Ok finally time for a real blog entry!! I feel like I've been here for weeks already! These first few days have been so fun and I've already had a lot of experiences I'll remember forever.

I'll start with my flights I guess! From Boston to Heathrow it was actually relatively uneventful. I had my lovely exit row window seat which was a blessing! I was next to a 70-ish year old couple who lead probably the most interesting life I've ever heard of. The husband is from Britain, and the wife is from Maine/Connecticut and they spend their year split between the two!!! Must be nice! They're definitely LTD (livin the dream as Tor would say). So I spent 5 or 6 hours sleeping, eating, watching movies, and talking to the wife who had actually lived in Spain for many years and had a lot of tips and cool places to visit! We landed in London and Heathrow airport was a loooot different than I expected! Very modern, VERY spread out and not really that crowded when I was there. Anyways I had no problem getting to my gate ontime (flight #2 was half hour late just like flight #1). Flight #2 even less eventful than #1. Sat next to no one, slept the whooole time. Landed in Madrid and remember distinctly thinking wow I really did it...I made it across the Atlantic all by my self :) Pretty cool moment. However, the feeling of being an esteemed international jet setter quickly dissapated when I realized hmmm where's customs. Well, this is where it gets interesting. I got to customs (no line) went through (no probblem) and then went to baggage claim. There were my bags...but where are the ISA people??? Hmm, head to the exit I thought? No one there. Slight panic set in as I realized oh, no cell phone to call with...crap. So I looked around for anyone holding a sign or sooomething and found no one still. I went to an information kiosk where luckily the guy spoke perfect english (I was in no mood to figure this all out en espanol). At this point I looked at my watch to discover that I had about 5 minutes to find these people before the bus left for the hotel. The magical mystical information kiosk man directed me to a pay phone where I called the ISA Sevilla office. "Where are you now" they said... "Terminal 4" I said. "Oh bummer" they said "You were SUPPOSED to be in Terminal 1...but we just left. You have to pay 30 euro for a cab". Perfect. I gathered up all the strength I had to not break down into a puddle of tears in the middle of of the airport. I had no option--so I got a cab, got the hotel, and was finally at my destination!

I went up to my room, and I saw someone had been there, but wasn't there at the time. Oh well...time to nap. BUT as I was getting situated, little miss Mica came through the doorway. And our real adventure begins! Mica (pronounced MEE-kah, short for Micaela) is my roommated for both hotels we've been at. Totally outgoing, wicked friendly, just what I needed after my travel snafu! On the bus tour of Madrid later that day, she introduced me to two of her friends from Virginia Tech (Keri, and Liz) and Keri's roommate Gill (from Maine!) and Leah (From University of Tennessee). The 6 of us have been together ever since! It's definitely been a ton of fun exploring Madrid and Toledo with these guys!! Never a dull moment for sure!

Our two days in Madrid were full of tapas, sangria, and walking. LOTS of walking. The weirdest part of Madrid was running into Lucy Dean in a random shop in downtown Madrid!!! She walked in, and it took me a good 10 seconds of staring until I just went up to her and said, "Oh. My