Holy Toledo!

I made it to Toledo! I gave myself the night to sleep before I wrote about my travel experience and first day, so maybe now my post won´t sound delerious and scatterbrained. Here we go!

As I discovered on Wednesday, MSP international airport is not that busy at all around 1:30pm. I thought I was going to be late, but my bag check-in and security only took a few minutes. I held back my tears as I said goodbye to my mom and sister (impressive, since I cry at everything as you will see later), and went through security without a hitch. My 2-hour wait at the gate was pretty uneventful, and I was a little nervous because a lot of the people who came to sit around already seemed to know each other. My nerves faded as I boarded the plane though, and the first flight to Philadelphia flew by as a group of about 7 U of M kids sitting around each other talked and joked the whole time.

We had no problems making it to our connecting flight to Madrid at the Philadelphia, which is what I was nervous about, and even had time to grab something to eat (well, my cheapo self ate the special K bar I had in my backpack while others bought McDonalds lol). Our international flight was a huge plane, with seats that went 2-4-2, except I was so far back in the plane and the last 4 rows went 2-3-2. Lucky me was in the middle seat of the grouping of 3, but the girl to the left of me was also in my program, and the really chatty guy on my right was going on a program in Barcelona. A least that guy let me play games on his iPhone...we had a little competition going, I won, but no big deal ;) I got the pasta for dinner, which I hear was a good choice since the chicken was suspcious. I got zero sleep on this flight, which was due both to discomfort and the fact that I watched Love Happens (which I cried probably way too much during...see note about my crying above) and Julie and Julia (which was so cute!) on my little personal TV in front of me. Needless to say, I was pretty out of it when I got off the plane.

Customs went smoothly, and I was relieved to see my suitcase on the conveyor belt after only 15 minutes of waiting. The girls I was with and I walked over to the sign for our Toledo program, and hopped on the bus to take us there. First thing I noticed out of getting out of the airport...it´s like 52 degrees! That is so warm! It felt wonderful, and I promptly stuffed my jacket into my suitcase. I noticed a few things on the drive to Toledo: lots of graffiti, lots of signs that said "muebles" (or furniture stores), and lots of car dealerships. But when we pulled into Toledo...all I could think was "holy toledo..." I was in such awe! I will take lots of pictures when we go on our tour of the city tomorrow, but the scenery is really breathtaking. The bus took us as far as it could, and then we walked the narrow cobblestone streets for about 5 minutes until we got to the Fund. Luckily, they put all our large luggage on a little truck and it met us there, so we didn´t have to drag it up the steep inclines.

Lunch was ready for us when we got there. Many of the food options were very interesting to say the least, and I stuck with some pasta salad and vegetables as my first meal. I promise I will be more adventurous in my food choices from now on, but at the time I just couldn´t lol. I got my room key and lugged my stuff up one flight of stairs to my room. I live in habitacion 1 with 3 other girls. There are two bedrooms and one bathroom area with a toilet (and a bidet! haha) and sink, and another bathroom area with the shower and two more sinks. Each room actually has 3 beds and 3 closets, but there are only two of us in each room. So lots of space! And our view out the window...amazing. I will take pictures soon. After I took a quick look around my room, the activities coordinator Jose Luis gave us a tour of the building, and proclaimed those of us living in the Fund "libres" for the rest of the day. So a 4 hour nap later, I ate dinner (guess what they served...burgers! haha) and took a shower and chatted with my roommate. I was invited out to the bars by some of the girls I had met on the plane, but I was just way too drained lol. The first night is just too much for me! I ate breakfast this morning with the girl I sat next to on the 2nd flight and we discussed going out tonight, so that should be an adventure! I had a written pre-test in spanish this morning, which wasn´t too bad, and I have my oral interview in about an hour. Perhaps I should get reviewing...

I am still getting used to the whole "habla solo en espanol" thing, and the keyboard I am using in the computer lab is a little difficult at times to use (I still can´t figure out how to do accents or tildes on it either). Otherwise everything is going really well! Sorry this post was so long and detailed, but these are my first experiences. I will post again soon!

Angie