Day one in Madrid!

I finally made it!!! After a flight to Washington DC then to Munich then to spain...I made it in one piece, but barely. After so many hours of flying and eating random food I was completley nauseated and walked right off the plane and puked...All I could think of was I hope this isn´t a fortelling of the rest of my trip. On a side note, the bathrooms in the German airport had a dispenser in each bathroom stall so you wipe the seat (before or after?) you go to the bathroom! Needless to day they were spotless! But so wierd. Suprisingly enough after my puking incident, I made it without even turning my ipod on or a flight buddy. My two friends and I were seperated on all of the flights! Anyhow, getting off and the time just before leaving was SUPER stressful...it felt like everything that ould go wrong did. For instance, the scholarship that I applied for didnt go through. I mean I recieved the check and forwarded it to UCLA and they screwed it up two days before I was supposed to go!!! but heres the cool part...the following two days I learned it doesn´t matter how hard you work or how much you do to be a good person...you´ll never get anywhere without friends and family. My office pithed together and gave me some money which helped more than theyll ever know. Then other people stepped in or just called to check on me and literally brought me to tears with all of their support. I´m a lucky lucky girl and I forget all too often at home just how lucky I am. Anyway, Spain is beautiful. I´m in Madrid and today we visited the Prado museum of art and the Palacio Real which is where the royal family used to live but only conducts business now. It was awesome. Then some of the girls and I explored the city. We had our first churros con chocolat which is a churro (minus the cinnamon and sugar like USA) and you dip it in a thick chocolate sauce - it was tasty but not as good as I´d hoped....which i guess is lucky. I wont be gaining wait off of that! haha! What else...yesterday night the girls and I were tired so we settled for McDonalds and it was WONDERFUL! apparently Europeans arent allowed to use trans fat in their oils....my whole meal was less than 500 calories. haha. Í was shocked and almost cried because I feel like I´m on a diet which is NOT my style...this eating small portions thing is gonna take a lot of stomach shrinking or a lot of money....I´m hoping the first so I can maximize the shopping! Then today the girls and I found probably the only Mexican food in Madrid and completely endulged! In our own defense we couln´t read any of the other menus! Plus Madrid is just like LA...I´m ready for some culture so I cant wait to get to Granda and get settled with friends and classes and my homestay...thats where I´ll eat my real spanish food. Well lots going on...Germany in a week. Morocco in two...Its a crazy small little world we live in and I can´t wait to see what it has in store for me. No longer held back by anything or anyone....I can only cross my fingers and enjoy the ride through all of the sad and scary parts until the end then look back and laugh. With my blog you can all look back and laugh with me! Hope all is well in the states! Love you and I feel like such a lucky girl to go and experience all of this stuff and then report back to the people who care...it´s a nice feeling. To cousin nate: my guia del museo se llama javier haha. I definately stayed away from that javier. But to Aunt Tina, any decent javier that sweeps me off my feet will definately get a coffee date! hehe! just kidding. I´ll update you all soon. If anyone talks to Grammie tell her I said hello and i miss her so much. You all know she cant check the computer. Oh yeah! and today I saw a fountain that all of the soccer team from real madrid jumps in with tons of random people to celebrate a win so everyone cheer for a win so I can hop in the fountain! Off to dinner....then tomorrow off to Toledo. Update you all asap!

P.S. I knew people didn´t like americans but whatever right? well I got onto my flight from germany to madrid and the man next to me (who was from iberia) asked me where I was from and I told him the US. He looked at me in disgust, rolled his eyes and turned his head in silence for a moment. He looked like he had to try really hard to speak to me after that while I had to pick my jaw up off of the floor with my right hand. I was shocked! (it gets better) he then asked me why I was going to spain and I told him to study. He looked a little more satified and I threw in like the smart ass I am, ¨pretty good for an american huh?¨then he got to pick his jaw up off the ground...guess I´m not as passive as most women. However he squeezed out a laugh and was a lot nicer so I think he got the point! haha!

***I´m using a spainsh keyboard in an internet cafe so I´m not claiming any typos! haha....its the keyboard.

Con todo de mi amor,
Molly