Brian is in Spain!

Hola amigos. So, I'm finally here in Spain. Which is awesome, BTW's. Let me tell you about how I got here though...

I woke up at the butt-crack of 5 AM and Shelby drove me to the airport. (Thank you again Shelby!) My flight was to leave at 8:30, so I got through security and found my gate. There were 30 minutes left before the boarding, so I got in line at McDonald's to get some breakfast. (I had half a banana in the car before that.) Then, right as I'm sitting down to enjoy my breakfast sandwich, they announce that they're actually going to be leaving earlier. So I had to scarf down a few bites of my beloved breakfast sandwich and board the plane. After an hour of waiting for slow people to board, we finally get ready to take off. But then they announced that there would be a 4-hour delay, which would cause me to miss my connecting flight in Philadelphia. Long story short, they reduced the delay to 1 hour, so by the time I got to Philadelphia, I only had 5 minutes to get on my next flight. Turns out the gate was on the complete opposite end of the airport, which is huge. I ran and ran, and barely made the final boarding call... then they announced that there would be another delay. So I ran to McDonald's and got a happy meal, then got on the plane for Madrid. I couldn't sleep at all during the 7 hour flight because the lady next to me was snoring SOOOO loud.

But lo and behold: all that is behind me. I AM IN SPAIN!!! This is where I am living:

First impressions:

• The landscape in Madrid looks almost exactly like  Bakersfield. Weird.
• The city we're staying in, Alcalá de Henares, is exactly how I pictured an old-timey European city should be: narrow cobblestone streets, tall buildings (usually with shops on the ground floor and apartments above).
• My host family is AWESOME. They are Fernando and Pilar, and are super nice. Pilar owns a shop downstairs where she sells women's clothes that she makes. Their house is beautiful and old (about 400 years old) quirky and in my room I have floor-to-ceiling French doors that lead to a balcony over the street. Their son owns a churrerría, so I will probably be dropping in there every so often. Yesh.
• We're within a 5 minute walk of just about everywhere in the city. Oh, and good news: Alcalá offers free bike rentals as a public service, and the depot is across the street. I think I will be riding around a lot! :D
• Speaking Spanish full-time is hard! I don't know how native speakers do it! :P JK. But seriously, I've been studying Spanish for 9 years now, and I suddenly feel like I don't know anything. But... Fernando and Pilar are very patient with me.

We have the whole evening to ourselves, so my roomie Nick and I might end up going on another walk around the city to check things out. Tomorrow's plan: our whole group is meeting at the train station here and going to Madrid to hang out. Awesome! I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Well friends, it's definitely time for a nap. But I just wanted you all to know I made it here safely, and that I'm already in love with Spain. I'll take some pictures later tonight and post them so you can appreciate how much I love this place! In the mean time, here is a picture of the Plaza Cervantes that is a few blocks away: