Today has been a long day - but a great one. Mom and dad (and Mike and Tess) brought me to the airport around 5 and we checked in and noticed that the security line continued downstairs by check in and did a couple of z's there as well. Luckily, I managed to get pre TSA which sped up the process a bit. The flight was actually about an hour shorter than expected which was nice, but I wasn't able to get much sleep - though the extra leg room really helped (thanks Mom and Dad).

We arrived in Madrid around 8:45 local time and after everyone got their luggage we proceed to the bus. We took a quick bus tour of the city and saw the bullfighting stadium, a soccer stadium, and a couple of other sites including a walk through a nice park. After that we got to the hotel, checked-in, lugged all of our stuff up to our rooms in teeny tiny elevators, and headed out to lunch.

We had lunch about a 5 minute walk away from the hotel at a restaurant with a lot of character. For an appetizer we had a choice between a vegetable lasagna and a kind of cream of pumpkin soup. I wanted the soup but I got all flustered when the waiter got to me and ended up ordering the lasagna. It turned out to be really good though so as Bob Ross would say, "no mistakes just happy accidents". At this point I was pretty much full when my main course came out (fish), but I ended up eating all of that too because it was really good.

Prior to lunch I had been tired but alive - afterwards not so much. Fátima, our program coordinator, took us on a walking tour of the city for about an hour. I wish I could say I learned a lot from that tour but I was proud of myself for just not walking into anything (which I almost did a couple of times). She could tell how tired we all were so we headed back to the hotel for our first authentic siesta.

I'm staying in a room with three other girls, we each have our own twin bed. The room is actually much larger than I expected with a little balcony type thing. We had some issues getting the lights to work, then getting the shower to work, but I think we're finally getting it all together. It's currently 8:00 here and our plan is to start getting ready soon, grab some dinner, and explore the city with eyes that aren't half closed.

So although it's been a very long day, I'd say it's been a really great start to what I hope will be an amazing semester here in Spain!