It is so nice to be in a bed I can call my own. We had to travel so long to get to this point. I can't distinguish the differences between the days. This has all been so surreal that I can't even comprehend it still.
The airport in Zurich was beautiful. It had tons of really nice stores and cafés. It also had little chocolate shops with an extensive array of chocolates.
The orientation in Madrid ended up being at a really nice hotel called Hotel Auditorium. I think it is either the biggest or nicest in Madrid. We got there at 2ish and got to rest until dinner at 9. Then we had our orientation at 10:30. It was nice to finally meet the people that we had all seen on the Facebook group and a couple more as well. You could definitely tell that the majority of people hung out with people from their country or that spoke the same language.
Katrina, Lucia, and I got to be in a video interview that talks to the students before they have officially started their journey. AFS Spain seemed really cool about everything. We didn't have a super long boring orientation, and they were reasonable about sleeping and rules.
Finally it was the time to meet the host family! It seemed like lots of the students hasn't talked to their host families much and were really nervous, but I was just excited! It was a little weird having to meet them in front of everybody. It was just the parents at first and they took me home to the girls and grandparents.
My two sisters, Ainara and Nerea, were very excited for me to come, but Ainara was very shy at first. After a siesta, she was running around the house in underwear, screaming. I gave the family their presents. For the girls, bathing suits, milk straws, and coloring books and a book I made about my life and cupcake tins and mix for the whole family. They really liked the gifts.
The coolest thing so far for me was the coffee machine. We have those electronic coffee machines in the US now where you put the container thing in and it make you that flavor of coffee one at a time, but this was even cooler. You could choose cup size and intensity. It was so delicious. I know what I will be having every morning now.
The family went on a walk to show me around the city. Mom had to go because he had to help a friend. Apparently she does beauty classes and sells Mary Kay as a hobby. The dad and niñas walked around with me and showed me the schools. Mom picked us up in the car because it was really late, and she and I went to the grocery store. We walked home from there because a huge shopping center is right next to the house. When we walked through the door, there were balloons and flags everywhere, music, and a welcome home sign. It was a really great feeling to know how much they cared about me and that they had this planned out the whole time. We had a bunch of tapas. After dinner, they brought out this huge box with a bunch of presents for me: keys, a blanket, something for storage, a calendar journal, my own coffee cup that talks about how much I sleep, and a pen. My sisters already want me to stay para siempre and I am so happy and thankful.
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