I've been negligent in updating this, since we have arrived in Spain. It's been a bit of a whirlwind. We landed on Feb. 7th around noon. Our first taste of the relaxed Spanish attitude came when we tried to go through customs, but got waved right on into the country! No one looked at our passports or even Junie's paperwork that I was so stressed to have done correctly! We were greeted by some of the NATO contingent and whisked away into the city. I'll admit, my first impression as we drove in, wasn't so positive. The outskirts of the city are pretty dirty and with an extreme lack of sleep, it was hard to see any silver lining to everything around us.

Luckily, our hotel wasn't too hard to find and we were treated to a lovely efficiency apartment quite close to Gran Via (a popular shopping/tourist area--think Times Square, for comparison).

Since that first day, my impressions of the city have totally changed. It is beautiful! Everywhere I look, I cannot help but gasp at the ornate architecture. We have toured some amazing barrios so far... Centro, parts of Salamanca, we walked through Retiro Park... It's breathtaking.

My blonde hair affords me MANY stares. More than when I was in Singapore! Since we know very little Spanish, we are relying on lots of hand gesturing and broken words here and there... We have been told that out of all the countries in Europe, Spain speaks English the least and Madrid in particular...

Funny mix-ups so far: I bought baking soda, thinking it was salt... Eric took someone else's coffee at Sbux, and didn't notice till I asked if he had switched his name to 'Minosh', as it was written on the cup... I spilled water all over the table our first night at a restaurant...





While we are missing our friends and family, we are still too hyped up to be too homesick right now. Our house-hunt starts tomorrow and I am so excited!