Well after 24 hours of non-stop traveling, I finally made it to my destination- Granada, Spain! It wasn’t the smoothest traveling getting here but nonetheless I arrived and am safely with my host family. It’s finally starting to feel real, this whole studying abroad adventure. Though I think it’s still hasn’t hit me that I’ll be abroad for 5 months.
       The trip started out well, though I had a moment when I thought it was all going to go horribly wrong. While waiting for my flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia to leave, the announcer calls my name and asks me to report to the front immediately. Once there, and thinking something was wrong with my ticket/baggage, the attendant tells me he has upgraded me to first class. What?! That's never happened so of course I was surprised but excited! Fortunately, by being transferred to first class I was able to make my connecting flight from Philadelphia to Madrid. Without that upgrade to first class, I'm almost positive I would have missed my connecting flight since our initial flight was delayed and landed at a different gate than expected. So, I had to sprint across terminals and made it just in time for my 6.5 flight to Madrid, Spain.
       While waiting in line to board the plane it began to hit me, I would soon be surrounded by Spanish-speaking people all the time. Everyone around me was speaking Spanish and I felt completely out of my element. Though that’s an obvious with me going to Spain and I know I know that was nothing compared to how Spain actually is but it was just the initial reaction I had and an initial freak-out moment for me.
        After close to 7 hours on the flight, I made it to Madrid which I then took a connecting flight to Granada. Since I had 4 hours to wait before my flight to Granada, I just chilled in the airport, ordered a coffee which was initially the size of a shot- so I asked for a “grande” and he still gave me a smaller cup than expected. Which brings me to my first wake-up call of how Americans oversize things. Except this wake-up call really sucks (as coffee-lovers know) since, at least in my day, there's a minimum of 5 cups of coffee.
       Arriving in Granada, I go to baggage pick-up, wait... wait... find my group... wait and sure enough my luggage doesn't arrive... it's lost! Of course this would happen to me, "tengo mal suerte" (I have bad luck). After filling out a report, I get on the bus that takes the students and I to a drop-off in the middle of Granada. Here, I am picked up by mi padre, Jesus, who is very friendly, helpful and speaks barely any english.
      It was a Holy day in Granada so driving through the city was pretty hectic, the taxi almost hit a bunch of people. The city was intriguing with the valleys and apartment buildings. I did notice the amount of people just kissing on the side of the streets and in the courtyards, just a little different from the U.S.
      Arriving at my host family, I'm introduced to the family and my roommate. It's definitely difficult at times to understand the conversations between us and the family but we're able to describe most of the time what we're trying to say or want. My roommate and I are planning on exploring the city tonight and meeting up with other students for tapas and discovering Granada. I'm excited to see what tomorrow (my first day of orientation) will bring! Not to mention, I would really love to have my bag be returned soon.

Until then, Hasta luego!