My life so far......

Wow. There have been some ups and downs, some nice personal victories here and a few disheartening mishaps. But overall, I would say I am big time digging the Spanish lifestyle. I'll try to give a quick rundown of the first few days here and then share some things i've either learned, done, or found to be interesting. This is likely to be a lengthy blog post, so bear with me, or take this in segments. And please, don't get used to this!!

I took off from Syracuse on Tuesday and everything went on without a hitch. I was actually sitting right next to a girl who is on the trip with me in the terminal, someone who I actually know pretty well, but we didn't even see each other somehow until we got on the plane. It was kind of nice to have someone go with me to Newark.

Once I arrived in Newark, I met up with a friend of mine from the Rochester area who is going on the trip. Her parents got us into the presidential suite to kill time because we had a 6 hour layover while in Newark. I met up with some more friends in there before we all headed down to the lounge that the airport provided for us 3 hours before our flight with some drinks and snacks. It was nice to catch up with everybody. There are 14 of us on the trip. There were about 5 of them whom I didn't really know at all, and everyone else I was at least on a friendly basis with.

Everyone but one of the guys (I should mention, it is only 3 guys and 11 girls) met up in Newark for the group flight. The flight was pretty miserable - absolutely terribly uncomfortable. However, they did have a pretty solid selection of movies and shows to watch. I watched Ferris Bueller's day off, a few episodes of scrubs, the office and the Simpsons. And I maybe got an hour of sleep in there, but that is questionable.

We landed in the airport without a hitch at around 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning. We went through all of the baggage claim places and customs-type places and met with the Suffolk University people who were picking us up and bringing us back to campus. Once we got to campus, it was pretty much free time/email parents and loved ones time/check out facebook time. My host mom was the first one there for me and I was out of there. I was just a bit taken a back at first because of the greeting: "Dos Besos". When a man first meets a woman in spain, it is customary to kiss the cheeks{more like touching cheeks}. The same goes for woman to woman. As for man to man, it is likely the first time they meet they shake hands, but the closer they become it is up to them to decide on their greeting.

We were on the road after that, and boy howdy, what jump I had to take. I had to go into full on Spanish mode because my host mother doesn't speak any english. And I have to say, I was pretty impressed with my abilities on that ride home. There weren't many uncomfortable silences, and she was able to understand me (despite my errors I am sure). It is about a 35 minute car ride I would say, depending on the traffic, from my house to the university campus. It was nice - although I only had a few hours before I had to return to campus for some orientation things. The apartment is very nice. It is rather small but it suits all their needs just fine - it is very nice. They have a 9 month old German Sheppard-type dog, whose name is Randy. He is nice, just very, very, very hyper. I put some things away, and my host mom told me to stop and take a siesta until it was time to eat and then return to campus.

At this point, I met my host brother, Manuel. He is 21 years old and is studying and training to be a fireman I believe. I have hardly seen him though, our schedules are very different and he is gone very often. He seems very nice, but I have some difficulties in understanding him. I am sure that as I practice my Spanish more, it will get easier.

OH MY, when I first got to the house, my host mother offered to make me a sandwhich, and it ranks right up there with one of the best grilled cheese sandwhiches I have ever had. She barely toasted the bread, put a lot of ham on it, some cheese, and melted this SUPERB kind of butter on it. Oh man, I really hopes she can make that again sometime....

At that point, she drove me back to campus and explained to me how to return to her house. Me, being new to the whole metro stop/bus stop thing was SUPER nervous I was gonna be lost in Madrid. But she drew me a really nice map and I knew if I could get off at the correct bus stop, I would survive. I went through orientation - nothing really noteworthy to say there. Pretty boring with your usual stuff. Around 9 o'clock though, it was showtime. Time for the country boy to face the big bad city all by himself. Also working against me, is the fact that the metro system is out by my house, so I had to do a confusing flipping of changing bus/metro and reading signs telling me what stations were out.

Well let me tell you...I DID IT!!! I dominated the Madrid Public Transit system that first night. Score: Kevin 1 MPTS 0. Got home and my host mom made me some fish and fried up vegetables

The next day was really mainly the same. I got myself up and this time got myself to the campus just fine. Score: Kevin 2 MPTS 0. Things are looking good for me!!! This day was mainly the same boring stuff....orientation what to do and not to do. We were there for most of the day and took a tour of some of Madrid. It was kinda boring, so my group and I split up and did our own thing. Stopped at a street cafe and we all ordered cervezas and just relaxed. After that, I negotiated my way home just fine once again from a DIFFERENT point in Madrid. I'm going strong at this point! Kevin 3 MPTS 0. My mom made me some Paella for dinner that night....and Wow. Unbelievable how good that was. I am not a big fan of seafood but that was just fantastic. Look it up if youre not familiar with it because I don't want to think about food anymore right now. We went out that night to a discoteca until about two in the morning. It was nice going out with a few friends and experiencing some Spanish nightlife.

The next day was our excursion to Salamanca. I had to get to the university by 11 so I left plenty early so that I wouldn't miss the bus. Well......MPTS got a good shot in me that morning. I got on the bus going the opposite way that I wanted to. Score: Kevin 3 MPTS 1. I ended up going the right way eventually and got off at the right metro stop on time, but walked out of the wrong exit so it took me FOREVER to find the university. Darnit....MPTS is catching me. Score: Kevin 3 MPTS 2.

the rest will come at a later date. Hopefully tomorrow, or as internet allows. Keep me up to date on how all of you are doing as well!!!! My email is Kevin.Matteson@hws.edu