First few days=)

so i made it to spain safe and sound! The plane was long, but the layover in London was cool. Driving in a bus on the opposite side of the road was pretty crazy, and their airport had a mall inside of it with Channel, Gucci, Prada, and Versace stores. Kind of ridiculous, but cool to see. Then a taxi took Rachel and I to our hotel. We had to carry allll of our luggage into the Plaza because cars cannot go down the street. As much as I hate to say this, my parents were right when they said not to overpack. Later ACCENT helped us get our spanish cell phones, and then all 16 of us from ISU went out to dinner. After dinner we explored Madrid a little, and when a bunch of the girls were tired they went up to bed. As you all know, i would never skip a chance to go out to have fun, soo the rest of us went to a bar for drinks=) They had AMAZING sangria. We also got free tapas (appetizers)! When i got back around 3 it was a perfect time to skype my family! Today we had our orientation with ACCENT. They talked about alot of info we needed to know, and told us we are going on a scavenger hunt tomorrow around Madrid. All the things on the list seem intense, but it should be fun. After that we went on a tour of Madrid with Gerardo! This city is absolutley gorgeous. It is big, but nothing like Chicago. All of the streets are stone and the buildings are SO pretty. Everything has so much history. Unlike Chicago, the people barely use their car horns. You can walk out in front of a bus and they think its no big deal. They will stop for you and all the people behind you. Also, everyone here has a nice car. its weird the taxis are soo nice! Before getting here I was unsure if they had different cultures food, or people for that matter, and so far I have seen many italian restaurants, as well as SO many chinese people that live here. There are also a ton of dogs that no one puts on leashes. I absolutley love it here so far! All the girls from my program are so nice and fun and i cannot wait for the rest of this experience=)