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