I'm writing this at 11:31 p.m. and jet lag is getting the best of me, so I'll make it short-ish and sweet!
Everything has gone quite smoothly so far, the flight from NY to Madrid was about 6.5 hours and really nothing compared to other flights I've taken. It actually left on time too, which was a plus. I sat next to this awesome 65 year old French woman who lives in Las Vegas, so that was entertaining. I didn't really sleep at all, which was weird for me, but it was alright. Then we had to wait in the airport for like 5 hours to wait for our connecting flight to Granada. Everyone was pretty much dead and I took a nap with my backpack as a pillow, which worked surprisingly well. Then the flight to Granada was super short, like 40 minutes, and I slept the whole way since I got a sudden wave of fatigue.
We got to Granada and met with the program director and got on the bus to the hotel. The hotel is quite nice and I'm sharing a room with a really cool girl named Jasmine. We settled into our rooms and then all met in the lobby and went to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Then we had free time so I took a really wonderful nap and feel asleep in approximately .2 seconds. I eventually got up and made myself slightly less repulsive and Jasmine and I decided to go wander a bit before dinner at 8:30. We walked around a bunch, though a lot of places were closed since it was a Sunday, but decided to have a drink to celebrate finally being in Spain. We ended up at a small place pretty much next to our hotel and each had a glass of red wine which was a super nice way to start off the trip.
We finished up and went back to the hotel for dinner. Everyone wanted to explore after we said we had and also needed to get Euros, so the whole group (10 of us) set out again after dinner. We just walked around again even though not much was open, but it's still really pretty and it actually feels real when you walk around. We all ended up at the same place Jasmine and I drank earlier and we all shared two bottles of red wine. Now I'm back at the hotel and probably going to sleep soon because I'm beat and we have to be at breakfast at 9:15 tomorrow morning and then we head to the Alhambra. Excitement!
I'd say everything is off to a good start and everyone seems/is really nice and friendly. This orientation is awesome, but part of me also just wants to get to Sevilla and settle into the apartment and start independent Spanish livin'!
