Lost in Translation

"No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise he voluntarily makes himself a great baby-so helpless and so ridiculous." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The flight from Chicago to London was as good as an 8 hour flight with little leg room can be. We even arrived early to Heathrow, but as our pilot informed us, that is not always a good thing, as there were no spots open for us. By the time we exited the plane out in the tarmac and got on buses, it was the same time as when we were originally supposed to arrive. My second flight from London to Madrid was also good, although this time I had the bulkhead seat and was able to stretch my legs out a little bit.

Finally, I arrived in Madrid. My first reaction was that Spain was exactly how I had imagined it, with a hint of California landscape and lots of Spanish speakers. The landscape I can adjust to easily, but as my title states, the speakers were something else. It will take me a while to acclimate to speaking Spanish all the time, and listening to people speak Spanish. Right now I am watching a soccer game between two teams that are not well known, at least to me, and I can only keep up with a little of the dialogue.

Anyways, here is a brief introduction of my first 3 days in Spain. After arriving at Madrid Barajas Aeropuerto, I found my overseas studies group leader, and along with other students boarded a bus for downtown Madrid and la Puerta de Sol. The Puerta de Sol is in the center of Madrid, it is a plaza, and it is where our hotel is located. It is a beautiful area, very Spanish and very old with many winding streets. In these three days we have visited the Royal Palace,the Prado Museum (which houses many famous paintings, mainly by Spanish painters) and the monastery and palace called El Escorial. I also visited another museum in Madrid today called Renia Sofia, which houses many works by Picasso and Dali to name a few. The Renia Sofia houses the work by Picasso called Guernica, and since I had learned about this in a class I found it exciting to see in person. It was a museum that I could see my brother Thomas enjoying very much as well.
Guernica:

Now, I have just come back from dinner, at midnight. We eat very late here, but it works for the lifestyle. The other major change from America is the eating habits, as we do not snack here like we do in America. Today for example I ate three set meals and that was it. The portions are much smaller as well, although lunch is intended to be the large meal of the day, today it was not for me.

A few observations that I was able to make very soon after arriving at our hotel is that the mullet is in. The people of Spain (both men and women) are all business in the front and all party in the back. The most popular of these styles that I have seen is similar to Cristiano Ronaldo's recent haircut at the Espy's.
This picture really does not do it justice though, but you will have to take my word for it. The other great thing that I have come to learn about Spain is that cycling is on tv all the time. It's great. They also replay the olympics on a sports channel every day it seems like.
Tomorrow we leave for Toledo, the former capital of Spain, and Granada. I am excited. I will upload many pictures once I get situated in Granada, and hopefully have much more free time.