Well I have been in Spain for 4 days and I can say that this has been quite the experience. To be quite honest things did not start off to well…We were delayed in Chicago which all in all messed up the rest of the trip. We then knew that we would not get to Frankfurt on time, considering Joy and I were supposed to land 7 minutes before our other plane was supposed to take off. They then made an announcement of flight changes before we landed and they said that the flight to Bilbao had been canceled and rescheduled to take off at 4:10 pm….we were supposed to take off at 11:30 am. This may seem like a life saver, but that would have Joy and I arrive in Bilbao at about 6:20pm, and we were supposed to be at the airport at 5 if we wanted someone from our program to pick us up. Good thing Joy and I met up with other Americans that were in our same boat. We then gathered up all of your luggage and proceeded outside to get a taxi to take us to who knows where in a city that we are not at all familiar with….let me tell you, it’s a tad intimidating. Luckily Joy and I befriended a girl from California who speaks fluent Spanish and we got things figured out after about an hour. Arriving to our apartment building was one of the scariest things….the taxi driver dropped us and our 5 months worth of luggage of on the curb and said adddiiios! Joy and I just looked at the apartment building and I don’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry…we had no idea what floor or anything to go to. As we hauled our bags to the door we had two people that lived in that building get there the same time we did and they opened doors for us help us with our luggage and personally take us to the rooms we were supposed to go too…Joy and I call them our angels. That was by far the best thing that happened to me that day…the night only got worse. I guess even though I had written my host mom and told her I didn’t speak much Spanish and my papers from the university said I didn’t, she didn’t quite get the clue until she started rambling to me and I had no idea how to respond. She then told me to unpack and went to go get Joy’s host mom to help (who is right next door). Lets just say as she was probably freaking out about having an American girl in her house that couldn’t speak much Spanish, I was freaking out as well. I told Joy I couldn’t do this and that I needed to go to the dorms or else this was going to be a brutal 5 months. Turns out Amelia, my host mom, is doing this for the first time in comparison to Joy’s host mom who is doing this for the 7th time. That night was pretty much sleepless…I was so nervous and also verging on homesickness already. With just my luck others things weren’t so great either, such as, the whole apartment building didn’t have heat or hot water, so Joy and I had the privilege of taking very cold showers that night. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTT things have gotten way better…I can understand way more than I can speak so at least I know what she is saying to me most of the time. Amelia is in her 60’s and a pretty much a perfectionist. She is also one of those people who wants you to be comfortable all the time. Meals are sometimes awkward cause there isn’t a lot said, but she is always wanting me to eat a lot….she says I am old I do not need to eat a lot, but you are young you need to eat lots and lots. She is very gracious and tells me to help myself to anything . Took the placement exam….brutal….I will see what classes I will get into tomorrow….it’s just a struggle for me I guess because first off im way behind in spanish compared to everyone else and also it seems like everyone else is at least a jr and most have studied abroad before. Just a lot to get used to all at one time, but I know it will make me a stronger person. We were showed around Bilbao the other day, but it’s so hard to find your way….everything looks the same, but some day Joy and I will be able to get where we want to go without wandering around for 25 minutes. Im doing a lot of praying to keep me going and I keep reminding myself that this is the right thing to do…hopefully.
Last night was a fun night….Joy’s host brother and one of his friends took us out to eat and then to a small pub for a beer....(yes mom, a beer). It was good and they will help us a lot with speaking the language because at home Amelia isn’t really the person that will help teach me the language....
It can only get better! sry for the million typos that i am sure are in here....have to do this quick because of not much internet availability...

An off subject topic, but I found out about Haiti today, and my heart totally goes out to all of them….I had to hold back the tears when I found out because it makes me wonder about all the people that I became so close to when I was there….makes me sick to my stomach, and for as much as I know this is a great opportunity for me, it makes me want to be there rather than here.

Love and miss all of you…
Mel