Viva Madrid!

We made it- we are here! It’s 3:00pm, Sunday afternoon. I’m sitting in our cute little Madrid apartment looking out the doors of our tiny balcony at the laundry hanging on clotheslines across the way, and listening to the sounds of the busy city street below. Travis is beside me trying to sleep off the jetlag. I’d like to join him but my eyes aren’t quite heavy enough yet. We are both not much of “airplane-sleepers,” so we’ve probably had a total of about 4 hours of restless sleep since Friday night.

It’s been quite a day so far! After rather hassle-free travels and two long flights, we arrived this morning at 8:30am. It felt very strange that it was now Sunday morning since yesterday was such a blur of a day spent on airplanes. We were picked up by a representative of the language school that is through Adelante. The culture shock began when he spoke to us ONLY in Spanish… as he zipped us in his little euro car from the airport through the city streets to our new home. Travis and I later decided that we probably comprehended about 30% of all that he told us on the way, but we sure tried hard to pretend we understood! It was frustrating to be brand new in this spectacular city with many questions to ask; yet I couldn’t put words together in logical Spanish sentences.

About 15 minutes later, Juan parked along the narrow street, put on his hazard lights, and walked us up to our studio “flat” in an old, classic historical building. After giving us the keys, unlocking 3 sets of doors (yes… we’re very safe and secure here!), and going up 4 flights of stairs, we saw our sweet little “casa” that will be our home for the next two months. Everything is a bit tiny for our tall frames, but it has all that we need and will be perfect for us. We’re so happy to have our own little home! With that, Juan wished us well, told us class started tomorrow at 9:00am, and he was off. That was it- no orientation meeting, no written or verbal instructions as to how to get to a store, a restaurant, the school, or the program site… it’s for us to figure out! All part of the adventure!

We tried not to be too overwhelmed and instead went to unpacking our bags. Of course the first thing we wanted to do was take a shower and stretch out on the bed… but alas- there were no towels! We contemplated using our clothing out of tired desperation, but instead hit the streets of Madrid to explore and buy some essential groceries. The weather today is beautiful- warm with a light breeze and partly cloudy skies. Outside of our door, we realized how little orientated we are in finding our way around this city. Although much research went into preparation for this trip as a whole, we haven’t spent much time researching the city sites/centers yet because we knew that living here would allow us to discover it on our own. So, we were careful to note what street we now live on, memorized a few landmarks, and went off walking!
Our first impressions of Madrid? Well- it’s very beautiful, both historic and modern, and the buildings and architecture are fantastic, but at this point we must be honest and say it feels very daunting to master. We had no idea where to turn to find a good bite to eat or a grocery store. I haven’t heard English spoken all day. It’s a scary, unfamiliar feeling… yet at the same time, totally exhilarating and exciting to know we have so much before us to discover. Although we feel disoriented, we know we’re in the culture shock phase and will wait it out. Our spirits are high and it is great for us to be out of our comfort zone. This is what we’ve been waiting for! All of our regular routines will remain back in Pasadena for now… a new world of experiences awaits.

So, to sum up our day, we did find a place to eat and went to the large department store “El Corte Ingles” to buy our towels, as well as groceries to cook up some dinner tonight in our kitchen. (Of course, we’re so mixed up on time and meals right now- we can’t figure out when we’re hungry, and then when we are, we’re not sure what type of meal we should be eating!) Funny when you have to think about starting from scratch and just buying some essentials like salt, pepper, olive oil…. dish soap, paper towels and TP…unfamiliar brands of yogurt, milk… and both the OJ and eggs we found on a shelf, not in the refrigerated section! By the time we were buying our produce, we were both ready to drop to the floor in tiredness and the store seemed completely too much for us. Time to head home.

Tomorrow is a new day! First stop language class, and then we’ll see what else awaits. It’s time to pull out our guidebooks and gather up our sense of direction. Thanks for following our travels and sharing your excitement for our trip! -Trisha