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2001-05-27 - 5:41 p.m. I finally found a Cyber Cafe today! The past couple days have been so crazy -- fun, but crazy! We got here around 2 pm on Friday and our host families picked us up at the Institute. I was fortunate enough to get my luggage. A bunch of people from our group didnīt get their luggage until Friday night. After arriving, I went back with my host mother, Eva, to put my luggage up. She made me a salad and we had tortilla espaņola. I then went with her to pick up her son, Daniel. He had been at a camp for the past 3 days. When we got to his school, there were so many people and all the people speaking Spanish at once was a little overwhelming! We went back to the apartment and I went to bed pretty early since we had stuff to do the next day. We met at the Institute on Saturday to have our program orientation. Eva rode over with me on the Metro to make sure I knew how to use it. She has been really good about helping me and making sure I understand everything that is going on. Most other peopleīs host parents just said Ļsee you later!Ļ. During our orientation, Professor Naharro talked a lot about the classes and excursions. We all introduced ourselves to everyone else. He showed us around the Institute. Afterwards, we went on a driving tour of the city. We saw so much in such a short period of time that I would not know where to begin to find my way back to all the places! But I have a map and I understand the Metro pretty well, so it is all good! At the end of our driving tour, we went to eat at a Tapas Bar, which serves a wide variety of appetizer sized foods. I donīt know what all the things were, but I know we had thinly sliced ham (I forget the name for it), chorioso (thinly sliced cold spicy sausage), bread, cooked mushrooms, and lots of types of seafood. After eating, we had a break and a bunch of us walked back from where we were towards where we live. We were kind of far, so it was a good excuse to see a lot in the city. Lots of the stores were closed becuase it was time for siesta, but some were open and we got to see where a lot of things are located. We are all somewhat spread out around the Institute. I walked with a girl who I thought lived by me, but we had read the map wrong so I had to backtrack a bit. However, I did learn how to get to the Institute on foot. Now I can either go to the Institute on foot or by the Metro. Last night we went to a soccer game (futbol). The game was awesome. It was a championship game - pretty much as important to them as the Super Bowl is to the United States. The stadium was so huge and it was sold out. It was between Madridīs team and another team, Alvales. They won 5-0 and I donīt think Iīve ever been anywhere where people were THIS excited! The players were running around the field for the longest time, jumping up and down. They did the funniest thing where they would run towards one side of the field and all slide on their stomachs at the same time, and everyone went nuts. It was a suprise that we got to go and it was awesome, especially since it is such a huge part of the culture. On the way out, one girl bought a towel with the teamīs logo and the guy ripped her off. He wouldnīt give her her change back. She paid him 10,000 pts ($51) for something costing 2,000 pts ($12) and he gave her no change! He just treated her like she was not able to understand him. It was kind of ironic that she is one of the girls out of the group who probably understands Spanish the best. Her mom is Puerto Rican. We felt badly for her and everyone gave a little bit of money to give to her since he took all she had for the evening. Afterwards, we went to eat at this restaurant which had lots of variety on their menu. I think it was called VIPS. I had a cheeseburger -- how bad am I?? We didnīt eat until midnight, and I didnīt feel like being too adventurous! The majority of the group went to look around Madrid and the rest of us (5 or 6 of us) caught rides back to our places with Professor Naharro. I havenīt done too much today. Iīve just been catching up on some sleep :) Tomorrow is the first day of classes, which makes me a little nervous. The literature class I am taking is only me and another student. Overall, everything is good. I am understanding everything pretty well. Iīve been forgetting stupid stuff, like how to say numbers. It will all come back though and I think this is going to be such a help to me. Hasta luego!
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