...no AC...L.  So, my next 25 minutes or so were perched right in front of my fan, trying to cool off!  Unpack?  What's that?  It's called cooling off!

Finally at Colegio Mayor Jaime del Amo

Cooling off in front of my fan...

Showing the heat, look at her chocolate!

 
After I had sufficiently cooled myself to the point that I was ready to go out again, Lindsey and I met a friend, Danielle and we started walking and running some errands.  We found El Supermercado and bought some basic items and also found our new hotspot: VIPS.  It's this store with a restaurant in it that has pretty much all the crud in the world that you don't need.  But, it's a hot-spot because the food is actually good...so we sat down and had our first meal together. 
 
As for the language barrier, it's worse than I thought...I can't special order my food (for those of you that know me this is a major problem...) - nor can I even understand the menu...so I'm ordering on pure faith here....but so far I'm doing okay.
 
We left El Supermercado and came back to the dorm and hung out for a little bit before we had to go to our Orientation meeting to meet all of the other kids of our program.  The meeting was, once again, in PURE heat!  You would think that the auditorium would have air, right?  NOPE!
 
So, for din din - had this cold pasta thing...it's like the Tri-Colored Rotini with butter and some chicken.  I don't think it was real chicken...it was stretchy and ewww...
 
Then after we ate, we hung around a little more and thought we would hit the streets of Madrid for our first night together.  We finally started hanging out with some Spaniards...it was fun!  

On the way out...

On the metro...

All in Silver shoes...

Talking with Spaniards

Toby and her boo...

A por ellos e o, A por ellos e o...Espana Espana!!

 
Stay tuned....