I wrote this a few days ago actually and I had saved it because I wanted to make a few changes. The date of creation of this article would be July 5, 2007.


Well, it started innocently enough. I was excited about flying to Spain. I had not been on a plane since about 8 or 9 years ago. My excitement soon turned to extreme boredom, waiting for the plane to take off and after the plane took off my boredom turned to complete misery. The seats were uncomfortable, there was no space AND I was stuck in the middle giving me the least amout of room. I had forgotten my mp3 player and all of my books in my bag. I got absolutely no sleep and I was very dehydrated. To say the least, the flight was quite hellish. However, I quickly got over all of my self-pity as soon as we landed in Madrid.

We got off the plane and I was able to fully take in my surroundings. The airport was nothing too different from what you see in the states, but something that I found absolutely enthralling was that everything was in Spanish. Of course, I knew that this was going to be the case before I got there, but when I actually saw it, the full impact finally hit me: I was in Spain.
As we drove to Colegio Mayor Mara, my first impressions were that it was not much different than most big cities. There were cars and people everywhere, grafitti on the walls, the works. One funny I noticed is that many of the cars were quite small. I later came to find out that these small cars were absolutely necessary and also that one must be superhuman to drive and survive in the crowded streets of Spain.

Our first tour was to Madrid. We drove to many different places such as Plaza Mayor, El Palacio Real and Plaza de Oriente. From these visits, you could truly feel the Spanish flavor. Everything was beautifully constructed, exquisite and grand. However, Palacio Real was the most amazing for me. It is a giant palace reserved for the King of Spain (although he doesn´t actually reside there). The building itself was enormous. I couldn´t help but marvel at its size and take lots of pictures. At that point, I was the definition of tourist.

Afterwards, they gave us the choice of exploring Madrid on our own and so I went along with a group who invited me. We started in Plaza de España, where there are statues of Cervantes with his greatest creations Don Quixote de la Mancha y Pancho. Madrid is another big city, like Atlanta, but which much more flair and life. There´s food, shops, bars and people everywhere and it´s extremely lively at all times with no slowdown ever. This was also the first time I got to eat a few different tapas, and I have to say, they were absolutely delicious.
So far, my experiences have been great. I am loving Spain and wanting to do more every day. Soon I go to Toledo, one of the oldest cities in Spain. I can´t wait.