“Flight Attendants, prepare for arrival”
At the sound of the announcement I put away my headphones and gaze out the window. There’s a lot more of what looks to be farm land and dry areas than I thought there would be, but all of the buildings and residential areas looked very quaint and collective. After I got off the plan and grabbed my luggage, I noticed that some signs around the airport used words different than what I knew . . . this made me a little nervous, but figured that if I said "bano" instead of aseos someone would know what I'm talking about.
I rounded the corner and there was Magui (pronnounced Magwi) my host mom, and her sister Marta. She was quite happy to see me, and I was happy to see her and realize that I was actually in Spain, living with her family for 5 weeks. We went to the car then dropped Marta off before returning to her home. Madrid is "very hot and very dry" she told me, and you can see how dry the land is. The temp has been 95-98 F, and while its hot, it's been about the same back home in the states. Only difference is there we use air conditioning, and none of the houses I've gone to yet have any. It's only bad at night though.
When I arrived it was about 12:30pm, and the kids were outside in the back yard playing with a friend. They were playing Chinese jump rope. I introduced myself and was happy that they were glad to see me. We had talked via online messenger/video chat, and they received a bunch of my pictures so they knew what I Iooked and sounded like. Alvaro (the oldest son, 10 years old) wanted to come to the airport with his mom because he was afraid she wouldn't remember what I looked like. Mercedes is 7 years old, and the oldest daughter. The other child is Paula, an adorable 1 year old. She doesn't talk yet, but you can tell what she's thinking by her facial expressions.
We played in the pool for most of the afternoon. I also gave them each their gifts which they liked a lot. The kids wanted sweets so I brought them a variety of things from the US. I gave the father and nanny Chicago mugs, and the mother a jar of sand from Barbados and an assortment of Chicago Postcards. It was a bit of an adjustment to explain things in English and Spanish, but the mom speaks English so its not so bad.
Lunch was at 2:30, and we had Lasagna. Dinner was at 9:00 and we had a type of omelet which was egg w/ fried potatoes inside, then Spanish ham, which is delicious. At the end of the day I was exhausted! After all, I had been traveling since 1:30pm CST Monday and it was 3:30pmCST Tuesday when I finally went to bed.
So excited. I can't believe i'm actually doing this.
~Jenna
p.s. future posts will have more pictures :)
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