Vale, pues nada, guay

Where to begin?

The plane ride? Bumpy.

Madrid? Bumpy also.

Everything is pretty crazy when you first arrive. To be honest, I really haven´t had time to slow down and enjoy most of the city, but I´m sure that will come once I get settled. I live in a small flat with one other girl from the program and a señora, who speaks no english, which is what I was hoping for. But zero is zero. As in nada, meaning no little english words, no figuring out what I mean when I say an english word with a spanish pronunciation (although it´s pretty funny the first time you hear an english word that is unrecognizable in it´s Spaniard-ized form). I think half of the conversation on my first night here was spent nodding at things we didn´t understand.

I came here determined to speak as little english as possible, which is proving to be difficult. English is easy. Familiar. Everyone in the program speaks it, and not everyone is at the same level of spanish. Some people (who are also living with non-english-speaking families) have never spoken the language before. I can´t imagine.

If I could think of a good story right now, I would write it here, but my brain is on low. I´ll explain--yes, the Madridleños stay out until all hours of the night. How do I know? I got home at 7 this morning.

And the three words in the subject line? Three words you need to know for a conversation with a Spanaird--in order: ok, anyway (?I think), cool (only used by the younger people, as far as I can tell).

¡Ciao!