I feel like I have already been here for so long, but we only arrived yesterday morning! So much has happened since then.
Honestly, the feeling of peace that I mentioned when I first
arrived disappeared rather quickly. I felt anxious for a lot of the day
yesterday. Adjusting to the time change has been more difficult than I expected
and just the transition to living in Spain will take time to get used to. We
were given a lot of free time, but had no idea where we were in the city or
what was around us to explore and we were afraid of getting lost, so we did not
go far. Finally in the evening, as this day felt like it was never going to
end, we took a bus tour of the city. Our directors just pointed out the major
sights of Madrid, but we didn’t stop to see any.
There are so many funny quirks about our hotel here that are
so different from most places back home. The internet is only available in the
lobby for 30 minutes at a time. All of us from the US are so eager to contact
family and friends back home that I am sure the front desk is tired of giving
us the codes, but it’s their silly policy! Also, we have two twin beds in our
room that are pushed right up next to each other. For whatever reason, I find
this hilarious.
And the shower door is only ½ of a normal shower door. What
is the purpose of this? It only serves to get the floor of the bathroom all
wet.
This morning, we took a tour of the Museo del Prado. This is
a famous art museum of Madrid housing the work or many well-known artists. We were taken on a guided tour of the museum,
which allowed us to appreciate more aspects of specific pieces. Our guide spoke
in Spanish the entire time! This was a great opportunity to practice listening
to the language, but I think I ended up with only 50% of the information that
she tried to tell us.
This afternoon, we toured the Palacio Real. It was a
gorgeous building. We could not take pictures inside and the decorations are
beyond explanation. There was so much
detail and effort put into every aspect of every room. It was incredible to
see.
We spent the evening walking through the streets of Madrid,
finding major crowds and exploring the shops.
A lion outside the congress building. We were told we HAD to get a picture with it. So we did.
This is the "ugly" cathedral in Madrid. More than one person told us so. Still looks pretty fascinating to me!
A guy acting as a statue. No idea how he is able to stand like that for so long!
Beautiful streets at night!
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