Weather

The weather here sucks right now. I guess Spain is having its 2nd worse storm in 50 years. It rains every day, which sucks because I have a 10-15 min walk from the metro to campus. Hopefully it will clear up soon! Tomorrow my buddy John and I are going to Granada and then coming back Saturday night. Ive heard a lot of cool things about Granada, so look for pictures soon. Also, my new family has a house in a town called Burgos in northern Spain and they said they would take me there sometime soon so im stoked, but for the next 5 weeks i have trips planned for every weekend. (Granada, Morocco, Barcelona, Valencia, and then either Lisbon or Malaga for spring break)

Toledo and Kevin Costner

Yesterday a group of us went to Toledo, which is about 30min by train from Madrid. It was a very beautiful and cool city. All the streets are very narrow with cobblestone and the architecture is awesome. There is still a wall that goes around the city. We went into a few different museums and other than that just cruised around the city checking everything out. We had lunch at a little cafe and in Spain it is very popular to get a hamburger with a sunny side up egg on it. It is really good. I recommend you try it at home. We walked down along the river as well for a little while checking out these old abandoned buildings or something of the sort. Then once we got back to Madrid, Jenna, John, and I all met up and went to Kevin Costner's concert. We got hooked up with free tickets to show thanks to my aunt and her old friend, who is friends of Kevins'. After the show was over we got to go backstage and down into the dressing rooms. We got to talk with Kevin and took pictures with him and then hung out in the room talking to my aunts friend Tim for awhile. While we were inside we got to talk to some of the other band members as well. All of them were really cool and nice. It was an awesome experience. Yesterday was a long, but awesome day.

New Family

Week 2 of school is over and tomorrow we are going to Toledo. After we get back from Toledo I am going to Kevin Costner's concert here in Madrid, so tomorrow should be a pretty cool day. Last night a few of us met up before we went to an intercambio to have a botellon, and then later we went to a bar/club. I changed families a couple days ago and so far it has been awesome. I am now living with a girl and guy who are dating and are in their mid-late 20's and they live with her father who I believe is 73 and retired. The girl used to teach spanish at the university I am attending so she is very helpful when correcting me and helping me say things correctly. Her boyfriend is from Canada and really cool. We try to talk to each other in spanish, but its easier to talk in english with him cause we both arent very good at spanish. I just met her father today but he is really nice guy. He helped me get my computer set up to the internet because it wouldnt connect, so we had to call their internet provider and he had to talk to them in spanish for me and then have someone call us back to speak in english. He was very helpful. I believe he has a house in Valencia as well, and was there this past week... Im hoping that maybe they will all go again and take me with!

Segovia

This weekends trip to Segovia was pretty cool. We saw the Roman aquaduct there, 3 very cool and very old cathedrals that date back to the 1100's or somewhere around then, and the castle that Walt Disney got his inspiration from. A very popular dish in Segovia is Cochinillo, or baby pig, but we didnt try it, but i guess they will bring out a whole baby pig and then cut it up to serve how every many are sharing it. After spending the day in Segovia we ended up going out later at night in Sol, back in Madrid, for all the festivities of the Carnival. Right now for 2 weeks the big Carnival De Cadiz is going on, so we just went to the market and bought some beverages and had what they call a "Botellon" in the streets of Sol. We all ended up later at a bar called La Negra Tomasa and they had a live band playing, so everyone was dancing salsa and merengue. This is the best and cheapest way to have fun.

1st Week Of School

The first day wasnt as bad as I thought it would after the super bowl. Week one of school is over and so far it has been pretty easy as far as reviewing what i have already learned in previous Spanish classes. Our classes are in all Spanish... no English at all. The teachers hardly speak any English and dont really understand us when we talk in English, so we have to try to explain everything in the Spanish that we know... to say the least its difficult, but i am understanding most of what they say. As far as the home-stay and my host family, I am not super happy. The lady and her son dont every really like to talk and dont seem to want to open up to try to get to know me. The son comes home and locks himself in his room everyday and will say hello and goodbye, but thats it. The lady works from like 9-6 and doesnt show up at home till like 8... I have had a few conversations with her for about the 10min it takes to eat. I tried to tell her last night that I want to talk to her and her son more and she pretty much told me she doesnt have the time to because she works all day and then is tired. Anyways I am moving families sometime this weekend, so hopefully my new family will be around more and will want to actually to talk and get to know me. Tonight we are going to meet up with some Spanish kids to practice speaking spanish at a bar and then going to some flamenco or salsa dance place. Saturday we are all going to Segovia and I am looking forward to that. This week I have booked 2 weekend trips, 1 to Morocco and the other to the Grand Canary Islands. I am looking very forward to those trips. Other than that we are still trying to figure out our spring break, and are thinking about trying to rent a car in Italy and drive all over Italy. Not sure about that one yet though.

1st few days

The first few days in Madrid have been pretty fun. We had orientation on Friday and Im pretty sure I got placed in all the remedial spanish classes cause im not very good yet. Im looking forward to school so i can get better quick. I have been having a little difficulty conversing with my host mom cause they speak so quickly and i dont understand. Our group of students from SDSU went out together last night in SOL and just jumped around to different bars and pubs and i didnt get home till 5am this morning and then slept till 3:30 in the afternoon. Kind of feel a little lazy, but am trying to get used to the lifestyle here cause everything seems to start later. When i woke up today at 3:30 there was a few plates covered in the kitchen, I thought it was lunch, but after I ate it my host mom came and and told me that i eat dinner early. I had no clue it was dinner and people dont eat dinner here till 9 or 10 so i was on my own for my real dinner. My host mom went out tonight and i stayed in... i feel like i should be out too. I stayed in tonight because tomorrow we are going to some big market in Madrid, I forget the name, but its supposed to be huge. Tomorrow is the superbowl and kick off here I guess is not until 12:30am on monday morning unless we can find somewhere playing it earlier, so if i go out to the pub to watch it i wont be home until 5am and have class at 10 monday morning. It will be a fun first day at school.

Im Home

Just moved into my families apartment about 2 hours ago and am starting to feel situated. My mom is at work till 6:30 tonight and her son (my new brother) has been here since I arrived. Her name is Concha and his name is Marcos. Marcos is 17 and turns 18 in one month, so im hoping he will show me around. I arrived to a lady cleaning the apartment and after talking to her found out she works here for 3 hours per day cleaning, so I dont know if that means i have a maid or what. I guess i will find out in the time to come. Its a small little apartment, but have my own room. There is a small living room and little kitchen. I dont think there is a father figure in this house cause i asked Marcos when his mom and dad get home and he only said his madre(mom). Im off to go meet up with my friends John and Jenna to explore the metro and find out where school is cause we have to be there at 9am tomorrow morning for orientation.

Madrid

In northern Spain close to the border of France was beautiful country. Very green and lots of hills and forest. Seeing it on train was very cool. Out one window you could see the coast and out the other you could see snow covered mountains. We went through Irun and San Sebastian, and i hope i can go back and check out those towns cause they looked very cool. We got into Madrid last night after 12 hours of trains from Paris and I am stoked to finally be here. My buddy and I are actually couch-surfing on my spanish teachers couches from San Diego State. When I took spanish at SDSU last spring she was my teacher. She is 23 and really cool. Her and her friend came and got us from the train station when we arrived and then it was off to the tapa bars. The first experience of tapas was great with a cana de cerveza. After that we went to the bar where she works here in Madrid. She is teaching english here and has the job at the bar as a side job. Today we have just been lounging which is nice cause its the first time ive actually got to rest a little bit. Where we are staying is about 30 min outside of the center of Madrid and I guess its a famous town because the author of Don Quixote lived here in the 1500's or whenever. Its weird to go into bars or restaurants here and see people smoking inside. I guess its something you have to get used to cause last night everyone was smoking inside the bar we were at... I might as well be smoking instead of getting all the second hand smoke.