I have no way to explain just how surreal this all is. I’m in Europe. I’m LIVING in Europe. Ahhhh! 🙂

Traveling was a blur. I don’t know how anyone could ever travel overseas for business and be okay with it. Sitting in that cramped airplane seat for 8 hours made sleeping next to impossible. We got to Brussels at 9 AM (2 AM central time) and bummed around at the airport until our next flight. We arrived at the Barcelona airport at 2 (7 AM central time) and caught a bus into the city. From there, we walked for 45 minutes with our suitcases…looking for the bus station where we could get tickets for a bus to Zaragoza. If our luggage didn’t give us away as being Americans, our confused navigation of the city definitely did. I don’t think we made it two blocks without pulling out a map or asking someone for directions. But we made it eventually, and barely caught the bus to Zaragoza. The ride was 4 hours long, and we got to the station at 8 PM (1 PM central time.)

My host mom picked me up from the station and we drove back to her apartment. She speaks Spanish SO fast, but she’s very understanding and patient with me and has been telling me that she’s impressed with my language abilities (even though right now I sort of feel like an idiot when I talk). Yesterday morning, she walked with me to school. The program I’m enrolled in is for international students, and my traveling companions and I appear to be the only American students there. That makes me so excited, because it’s really going to force me to use my Spanish to connect with locals and my classmates, who come from all around the world. Yesterday we took our placement exams, which determine what level of classes we will be taking based on our language proficiency skills. I got to the school right on time, and discovered that the stereotype is true… the Spanish clock is about 15 minutes slower than the clock actually says. During the time it took for my professors to get to class, I spoke with some students from France and Singapore. So cool!

The test wasn’t too bad, and after we were finished we were dismissed for the day. Gabby and I decided to take the opportunity to explore the city and to familiarize ourselves with the general layout of things. We walked around for about 4 hours, stopping in shops and bakeries and making lists of things we want to do and see more of during our time here. We must have asked for directions at least 25 times today, and it is with great relief that I can say that the people here are very friendly and willing to help (though they all speak just as fast as my host mom does.) I’m already feeling myself getting more confident with my listening abilities, and am hoping to be able to say the same of my speaking abilities within the next few weeks!

In short… I’m here! And I’m so excited to see what memories I’m going to make in this incredible city!