Bienvenidos de España!

Hola todos desde España (donde los keyboards en los internet cafes tienen un "ñ" tecla).
So before I delve into my Spanish tales, I have a humorous tale about my flight to Spain....

So my day started off fine. Checking in was fine, there was practically no line in security, and my one checked bag was not charged. The flight was on time, and I had a bag full of food goodies that my mommy gave me. Little did I know the journey ahead of me. After reading "The Age of Innoscence" for an hour, I realized that we hadn´t left the ground. We hadn´t even left the gate. Ten minutes later, we are told that we are 10th in line for take off. Well, so I was a little bit over an hour delayed, I´ve been through worse, right? Maybe. That wasn´t until 4 hours later (mind you this was supposed to be a three hour flight to JFK), when we were told that there was a plane with landing gear problems at JFK, thus we were put into a "holding pattern" aka circling the sky until we were given the okay. However, we ran out of gas circling, and were forced to land in Norfolk, Virginia. Of course, I didn´t know we were in Viginia since the flight attend couldn´t speak English. I wasn´t sure what she was saying. Anyway, we were in Virginia for an hour, and in that hour everyone had to go to the bathroom, including me. Thus, the toilets decided to rebel against us and refuse the flush. Lovely, I know. The plane smelled of wonderful waste for the remainder of the trip. Thus, after landing 4 hours later than planned, I made it just in time for my flight to Madrid. This one was quite different from my JFK flight. Though it wasn´t smooth flying the whole way (it felt like one of those simulator rides, you know like the Star Tours ride at Hollywood Studios....), we did manage to land and entire hour early. And that ends my flight tale....

So I arrive in Madrid, I get to my host mom´s apartment in one piece. I was excited to be in Madrid and living with a real Spaniard, only to soon realize my host mommy is actually Cuban. Yup, born in Cuba and raised Havana. She´s lived in Spain for a number of years, but when someone tells you that they are going to make your ¨lunch¨ instead of your "almuerzo", you realize that yes, they are indeed Cuban (which made me giving her a CD of Cuban music as a thank you for letting me stay with her a bit strange, considering she´s already Cuban, and it was nothing new to her). But either way, it was nice being able to use Cuban slang and not be looked at strangely.

The rest of the day (yes I did not sleep since I left for Spain....24 hours and counting!) I walked around Madrid with Tema. We went to la Plaza Mayor, el Parque del Buen Retiro, and just got lost. My favorite place thus far is definetly el Retiro. The place is huuuuge with lots of things to do: silly/creepy statues to take awesome pictures with, lots of green grass to lay on and nap, a lake with row boats, lots of people to watch, lots of trees to sit under, a really cool glass garden looking thing, and other things we didn´t get to see. It was great! I took waaaaaaaaaaay too many pictures, and walked more than someone who is sleep deprived should (and being sleep deprived means that lauren doesn´t know how to spell anything). I must say, I really like it here. I feel like I could fit right in (with the exception of their shoes. Does anyone ever notice that Europeans wear completely different shoes?)

And so, I end this entry. I am waaaaaaaaay too tired to write anything of substance, while at the same time be too tired to rant on endlessly. Thus, I will continue my tales of Spain another day (and hopefully with pictures).