Ok...three observations: sleeping pills DO work on airplanes, Spaniards DO wear fipflops in the summertime, and i DEFINITELY want to live here someday. We landed at 9:45AM Madrid time, 3:45AM Newark time. Newark was good, basically herding the students as they arrived from Houston, Portland, Duluth MN, Harvard, etc. All aboard and away we went, 45 minutes delayed but happy. I met a nice Colombian guy on the trans-oceanic flight, he was red-headed and freckled, and grew up in Miami but spoke a perfect bogotano accent from having visited Colombia every month or two until he was six or so. Crazy. He was off to Ibiza to spend a week pàrtying and not thinking about his import/export biz in NY.
Saturday was jet lag city, wow...we caught a bus straight from Barajas to the town of Aranjuez, a suburb south of Madrid about 45 km. I was dozing off during staff meetings and activities all day (but so was everyone else). We had a great ´comida´ at the normal Spanish time of 2PM- then for dinner at 9PM or so we went for tapas. They´re just not the same when you can´t enjoy them with beer or wine, though. I slept a full 8 hours and today in Aranjuez has been good times all around...this morning we had REAL coffee, toured the city, watched a kayak competition on the Tajo River, walked about the Royal Palace and then had students put on skits for everyone else regarding safety issues and cultural topics in Spain. Now I have all 32 students out on a scavenger hunt in the city, and i can finally relax for a moment. Tonight, una cervaza para Nate...
