Yet More Travelling
My flight from London to Madrid was pretty epic. I was next to two Americans; Jonathan from California and Andy from New York. Jonathan was headed to study at uni in Madrid (the same place my host mum works!) and Andy was off on a cycling tour around Southern Spain . They were really nice and super funny! I had a ball, and am hopefully keeping in contact with both of them via email!
(FYI, Andy is a dentist and he recommends Colgate - I asked. He can also, contrary to popular belief, show his face on television. Anyone remember that ad? No? Awkward.)
Madrid airport is possibly the most confusing place I've ever been. It wasn't that the signs were in Spanish - it's that there were no signs to begin with! Just huge amounts of space, and the occasional number indicating a gate.
I ended up walking in circles until finally I saw an escalator and decided to try that. It led me to an aiport monorail station - one of the stops had a picture of a passport next to it, and so I tried that. Finally, after over half an hour, I made it to passport control! Woo hoo!
Even so, I had to wait another 20 minutes for my luggage.
Madrid Airport To Colmenarejo
My host mum, Isabel, was busy when my plane came in so Señor Fernández, the president of Juventud y Cultura - my Spanish exchange organisation - came to pick me up.
Mum had spoken to Señor Fernández on the phone, and told me that he reminded her of my grandfather, Paul. She was definitely on to something - he spoke and gesticulated in much the same way. Even the accent, though Spanish, sounded somewhat similar. Those who knew Paul can imagine my delight when he pulled out his iPhone to show me a picture of his German Shepherd called Newton!
In my hour or so in the car with Señor Fernández I learned a lot - for example, road rules are not really of interest to many Spaniards. Hmm.
Dinner Last Night
Señor Fernández dropped me off at my beautiful house in Colmenarejo. Upon opening the door I was greeted by grins from three dogs and my host mother, Isabel. I lugged my suitcase inside and she gave me a hug, a kiss on each chee and a tour of the house. Her English is actually quite good, which was rather helpful! She showed me my room and then introduced me to my host siblings - Daniel, Maria and Antonio.
Isabel left me to hang with my them while she finished dinner. Daniel, my twelve-year-old host brother, has amazing English. He was chatting away to me about his recent trip to Disneyland as he, Antonio and I made paper aeroplanes and raced them across the living room. A good way to spend our first hours together? I think so.
We had a deilicious pasta dish for dinner and then I gave them my Australiana presents, which they all seemed to like. Maria has refused to take off her kangaroo necklace since I gave it to her. (Thanks for that idea, Mum!)
Today...
I woke up at 11 today to find that Maria was the only other person here. Isabel and Antonio had gone looking for firewood, and Daniel left this morning to stay the weekend with his father.
Of course, Maria found it quite difficult to convey any of this to me, as her English is limited and my Spanish is even more so. So together we went through my English-Spanish dictionary until we had established the basics.
Maria helped me to unpack, teaching me the names of items of clothing as we went. When we were done I taught her how to play Snap.
Isabel and Antonio returned, and so Maria and I played soccer with Antonio (and the dogs!) for a while. I've discovered that "GOOOOAAALLLLL!" translates across to Spanish quite well.
We went in to the centre of Colmenarejo (because Isabel wanted to show me the library, the theatre, the church and the chemist) and to Galapagar (beacause Antonio needed some new boots!) for the afternoon. Spain is absolutely beautiful. I swear, even the graffiti looks prettier.
It's been an amazing but rather exhausting day. It's my bed time!
Picspam coming soon!
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