First Week in Santander

My first week in Santander has been so busy! I met up with some girls in DC and we started our 7 hour journey to Madrid together. The flight went pretty well. A boy who was part of some school group decided to go sit by them so I ended up getting two seats. There weren't any great movies on the flight, but two great episodes of Sex and the City! As the sun came up, we landed in Madrid. 5 very tired girls made their way through customs and got to the train station. We were all pretty slap happy at this point.

The train was 5 hours from Madrid to Santander and when we got to Santander it was beautiful. We were picked up by our families at the University and this was the "O shit" moment. As soon as I got in the car, mi madre whipped out the Espanol. It was good though and I definitely held my own. We talked for a little and got to the apartment which is literally 2 seconds from the beach!

On Monday I walked around town with some friends in the morning and had lunch with our teachers in the afternoon. Santander is a small city but its really beautiful! The city is right on the coast and is always really clean. On Thursday we went on an excursion to las cuevas where we could see prehistoric paintings on the wall. We then went to Santillana del Mar, where we studied Roman Architecture and hung out. On Friday we went to the Santander Cathedral and una casa de perigrinos. Basically there is this walk that people can do along the northern coast of Spain, el Camino del Santiago. It takes about a month to complete and people from all over the world come to test their wits. There is a religious background to this el camino, but most people there want to test themselves and see the beautiful coast.

So far Santander has been really great. Everyone in my group is really nice and we have all been trying to speak Spanish 24/7. In fact its actually been kind of hard to write this blog in English! We constantly are filling our sentences with some spanglish, but most of the time we can follow each other in Spanish. As for my house, its been an adventure. I love mi madre but there are definitely some cultural differences. She never really wants me to clean or help out with the cooking. Its been really tough but, I think I'll make it. I talk to her in Spanish everyday. The first week her two grand-daughters were here and yesterday the rest of the family arrived. Its been kinda loud, but its kinda nice to have all these people around. Mi madre has been a great cook but again cultural differences. The milk is usually warm, and she uses like 4 plates to serve me an entire meal. I've been eating well but I have been walking a lot too. There are two routes to the city and some friends and I always walk the longer one. The other day we walked at least 7 miles. Its been really is nice to have these long walks so we can look around and people watch. It has taken me some time to adapt to life in Spain, but after a week here I definitely feel more comfortable. Till next time, Adios!