Week 1 in Spain

So now that my schedule has become a little bit more normal I have decided to post every week! This week is a little longer but I hope it will just have more for you to see! Also the funny thing about spreading things out for so long is that I don't have as many pictures of everything like I would prefer, but I hope to get better at documenting the everyday things.

So to start I will explain our crazy trip of coming over here! So first we woke up late, so then we got ready in about 15 minutes in order to get going and we took the trains just fine to our destinations. Then when we got to the airport we needed to buy our train ticket in because we couldn't use the travel card that we had so we had to take the time to buy tickets, when we were already running late. Then we get to the desk for Air Europa and she tells us that we can only take one carry on and it has be to under 10 kg so we had to pay for another bag. Then we get into another line to pay for the bags and there is only one computer that they can help us on so we have to wait some more. Then we finally get our boarding pass and things and we head up to security and of course both of our bags have to be checked extra so we wait a few extra minutes for that. Then our boarding pass doesn't say which gate to go to so we walk through this mini mall and see on the screen that our gate is going to close in 5 minutes, so we start to run and then we get there and they are still boarding at a normal pace so we catch our breath and get on the plane. Then when we get to Spain Alyssa can barely walk because she has some dizziness problems so we walk at a slower pace through border control and the baggage claim and customs, so by the time we are done we really need to be with our group but we can't kind the terminal they are in and after 30 minutes when we find the terminal we can't find them so we decided to figure out how to get to Alcala de Henares on the train so after asking a ton of people we make it to alcala and take a taxi to our address and we make it to our lovely home for 3 months!

So needless to say we relaxed the rest of the day with our new Mama Espanola Encarna!

Then on Saturday we went as a group to Madrid to explore it all together. We took the train with our little group of 12 and our advisor and his wife. Then we met up with the man who plans all of our excursions. He showed us around Madrid. We passed just about every big building in Madrid, I didn't really take many pictures because we were moving pretty fast but these are some for you to see.

After we made a loop back to the train station and we stopped to get a drink and some Bocadillos (sandwiches). I got some kind of salad sandwich as well as salami. The funny thing was they were all mixed with mayo and on white bread. They were pretty interesting, I wouldn't prefer them everyday, but they were decent. After that we were on our own Madrid and we were free to explore all that we wanted, so being the small group that we were we all went together! We just walked around and saw some cool stuff!
 That is our whole group in the background!

 The Palacio Real in the back

 More of the Palacio Real with Kat on the left and Jessie on the right.
This is from the beautiful park/garden next to the palace!

 Some amazing crepes in downton Madrid!

 Mine was a Platano split, otherwise known as a banana split, it was delicious.

Then we went to this museum and the ironic thing is that the main exhibit was the history of this beer company and for some reason you could dress up in period costumes and take pictures so we did, it was pretty silly, but fun! 

 Then back in Alcala there were a bunch of fun festivities going on to celebrate the ending of summer. So as part of the fun we decided to go to the Fair they were holding. As we were heading out to go we go out onto our street and they had a huge parade going on, it was crazy, but super cool. It was fun to see so much culture at once. The only picture I have is of my treat of Churros and Chocolate. Then we went for a ride on the ferris wheel, there were tons of people and it was so much fun.

 Then here is a picture of our host mom on sunday for lunch.
The beautiful thing is that the ward here is wonderful! The church really is the same where ever you go!

Then here we are at our first day of school in front of our building at Alcalingua! For the first day we just took a test to see where we are at with our skill level. It was a great and chill first day. Then one the women in the office took us on a tour of Alcala!

Tuesday was just a regular old day with our first real classes! There was nothing too exciting!
 Here we are as a group at the door to Madrid!

Then on Wednesday we had another day of classes which was good again. We have 2 teachers Sonia and Rebecca. Sonia is our funny teacher while Rebecca is definitely our strictly educational teacher. The real best part about the day was we met up again with our dear friend Charles. He just happened to be in Madrid so we took the opportunity to meet up with him once again. So first we hung out in la plaza mayor just catching up on the past 10 days and all of our travels. Then we decided to go get Chocolate with Churros at San Gines the Chocolateria to go to in Madrid. It had all these different pictures of famous people around the restaurant.

Then we went to the Palacio Real and the gardens down there. Then we headed over the Museo Del Prado, which is the big museum in Madrid. We explored and explored with our cute little trio. The coolest exhibit was of the Black Paintings of Francisco Goya. Though some of them were very dark there were some that really made us ponder and we had some really great discussions about them. Then we just ran around getting in as much as we could!
Then we headed over to another museum, La reina Sofia, which has a lot of contemporary art. We only had about 30 minutes so we just ran around again, but it was fun. Here are some silly pictures we took with the art!

 Overall it was a really fun day! We were so happy to meet up the Charles again, it always gets us kicked into gear! After the museums we went out to dinner to this cute latin american place. It was delicious and with lots of fried bananas!

Then I don't have any pictures of thursday, but it was just a good day of class and getting a little bit more settled in.

Friday was a big day because we had our first excursion. It was just a one day trip, but it was great! We went to Segovia!
It is famous for it's 2,000 year old aqueduct and Castle which was home to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. What I loved about the town is that the main part is on a hillside so they had these lovely slopping streets. Here is the view from one of them.

Then here we are at the beautiful Castle

 The mote to keep people out, even though it no longer as water in it!

 The Throne room

 Ceiling

 Cool chair design

 View from the tower

 Part of our crew

 Then we headed back into the main plaza to visit the Cathedral. It was big and lovely. I was so used to the crowds and claustrophobia of the London Cathedrals that it was so refreshing to go here!
This first picture is of the back of a little chapel to the side of the main hall.

 The awesome ceiling!

 The Organ

 Cool ray of light shining in the Choir seats

 Then we walked down to the aqueduct! The history of the aqueduct is that the romans built it 2,000 years ago just rock upon rock and even with wars and storms and things it has held up and is still in working condition, even though they don't use it today!

 On Saturday as a group we went to Madrid and went on the Telferico which is a little ski lift type ride that goes over the middle of Madrid!

 There is the Palace and the Cathedral in Madrid!

 Downtown Madrid!

At the end of the line there was a little park and restaurant! It was fun to see another part of Madrid and be together as a group! We sure do like to explore all together!

So my first week in Madrid was a huge success and it has been so great! I have loved getting to know the people in my group, my host mom and her family, and the wonderful spanish culture here in Spain. Though I am still getting used to things I am so happy to be here and to be open to learning so much over the next few months! It is another big week this week so I will let you know soon of the fun things going on!