First days in Santander!

I have no idea where to begin when describing my experiences in the past 2 days! The food is delicious, the people are beautiful and the city is break taking. It feels so good to be doing something that I have wished, and hoped would happen for such a long time.

So we arrived in Madrid around 9:30 Saturday morning (about 3:30 in the morning US Eastern time) we then got our luggage- not one bag was lost! and met one of our professors, Hector. He and his wife met us at the airport and from there we had a veryyy long bus ride up to Santander. I didn't sleep much on the plane, so as soon as we got on the bus I was out. About an hour from the city we stop at a gas station that had a restaurant inside. Usually, in America the restaurants are McDonalds, Wendys...fast food, but this place was a sit down, 3 course cafe. I had pasta with tomato sauce and tuna, then lightly fried fish and salad, then for desert some amazing rice pudding and coffee. During the entire bus ride the weather alternated between beautiful, sunny skies, and pretty heavy snow. We drove to the north, through the mountains and the country-side is absolutely beautiful!

When we finally arrived in Santander, we met our host parents. My madre's name is Silvina, but she goes by Gracia. I live with her, and her 90 year old mother. They are both extremely precious, and nice. She doesn't work so she told me that her job was cooking and taking care of me!

On the 3rd, my first full day. I slept until about 1:30 in the afternoon. About an hour after I woke up my madre cooked lunch. Here, lunch is the largest meal of the day and everyone eats between 1-3. We had a dish of peas and small slices of ham, almost like bacon bits, with fried eggs on top! After lunch we watched the news, which shows news from all over the world, unlike most news stations in America. At 5, the entire group met at a Chocolateria for churros, chocolate and coffee. The coffee is much stronger than in the states, but is really really good, and people drink coffee alllll the time.

After churros, we walked around the city. It is much bigger than I thought it would be and the centro (downtown) has tons of shops, restaurants, and bars. My apartment is on the beach side of the city, so it takes me about 20-30 minutes to get to the very center of the city if I am walking...and everyone walks here!

Ahhh, I feel like I could write for days about all that I have experienced in the past 2 days here. I have already learned so much about Spain, Santander, and especially Spanish. My host mom knows a little bit of English, but we talk to each other in Spanish. She corrects me when I say something wrong, and she will finish my sentences when I look confused about which word to use.

Tomorrow, we have a free day to do what we would like so my madre and I are going to a fish market in the morning and tomorrow afternoon I'm going to do some shopping! I'm going to try to keep up with my posts each day!

Bienvenidos a mi blog española