Bienvenidos a España, & Felices Reyes!

I know this post is kind of delayed because the Internet was slow in Madrid and hard to find for a while in Oviedo. The past few days have been an insane blur of getting over jet lag, enjoying Madrid, and preparing to go to Oviedo. After a couple delays and an MIA flight attendant, we all arrived with all of our luggage on Wednesday morning, and then we went to the hostel where we were staying in Madrid. It was on the 8th floor of a building on the Gran Via, so we had a great view. The Christmas season was still in full swing in Spain, since Januray 6th is Three Kings Day (the day when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem, and the day when gifts are exchanged here), and all the streets were decorated.

When we first arrived we went to lunch at el Museo de Jamón, where Dr. Wescott (the Spanish prof from Canisius who comes on this trip every semester) gave us tons of advice, including how to say all kinds of words in Spanish, how to eat like a European (hold your knife in your right hand and your fork upside down in your left….I still haven’t figured this out) and what to do if the toilet doesn’t work (it has a motor, so unplug it, wait a second, then plug it back in).

We spent a few days waling all over Madrid. We saw the Royal Palace as well as el Prado and la Reina Sofia (both art museums). We also went to the movies to see También la Lluvia (two thumbs up!) When we weren’t walking or site-seeing, we were sampling all kinds of Spanish food. The best were the pastries and orange juice we had for breakfast at La Mallorquina, a well-known bakery at the Puerta del Sol.

This afternoon we took a 5-hour bus ride to Oviedo to meet our host families. The ride was pretty much uneventful. When we got off at the exit for Oviedo, Dr. Wescott asked us as if we were nervous as we all frantically tried to pack our things up and make ourselves look presentable after sleeping on a bus. We all answered that YES we were very nervous, and she laughed and said, “I love this part of the trip!”. Fair enough, I’m sure that when I look back on it I will too.

My host mother is Conchita, a single woman with three grown children who lives in a cute little apartment in a nice part of town. She is a very friendly, makes a great tortilla española, and I can understand almost everything she says. Life is good.

This week we’ll work towards getting settled; we’ll start classes, make arrangements to help teach English at San Ignacio (a Catholic school just outside the city), learn our way around, etc. As Conchita said, vas a aprender todo, paso a paso… you’ll learn everything, one step at a time.