I’ll start by saying I am having a blast so far! I have never traveled so far, this is my first time out of the country, and only my second time flying! The time difference coupled with packing late into the night before my flight made the long journey hard but worth it 10x over.
As soon as we made it to Madrid, we hit the ground, we were anxious to explore and needed to kill time before our rooms were ready. We walked 12 miles our first day! The city has gorgeous architecture and is bustling with people. The weather is nice and the people dress business casual for the most part, so safe to say we stuck out among the crowd in our airport outfits.
After we got our room we had an afternoon nap, or “siesta.” and that gave me my second wind to get back out there. The city at night was even prettier than the day! It was light at 9pm which was strange for my mind to comprehend but I enjoyed the extra time to do activities. Madrid night life is so unique, people will eat dinner at 10pm and later which we did that night. There were also people going to workout classes or to do other activities, I am a big fan of how active this community is.
On the official first day we had safety orientation. We got to meet our guide and get great advice on how to make the most of our time here. We had a group dinner that night.
Communicating with people here has been do-able without knowing the language but I definitely will be memorizing some phrases now that I have a good idea of what is relevant for getting what you need. I’m super excited to continue this experience for two weeks I am learning so much.