June 29 (day 1)

So today we finally arrived to Spain! The past day seems like a blur to me. It could be partly because I was very tired during the 9-hour flight and partly because my anxiousness had my mind going off somewhere else.

My group consists of 11 students, 3 guys and 8 girls, and Esther, our group leader. They all seem pretty nice. I can't say much about them yet for I hardly know them. In the airport we were all pretty quiet; the awkwardness of not knowing anyone around you. One girl, however, Anna Staddon, seemed completely comfortable with herself. I really liked that about her, and after I chatted with her I learned what a truly hilarious personality she had.

On the plain, Esther handed out a piece of paper to each of us and told us to write about our expectations and what we thought we would gain from this trip. She told us she would keep what we wrote and return it to us at the end of the trip. I think I wrote some thing about being really excited and happy to be given the opportunity to travel to spain but that I was scared to lose something important because I know I tend to space out a lot.

I spent most of the plain ride sleeping and the bus ride from the madrid airport to the actual city was really slow. The traffic was incredible. The driver said it was because all the metros were not in use that day was the the first day of a strike against the metros.

I remember getting the first glimpses of the city and getting really excited. It was now hitting me that I was in Spain.

We arrived to our hotel and were sorted to our rooms. I couldn't help myself from being deeply fascinated by the spanish dialect I was hearing. It is a very different type of spanish than what I am normally used to; it's definitely more correct than my Puerto Rican spanish and they pronounce their "c" and "z" differently.

We had only gotten off the plain about a few hours prior and already Esther had given us an activity for us to do in the city. We were to complete a scavenger hunt.

They separated us into three groups. Each group was given a list of crazy things to do in certain places in Madrid and then meet up with Esther at 8 p.m. at the Real Jardín next to the Prado Museum.

My group included Sofia, Ramon (both whom I learned were also part Puerto Rican living in New York), Stephanie, and I. The crazy things on our list to do on the scavenger hunt included taking a picture in front of El Museo del Prado with a foreign stranger, get a waiter at El Café Comercial to autograph a napkin for you, take a picture of yourselves in front of El Museo Sollosa with your clothes inside out, etc.

The objective of this activity was for us to practice our Spanish in order to ask for directions as well as to familiarize ourselves with the city and its composition.

The immensity of Madrid really impressed me. We had to walk... a lot. What also astonished me was the friendliness of the Spanish people. That is something I am not accustomed to living in Miami. In the end our group finished with the most tasks completed.

That night Spain was taking on Portugal in the FIFA World Cup. We set out to find a good place to watch the game and that is where I learned that this kid named Cesar, also from New York but from Mexican descent, also really liked soccer (or, as they say in Spain, "fútbol").

It amazed me how quickly the streets became empty. We found a small yet fairly packed café that had a projector up with the game on. The energy in that little place by the Spaniards made the game more exciting and fun to watch. Most people in our group, however, were falling asleep on the table due to jet-lag and exhaustion of travel. I was exhausted myself, but the intensity of the game kept me up. David Villa was the player to score for Spain giving it its win which made the whole place go wild. Spain now advances to the quarter finals.

Right now I am writing in our hotel room, but I can hear a huge raucous outside our window made by the celebrating Spaniards. Honking of cars and shouting is all I hear.

It is almost 1 a.m. and I know that tomorrow awaits another eventful day. I should try to get some sleep.