Flying and Orientation Day 1

Greetings from Madrid! I've got just a few notes from my first day in Europe/Madrid:

1. My flights:  My flights were really smooth, and my seven-hour trek from Chicago to Frankfurt felt like it was only about five hours. Honestly for me, the best part was meeting everyone on my program. In total there were about twenty-two of us who flew from Chicago to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Madrid together. It was great to be able to spend an extra 10-15 hours traveling with people I'm spending the next six months with. Also, flying Lufthansa was awesome; it was very easy day of travel (minus the jet-lag) and I picked up some German!

2.  First Impressions: Madrid is HUGE! I woke up from my mid-flight nap as we were starting our descent into the city and literally all I could see was buildings on buildings on buildings. My fellow WIPTers and I were greeted at the airport by our program staff. Amy and Ksenja gave us our metro passes and then sent us to our homestays. It was a little intimidating just being thrown into a taxi and having to figure everything out on our own; but I'm happy to say that I've been able to follow and understand pretty much everything that people have said to me! My homestay is right off of the Yellow Line (Embajadores stop) in the Puerta del Sol/Embajadores neighborhood so its really easy to get around the city with public transport, not to mention the metro was super easy to figure out!

3. La Universidad Compultense de Madrid: After dropping off our stuff at our homestay, Victoria (the other Purdue student at my homestay)  and I had to go to our first night of orientation. We managed to run into another girl from our program on our way to the Metro who lives a bit further south than we do. We got a tour of campus, which pretty much looks like any other college campus but with a lot more graffiti. After that we just went over some of the basics about our program, learned about campus (apparently, the journalism students are the "most fun students"--direct quote from one of the WIPT staffers) and what we would be doing for the next two weeks during our orientation (mainly learning about Madrid and what campus life is like and how to find an apartment).

One of the hardest things I think is going to be settling into a completely new time schedule, especially with meals here! We have breakfast between 7:30 or 8, lunch around 2 or 3, and then dinner at 9 or 10, definitely not what I'm used too!

That's all I've got for now! Stay tuned though, my next update will have pictures and a trip to Toledo!

<3 Kelsey