Some more..

Well, the last was short and I feel like I left out a lot. My host family lives in a very nice neighborhood surrounded by other similar homes, mostly 3 story homes with small balconies on the top floor and on the second floor a lovely patio. They have a tiny garage thet Manolo manages to park his small SUV in everyday, by carefully making his 8-point turns until he is perfectly inside the garage.


The house is just 5 minutes walk from the beach, something I like most about the area. The house is very different from my Florida home, as they do not use air conditioner or have ANY fans. Yet, the house is never too warm. Windows are always open, unless it is raining. And because of the hight I believe the wind circulates evenly and is quite cooling and relaxing. All of the floors in the house are a type of marble or something, which helps keep cool as well. I feel like I am writing some kind of essay for school or something, working hard to help the reader visualize what exactly I am living. Well, I want to try and make this more personal, more like a journal than anything else.


I feel like life is simpler here. People do not stay as busy it seems, and family and friends are very important. I am by no means trying to say that Americans are too busy and not family-oriented, just noticing differences and really unable to completely explain them.


Right now I am in the Universidad Marta attends. I am on a computer next to her boyfriend Alex, waiting for her class to get out. I have so much thought and so much experience bottled up inside, and I really need to get it out. It is so theraputic for me to write, as my mouth is normally not so fluid when it comes to words, explaining my feelings, etc.


Well, about this weekend, about Madrid: the train ride there was extremely boring, but mind clearing and fresh. I took the 4-hour train ride with Anna and Will, my other exchangers, but my seat was at the very front of the train. They, however, were located in the very back. So I was pretty much alone. But, after the extremely-long train excursion through much of Spain, we reached Madrid-Atocha, a major train station in the beautiful city Madrid. It was much like an airport, with so many people and bags and chaos. It took the three of us about 30 minutes to find (or be found by) some Rotex (teens who went abroad last year, from Spain). Then, we waited to find some more, and waited some more. Then we all got on a bus, full of mostly American exchange students to Spain this year. We were all strangers, yet we all had so much in common. So naturally the bus was very loud, everyone asking "what state are you from?" and "where in spain are you staying?" and so on. We rode the bus to what I believe was North Madrid, to a University where we were staying for the weekend. Thankfully, due to the majority of us being English-speaking, the entire weekend was stress-free.
....more later. Siesta time!