Arrival

I´m in Spain!!!
My flight was really long (of course), but I really enjoyed it. We saw the sunset over Nova Scotia and the sunrise over Northern Spain - absolutely incredible. They had movies and TV shows on demand, and they served dinner and breakfast - I haven´t been served a meal on a plane for YEARS! Plus, the food was actually OK. I flew Aer Lingus, which is an Irish airline, and it was so fun listening to the pilot´s accent (the flight attendants, disappointingly enough, were Americans, or at least had American accents).  The best part of the flight by far, however, was my seatmate. Her name was Elena and she´s from Valencia, Spain. She was in Tulsa for the summer to visit her boyfriend (who´s working there for a year) and speaks about the same amount of English as I speak Spanish. We talked a lot to practice the languages and she taught me some useful slang. Once we arrived in Madrid she went really out of her way to help me out with passing through customs, getting my bags, and finding the meeting spot for my program. I can´t even begin to explain how much it all meant to me. It was such a wonderful introduction to Spain to be so accepted and welcomed by someone.
But speaking of customs, I couldn´t believe how ridiculously easy it was to enter - I just passed through a scanner and they glanced at my passport and that was it - no questions, bag searching, etc. Elena told me about passing through American customs and how much harder it is. She said they also ask a bunch of ridiculous questions like ´´Are you in favor of an overthrow of the American government?´´ and ´´Have you ever been involved in terrorist activities?´´ Apparently the US thinks terrorists are really, really stupid - ´´Why, yes, I´m here to commit acts of terrorism. May I enter your country now?´´
We took the two hour bus ride from Madrid to Salamanca. The countryside looked sort of like the topography in Eastern Washington, so it was difficult to comprehend that we were actually in Spain... but then we´d see a castle in the middle of nowhere, just to remind us that we´re actually here!! I really like the other people in the program. Since almost all of us go to small liberal arts colleges, we all seem to have tons of connections. Everyone knows someone at everyone else´s school... it´s kind of crazy. Alex, my housemate, is friends with Julia, a friend of mine from Kenyon,
My host family is really great. Alex and I live with Ana Maria and Luis and their kids Ana Belen and Luis Jose. Coincidentally enough, Belen and I turn 21 on the same day! Belen and Luis Jo are both studying to be English teachers. Ana Maria is such a fabulous host mom - she´s so outgoing and funny and she´s an amazing cook! It´s been weird adjusting to to the meal schedules - breakfast whenever you wake up, lunch at 2:30, and dinner at 9:30
Salamanca is absolutely beautiful - I just want to take pictures of everything. I can´t post photos yet because I need to figure out some tech stuff and buy an electrical adaptor.

So this is pretty much what my posts are going to be like - jumbled and incoherent. More later...