It's a new life, It's a new day

Hola from Madrid! I arrived here on Monday morning at about 11:00 AM, which is 4:00 AM in Alabama...needless to say I was very tired! I won't bore you with the details of my flights and travel, but I will just say that sleeping on planes is hard and getting here was a little insane! I arrived at Hotel Moderno in the Puerta del Sol district in Madrid. The hotel is beautiful and has a wonderful view of the city. Madrid is a very historical city, so there is a lot to do around here! Monday evening, after meeting all of my fellow Granada students, our program treated us to a delicious dinner. It was a bunch of tapas, which are Spanish appetizers. I completely failed to take pictures (blame it on the jet lag...) but just trust me when I say it was amazing! A wonderful introduction to Spanish food. After dinner, a bunch of us invaded an Irish pub in Madrid and had a fun first night. I came back to the hotel and crashed for about an hour...but then I woke up at 1 AM and couldn't go back to sleep! Blame it on the jet lag...

Today we woke up pretty early and went to visit the Prado Museum, which is the second best collection of art (first would be...the Louvre.) We had a really good tour guide who told us great things about a bunch of amazing paintings by famous artists like Goya! It was awesome...and my mom would have loved it! We grabbed lunch at a Turkish restaraunt after the tour and had DELICIOUS food (as seen below)!

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to sleep for a few minutes before heading to the Royal Palce, which was quite possibly the most beautiful palace I have ever seen. I would NOT be mad about living there someday! We all really enjoyed seeing the palace. We had meetings at the hotel after the visit to the palace, and after that we had a delicious dinner at Cafe & Te (that's coffee and tea for all you non-Spanish speakers) and we are headed out for a night on the town very soon!

I am really loving Spain so far...everything is absolutely gorgeous and the people are unbelievably nice! We will be in Madrid until Thursday, when we go to our new homes in Granada. I'm struggling a little bit right now, because I am very tired and feeling unsettled and a little homesick! I am slowly adjusting though. I hope to update again soon....love and miss you all so much! Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers as I embark on this journey :)

Besos y abrazos!

Yummy Turkish food!

Prado Museum

Royal Palace...future home??

New friends at the Royal Palace!