I'm here!

Okay, so I'm here guys! I'm still in Madrid for another night and then Toledo for one more and then I'm going to Sevilla! The last two days have been an absolute whirlwind. I left Nashville at 12:40. I actually got held up at security because they thought my Pepto Bismol tablets (yet to be opened and still had the seal) were magnesium ball bearings. I still don't really understand. But other than that, my flight to JFK was fine. Just a tiny plane. Then I had a 2 hour layover at JFK and boarded a plane and here I am. We actually got here an hour early. When we got to the airport, we had to get from terminal 1 go terminal 4. That sounds easy. Nope. We had to ride a bus for 15 minutes on the Spanish equivalent of an interstate in order to do so. That was weird. Then we got to said terminal and discovered trash. EVERYWHERE. The cleaning crew is on strike here so nothing was getting cleaned. Many people bring in their garbage and dump it in the airport. So we waited there for like 3 hours and finally left. We got to the hotel and I crashed. After a nice nap, we got a panoramic tour of Madrid by bus. Then we had a meeting to cover a bunch of stuff. Then, a group of us went to eat at a small place called El Brillante. That's where I had a bocadillo for the first time. It's fried calimari (squid) and lemon. It was...okay. Haha. Then we walked around and did some souvenir shopping, and came back and crashed. I am now writing this after 10 hours of sleep in one night. It was wonderful. Now we tour Madrid more. The Prado Museum, Puerta del Sol, and La Plaza Mayor. I'll keep you updated! Below are some pictures of the stuff I mentioned in this post.

I'm packed. Let's go guys.

Yep. There it is. My suitcase. It's right there. Full to the brim. It’s finished. I’m packed. I’m going. It’s here. Holy. Cow.

There’s no more preparing to do. I’ve even printed my boarding pass. I don’t really have words to say to thank everyone once again. I’ve said all I wanted to say to everyone. I’m going to make some predictions here tonight though:  1) my suitcase will be overweight. It has to be 50 pounds or less and I’m predicting 51.8 lbs. 2) I’m also going to predict some things I’ll miss about the United States during my time in Spain, in no certain order:

• All of you
• My family(the ones not reading this)
• My car
• My data plan
• Americanized Mexican food
• Americanized Italian food
• UT
• Lawrenceburg
• Knoxville
• My apartment in Knoxville
• Knowing I can drive anywhere at any time.
• Fox News/CNN 24 hours a day
• My own bed
• American food in general
• THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• The Walk at Sevier Heights Baptist in Knoxville

That is just to name a few. We’ll compare that list to the list I make around April when I’m looking forward to coming home. There are many things I think I’ll love about Spain, but I’ll always consider my home here in the good ole U. S. of A in Lawrenceburg or Knoxville. It’s time to move on out of here! I’ll try to write a little something while I’m on the plane tomorrow. Talk to you all later!

P.S. By the way, I don’t think you’ll be able to use my cell phone number for iMessage while I’m in Europe. My Apple ID is ntb1991@gmail.com so you’ll be able to send an iMessage to that if you want to! 

IT"S HAPPENING

So, I guess I lied when I said the next post was going to be the night before I go. I’m writing one now. First, I want to acknowledge the work of God in this entire study abroad journey. I sincerely do not understand why I am so blessed because I truly do not deserve it. However, I’ll gladly accept His blessings. I hope I have more people reading the blog post this week, because I have told everyone about it! Hello to my new readers from church! What I wanted to tell everyone about today is the going away party my dear friends and family threw for me tonight. This “fiesta de España” was at Brian and Rita’s and was complete with sangria, Italian food (because it’s my favorite and not because it’s where I’m going), and plenty of strawberry cake and Dirt Cake to go around. There were FORTY-ONE people there tonight, so I can’t quite go through everyone, but once again thank you to all of you! I hope you’re reading this now! This week, I will purchase my new Kindle Fire with some of the money you guys gave me! Thank you so much!

From the time of this posting, in one week, I’ll be somewhere on a 757 operated by American Airlines over the Atlantic Ocean. Everything is in place. Everything is settled. Papers turned in, classes approved, cell phone ordered, flight tickets confirmed, and passport in hand. I keep saying this over and over, but everyone, THIS IS HAPPENING. It still seems so unreal. Five years ago, I was sitting in Mrs. Carole Cheatwood’s Spanish I class and I discovered this thing called “study abroad”. I was hooked from that point on. Many things have happened through the years following, but it all comes to this point: I’m going to Spain. Now, I hope you realize that excitement is not all I feel. Nervousness, apprehensiveness, and stress are all feelings on my radar. However, excitement trumps each. Once again, IT’S HAPPENING. I have researched this city, country, university, neighborhood, other study abroad experiences, airline ticketing, and anything else related to this journey until I’m blue in the face. It’s all history. I have to now get to packing. I’m so glad that I have this blog so that I can hopefully post at least once a week informing everyone of what I’m doing, because I want you guys involved in every experience along the way. I hope to do some video blogs (vlogs) at some point during these 3 and ½ months, but we’ll just have to see. Thank you so much for reading!

P.S., you’ll notice on the right side of the page, there is a box in which you can type your email and subscribe to this blog so you’ll get an email each time I blog.

Below are some pictures from the party tonight:

Mi Familia

Okay, so the preparations are nearing an end. I'm basically just waiting on UT to get me some stuff back (which is like cutting teeth) and then turning that stuff in. Exciting things have happened today! I've been MATCHED TO A HOST FAMILY! My mother's name is Isabel who is a 65 year old housewife. I do have a sister who is 26, but she lives in Madrid most of the time. Her name is Estefania, and is an "artist". I have been matched with a roommate too! He goes to NC State. I was given a list today of all the participants in my program and it is so exciting to see where everyone is coming from. So many different states and universities: University of Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Kansas, NC State, Kentucky, just to name a few. The most interesting aspect of the list of participants is the Lawrenceburg, TN is listed next to Chicago, NY, Salem, St. Louis, Dallas and lots of different towns, mainly ones I've never heard of. After I got the address of my house, I explored the neighborhood using Google StreetView, which is incredibly cool. I saw restaurants, convenience stores, pharmacies, furniture stores, and many more. I'm in the neighborhood called "Triana", which is one of the more famous quarters of Sevilla. I'm about a 20 minute walk from the university, 10 minute bus ride, and 10 minute Metro ride. There's so many things left to explore when I get there, though. 20 days, my friends! Probably the next post I do will be like the night before I leave, so be prepared!