Surreal!

I´m in Spain. I´m in Spain. I keep telling myself this, but it hasn´t really sank in yet. (Until I try to type on this ¿çº€ñ keyboard...it´s so screwed up!)

I am so jetlagged, because Spain is 6 hours ahead of Indiana, but I´m too keyed up to sleep. (Because I´m in Spain! ¡Estoy en España!) The flight took forever, but I sat by a nice lady from Arkansas who regaled me with stories of buying ceramics on E-bay. (Only she pronounced it "AY-BAY" ... which leads me to believe that if I can understand Arkansas-speak, Spanish will be a piece of cake. No offense, Leslie!)

My host mother, Concha, picked me up at the airport in Madrid. She´s a tiny bundle of energy, and very sweet and sincere. She gave me a tour of the apartment, which seems about the size of my house...3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and nice backyard and porch.

The room I´m staying in actually belongs to Elena, who will be living with her little brother while I´m here. (We´ll see how that goes!) The apartment is gorgeous -- very modern, and elegant without being fussy. My room, although small, is really simple and cute, with cream-colored walls, a hardwood floor, and pale green decor. It also has the trappings of a 10-year-old girl, such as popular videos on the shelves ("La bella y la bestia" -- Beauty and the Beast, and "El libro de la selva" -- The Jungle Book.) And when I opened my wardrobe doors, I was not unhappy to find it decorated with Elena´s favorite "fútbol" (soccer) players. They sure brighten that closet up.

But the sweetest surprise was the gifts the children had left in the room for me. There was a red rose in a vase on my bureau. Elena had written out a pretty poem in Spanish for me, and Ignacio had pasted a photo of the family on a piece of paper and written "This is my family" in his best 8-year-old handwriting. So cute!

Concha gets off work at 2, so Victor, my host father, is coming home to meet me and have lunch with us then. At 4:30, I´m going with Concha to pick up Elena and Ignacio from school. I can´t wait to meet them!!!

(Although they will never be as cool as my American family...that´s for you, Mom.) :-)

¡Hasta luego! Send me e-mails, por favor, because I miss you all already!