First time outside the US

So I arrived in Spain Wednesday afternoon. Flying in was gorgeous. Coming from London, when we hit the Spanish coastline, there are immediately the mountains. Circling and flying into Madrid was neat too. Madrid is huge. My guitar didn’t quite make the trip (it missed a transfer), but has since been delivered to me and all is well. The Metro is the subway in Madrid, and much nicer than the T. I made my first mistake trying to buy two tickets. I ended up buy two pieces of paper each worth 10 tickets, so if you come to visit, you can share some of my 19 available rides. Oh well. I’m now in Salamanca which is a nearly 3 hour bus ride west (and a little north) of Madrid. On the way I saw a mountain ridgeline covered in windmills. It was great. Also, I will need to see closer The Valley of the Fallen where a giant stone cross is erected and Avila where there’s actually a castle and the whole city is surrounded by large stone wall.

My host parents seem nice. I don’t quite understand everything they say, but I am hoping it will come in time. The only drawback so far is that for some reason, I can’t use their phone and need to walk outside to use my calling card at a payphone. Breakfast is around 10am, lunch at 2:30pm, and dinner at 9:30pm. Lunch is the main meal of the day and both breakfast and dinner are much smaller. Also, classes are much later. Nothing starts before 10am, and Mondays I have class until 9pm and Tuesdays until 8. It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.