Spanish Firsts

I am reviving this old thing once and for all. My reasoning: My life is actually worth reading about now. To the point of what I'm sure will be disbelief from all of my readers (aka my parents and the 3 of my friends who actually follow these sorts of things). 'Cause you see, I'm in Spain now. Which somehow makes me 20x cooler than I once was...but still 20x less cool than e

veryone else here. Which is okay. Europeans are entitled.

Anyway, we'll see how this blog renovation actually goes down; because, determined as I am in this moment, I have never been very good at this life-documenting thing outside of the intimate, you-don't-wanna-hear-about-it details that I record in m

y journal. And I'm even worse with technology. But who knows? I am 20x cooler now, after all. Just don't 'spect too much out of poor little me, a'ight?

Alright, my ever-present disclaimer has ended. Now:

I am here! After fumbling through three different airports with two norm-ginous suitcases and all of my obese Americaness, I am here. En EspaNa. Un poca enferma, but alive and happy to be in this fabulous city of mine. En serio, Alcalá is exactly as pictured in all of my Spanish fantasies...though slightly bigger and more complicated to navigate. I anxiously await the day in which I glide through these streets with ease, wearing a fedora and smoking one of those long Cruella deVille cigarettes. But seeing as we found ourselves walking in a circle 2 or 3 different times on our way home from the train station the other night, somethi

ng tells me we have a while before the word of wisdom-breaking can begin. We have to break up with our huge, ugly tourist maps first.

First day in Madrid. Love my group already.

Annika Huish es mi beautiful, stylish, talented, very fluent and therefore incredibly helpful roommate. She's probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. Ever-patient with her terribly American roommate and quick as a fox with this whole Spanish thing. And she's just great w

ith people in general, you know? Love her. I have a ton to learn from esta chica. Other fun facts: She served a mini-mission in Argentina this summer. Also, those of you from Mesa may recognize her as she gradumadated from Mountain View (gag) in 2010. She turned out alright though.

And sitting at the table with her in this picture is my host family. They're fantastic. Juana es our mama and Guillerno es one of our brothers (age 22), who was kind enough to show us around the city our first day. Funny, funny boy.

This is our room and all of our American stuff. Except my cute sunglasses that I bought at H&M. Why this store has not moved to Utah yet I cannot say, 'cause we girls go a little crazy in that place. Correction: Annika goes a little crazy in that place. I managed to escape with just a pair of cheap sunglasses, and I only bought them because my friend Alli told me I would get wrinkles from squinting if I didn't buy some immediately.

And somewhere in this picture is my straightener that was destroyed in the great Abby and Annika vs. European Electricity War. (Christmas list, mama?)

Our first day of school. I understood nothing in my Iberian Civilization class. Might I say that it's one thing to have a Spanish class taught in Spanish, but it's algo muy diferente to have a history class taught to you in Spanish. Pray for me, yes?

Anyway, aside from being sick (which is rather disgusting) and not knowing the language well enough (which is rather discouraging), I can feel myself stretching in all sorts of directions and with this satisfying sort of pain, I am incredibly happy to be in this beautiful place.

Love you all more than ever. And as always, you're in my prayers.

Querida,

Abby

My first Spanish sunrise (and all that it entails).