And then we ate with the roaches

That’s right folks, the cockroaches. But, like always, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. After an interesting day (see previous blog post about horrible flight), I landed at Madrid-Barajas airport and had no idea what I was doing. I ended up going upstairs and getting all backwards, but finally after about an hour I found people from ISA! Then, we waited for two more hours on the hard floor. By the time we left, my butt and my feet were all asleep.

The bus ride to the hotel was kinda fun because you got to see how different/similar Madrid is to other places. Honestly, aside from the older buildings here or there, I honestly felt as though I could have been back in America somewhere like New York or LA. Thankfully, the closer you get to the hotel the older stuff gets! So, we have fountains on both ends of our street, and the state botanical gardens are directly across the street (although it costs to get in, so I’m probably not going to actually see them)!

After getting my bags dropped off, a group of us wandered around in search of food, and ended up at a tapas bar eating little sandwiches (note: this is not the roaches incident). And, of course, all those kids who aren’t old enough to drink at home were right there on the cervezas. And the sangrias. And more cerveza, and more sangria, and more and more and more. I swear, some of the people I have only seen leave the bar during our required meeting…

During our meeting, I got a new (as in 1990) Nokia cellphone to use while I’m here. I have to relearn how to text, but hey, at least I have 300 minutes a month to call home with! After our meeting, my roommate and I decided to wander around and find some dinner, and came across another group of ISA students, so we just ate with them. And this would be were the roaches came crawling on the walls! It was gross, but the food was amazing, so it was worth it. The service, however, wasn’t quite so amazing because I’m pretty sure that man wanted nothing to do with serving a bunch of Americans, even though we were paying just like everyone else.

Now tomorrow, we get an awesome tour of El Prado museum, then we’re taking a walking tour of downtown, then free time! I will try and post lots of pictures tomorrow, but for now, it is bedtime.