I have arrived!!!

So today, or I guess I have to technically say the past two days, have been full of travel. It honestly just feels like one really looooong day. I started Thursday morning say my final goodbyes to my family and Lauren and headed out of the phoenix airport at 12:59. I had a 5 or so hour flight to Philadelphia and I think I slept for maybe 2 of those hours so it wasn't bad. Then I had a fairly short layover in philly and left for Madrid at 8:55 for a 6 hour and 45 minute flight. I did exactly what my parents told me not to do and watched two movies on the plane instead of sleeping. I couldn't help it they were two movies I really wanted to see, Julie and Julia (fantastic by the way) and The Time Traveler's Wife which was also really good. I did sleep an hour on that flight but I honestly wasn't that tired. Once I got into the Madrid airport I had to get my suitcase from baggage claim, which took forever, and recheck it in with Spanair for my flight to Alicante. I had an extremely long layover in Madrid. I got in at 10:15 and my flight didn't leave until 5:50 so I had to sit around the airport playing games on my phone and sleeping. The closer it got to my flight the more tired I got so I think I ended up sleeping for about another 2 hours in the airport on and off. I also had a rough time with the calling card I had. I tried to use my cell phone and it was working fine but when I put in my home phone number it was saying I wasn't permitted to call the number that this time. I ended up walking around to try and find a pay phone but I couldn't find one until I went to my gate. It was probably for the better cause when I landed it was still really early in the morning and I don't think my family would have appreciated a call from me that early. Once I found a pay phone I tried the calling card a few more times but it wasn't working so I gave up and just used my credit card to call. I knew my family would want to know I was in Madrid fine and waiting for my flight so I figured I would just make it a really short call since I am sure it cost a lot.

Anyways I slept on my 45 minute flight from Madrid to Alicante and got my bag right away and went outside to look for the bus or a taxi. I decided to take a taxi because when I walked outside I found a row of like 20 bus stops and I didn't really trust myself to figure out which one to take. SO instead I took the easier and slightly more expensive root of a taxi. It was nice cause it got my to the hotel super fast. It was kind of funny cause I was tricked by the escalator in the hotel lobby. I felt stupid cause it had a green light but it wasn't moving so I figured something was wrong with it so I went up the stairs. Well I later found out that as soon as you step on it it will move, it is just a way to save energy I guess. Anyways I was able to put all my stuff in my room and clean up a bit and then we all went to dinner as a group. I don't know the name of the place, Cynthia and Armando our group leaders brought us there and paid which was very nice of them. It was a nice dinner and it was nice getting to talk to everyone and get to know one another. I also thought it was cool cause we got to walk there. I need to start getting used to that cause I am pretty sure that is pretty much all I will be doing.

After dinner we all went back to the hotel and a few of us went and walked around the pier that our hotel is on. It was super cold and extremely windy. I think it was mostly the wind that was making it so cold, but even so it was really nice. We stopped by this little restaurant and a few of the people got 5 beers for 5 euro. It was just neat getting to everyone and awesome getting to see a little bit of the city. I CANNOT believe I am going to be living here for 5 months, this is going to awesome!

I will keep you updated on what is going on and how I like my host family. They are picking me up on Sunday so it should be interesting!

Oh my the way side note my computer is still on AZ time so it is really 1:15 in the morning on Saturday morning here. I will have to fix that.

Love you all thanks for reading!