My first couple of days

I had wonderful flights and arrived in Madrid, Spain yesterday. Unforturnately, the ticket I had purchased had an arrival date 1 day before the study abroad program actually started (the first of my many mistakes). I e-mailed my study abroad family, and luckily, they could accomodate me early, but not until 7 pm and my plane arrived at 10 am, so I had to hang out for 9 hours. You might think, it would be fun to hang out in Madrid for a day. . .

However, I did nearly everything wrong to have any fun. My second mistake was that instead of storing my unnecessary carry-ons and my suitcase in a locker for the day, I only stored my suitcase so I had my backpack with my computer and two other bags to carry around.
My third mistake was assuming that the Madrid airport had free wifi. My original plan was to stay at the airport until it was time to go to Alcala to save my money, however, I quickly realized that the airport in Madrid is very different from the ones in the U.S. It is not nearly as commercialized, so there are no stores to visit, no free wifi, and only 1 place to eat. So after 5 hours of doing nothing, I took the bus to Madrid to escape the airport and because I needed the internet to get directions to my host family's house. My fourth mistake was that I left the airport at the wrong time and arrived in Madrid during siesta so I could not find any place with free wifi that was open. Finally, I found a Starbucks that was open, but to my dismay, they had no outlets for electronics, so my computer died after 15 minutes. With all of my heavy bags and my increasing yearning for a safe place to sleep and relax (I got no sleep on the overnight plane flight), I was not having a great time, although Madrid is MAGNIFICENT! I ended up laying on a bench at a park and then I waited for about an hour for a bus (I didn't realize that the bus I was waiting for didn't exist). Everything worked out in the end (now I am at my host family home), but it was difficult. . . and my Spanish needs a lot of work!

Tomorrow, we start classes and I am so ready for that!
and pictures will be coming soon