I have a lot to catch up on, so I´ll start from the beginning...

Sabado, 17 de Enero
Wow. I cannot believe I’m actually in Spain! Yesterday was so overwhelming and my body is only beginning to adjust to the time it is here…even after a couple siestas I’m not quite there yet. After I arrived in the Philadelphia airport on the 15th, I was happy to find Allison and two other girls from the trip already waiting at the gate. Soon, more and more JMU students began showing up until there were about nineteen of us! What a blessing from God that I could travel in this big group and have a head start on meeting people. In fact, there was almost TOO much bonding time as our plane was delayed three hours! The original plane we boarded had engine problems or something so we had to unload and wait for a new plane to be ready. After we went through customs and met up with the remaining members of the JMU group and our program leader, Jesus, we began the 2.5-hour bus ride from the Madrid airport to Salamanca. Upon our arrival, all the “madres” were waiting for us at La Plaza Gabriel y Golan and were all so excited to see us…really adorable. Allison and I have an elderly madre, Asencion who is a 74-year-old woman at least three the size of her husband Luis. It was a rather embarrassing first impression, as we had to take TWO cabs in order to fit all our suitcases (stupid tiny euro cars!) Our host family doesn’t speak a WORD of English. We are trying very hard to communicate with them and I feel really badly when I can’t understand something she’s asking/telling me. I look forward to being more comfortable with the language. Her older Daughter, Isabella, also lives with her and she’s probably in her upper forties. She has 2 daughters (Yolanda, 2, and Lucia, 4). Yolanda is a foster child. I want these girls to like me because they’re so cute, but they’re both pretty shy. They were showing us their American Barbie doll last night and it amazes me to hear little kids speak fluent Spanish…so much better than me!
Our room is TINY! The walls are an arm-span and two pens width. And probably three times that long. I wish I hadn’t brought so many clothes because I literally have nowhere to put them. We showered, unpacked, and ate a dinner Asencion made just for us. It was this chicken broth soup with tiny star noodles, bread, lightly fried salty chicken, tomatoes, fruit, and candy. She wanted us to eat everything! We also noticed that they keep eggs out on the counter unrefridgerated…weird. I still haven’t pooped since I left home…my stomach feels awful. Isabella told us about a café across the street from the apartment with free Wi-Fi! Allison and I sipped on cappuccinos and checked email. I also got a chance to skype Alex and mom. We headed back to the apartment and met Alexandra and Colleen and their madre (Asuncion’s niece). She brought us to the Plaza Mayor, about a ten-minute walk from our apartment. The Plaza literally took my breath away with how beautiful it looked all lit up. There, we met up with about 10 other JMU students and headed out to a bar called Atagualpa (3.5 Euro for all you can drink beer). So fun! Less fun was the lack of toilet paper in the bathroom. I really like the people in our group so far. Thank you, God! I made the walk back with Allison around 1:45 and passed out at home (after lots of trouble trying to use the keys). We’re headed out to explore a bit now, more later.