My flight over to Spain was, shall we say, a bit inconvenient. I slept about 10 minutes on the 10 hour flight to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt I had a five hour layover, I didn't fall asleep...until 45 minutes before boarding and I woke up 15 minutes after the planes doors were closed. I got a hold of my parents after 30 minutes of dialing (and having the phone eat my Euros) so they could call the people picking me up in Madrid. I finally arrived at my house at around 9:30ish, showered, ate some food, and slept until 2pm the next day.

I'm staying with two ladiesin an apartment; I'm guessing one is in her 50's and the other in her early 40's. They are very nice. Yesterday the older lady, Maria, and I went on a walk through the Mediterranian forest. There are trees (only about 15 feet tall), boulders, and a pretty but contaminated river. Also there is an old Roman aquaduct, however, it's a little dilapidated.

Today was my first day of school. I have to take the train a couple kilometers to Villalba (a nearby city) and then walk or take the bus one kilometer to El Instituto Bachillerato de Jaime Ferran. After figuring out my class schedule, with the help of my host mom, the director of the school brought me to my first class. Class had already started when we walked in. There were about 20 students. The teacher asked me my name, and I replied, for some reason most of the class started laughing, maybe it was my name. However, for some reason they didn't seem mean, or maybe I didn't care. I sat next to a guy named Pablo and he helped me out the rest of the day. We are even going to go to the pool in Villalba this Saturday. After class about 1/3 of the students came up and introduced themselves and said they would help me with anything. Everybody is so nice. The rest of the school day was great, except when the teachers would ask me questions and I had no idea what they were saying; fortunately the other students would come to my "defense" and say I couldn't speak Spanish well. I met lots of friendly people and kissed more people today than I probably have in my entire life (a kiss on each cheek is the customary greeting).

One thing incredibly different is that the bathrooms at the school are for guys and girls, there are stalls, but it'll take quite awhile to adjust.

I miss you all, but everything is great.

If you want to write me you can send letters to:

Ariel Wai

Molino de La Navata bloque 4-1A

28420 La Navata (Madrid)

Spain

Preparing For Takeoff

Hey Everybody,
Right now I'm preparing to depart for the greatest adventure of my life! I'll be leaving Friday the 26th of September to spend 9 months in Spain. I think I'm going to Madrid, but the agency I'm going through hasn't found a host family for me yet :( The past few weeks have been filled with camping, waterpolo, and oh yeah...getting ready to leave everything I know to embrace a new country, culture, people, and lifestyle. Can I say I'm excited? You bet! But at the same time a little nervous, well, ok, quite a bit nervous.

I'll be updating this blog approximately whenever I feel like. Actually more like once a month or so. I'm not supposed to contact the U.S. very much because this will increase homesickness and prolong culture shock.

My journey began two years ago. After my freshman year of public high school I switched to homeschooling/public high school/community college. During my sophomore year my Spanish 2 teacher talked about traveling abroad and I was like, "that sounds interesting." I began to search for a homestay program and finally applied to travel through Cultural Homestays International (CHI). So after a ton of paperwork, passing a GED test (high school graduation equivalent), visa application, and more paperwork I'm ready to take off.