Today was my first full day in Spain and it was, as was expected, full of new experiences. I slept so soundly last night that I had no idea where I was when I awoke. After running through the two most likely locales, home or Hamilton, I finally remembered, "oh, I'm in Spain." Not going to lie, the thought of leaving my room was a little overwhelming. My Spanish leaves a lot to be desired and making conversation is work, but I finally psyched myself up enough to head out for breakfast. Before this, of course, I had to get dressed (or at least I felt I had to get dressed. I'm unsure whether or not it's appropriate to go to breakfast in your pj's). I stood before my dresser a good 8 minutes before I picked something out. Pants? Too hot. Dress? Too colorful. Shorts? Too American. Since my options were exhausted after those three options I cycled through them at least 10 more times (coming to the same conclusions each round) before I gave myself a stern talking to and finally decided pants would be fine.

After breakfast, chocolate milk and toast, my senora and I headed out to explore the neighborhood and do a little shopping. I live in the barrio (neighborhood) of Arguelles, but in the district of Moncloa. The streets were full of people at 11:30AM and Elvira showed me the metro and we did some window shopping at the many shoe stores and European fashion boutiques. Elvira is definitely a discout shopper. Many of the shoes we saw were dismissed as "caro" expensive, but we did stop to look inside a store that offered shoes for only 7 Euros. I picked up some champu (shampoo) and locion (lotion) at a local drug store and, after paying, we left it with the saleslady because Elvira assured me that I wouldn't want to carry it on the rest of our travels. After grabbing some groceries, we returned for my purchases. I don't think you could do that in New York!

Seeing the neighborhood with Elvira just made me want to explore more, which was perfect because this afternoon I met up with some other students on the program. We spoke in English (sort of a no-no), but justified it by agreeing that the program hadn't officially started yet. In any case, it was delightful to see other Americans and swap stories about our plan rides, jet lag, senoras, and more. After meeting at el centro (the place where we'll have classes) we went to El Parque de Santender. It was beautiful with a track, driving range, playgrounds, squash courts, batting cages, a fountain, and more. We spent several hours there just talking and enjoying the sunshine. It was the kind of afternoon that made me feel good about being in Spain and excited to spend the next nine months in this beautiful city!