Barajas

I'm officially in Spain! My body has no idea what day/time it is, but I'm alive.
I had a seven hour flight to (Schiphol) Amsterdam and then a two hour flight to (Barajas) Madrid. When I arrived in Spain, I picked up my luggage and went outside to meet Pilar and Jesús. They're really great people and very funny (especially Jesús)as well. When we arrived at the house, I got the tour before having a light breakfast. The house is somewhat of a townhome, in the sense that it has three levels and is in a gated community with townhome-like amenities (eg. neighborhood pool and common area maintenance like mowing lawns). Anyway, the first level has a half bath, kitchen, sunroom, family room and what they call a "fridge closet." It's actually a legit hallway closet where the walls have fridge-like cooling capabilities to house the items that don't fit in the fridge. The second level is where Natalia and Rodrigo have their bedrooms, a shared bathroom and the master suite is. The third level is all mine! I have my own bedroom and own bathroom, it's totally an au pair suite/wing/quarters which is awesome. There is also an office across from my room that they store documents in, etc.

After the tour and breakfast I took a three hour nap that didn't really energize me much. Lunch is at 3:30pm (by the way, dinner is around 9:30pm), both Pilar and Jesús eat at home. The kiddos finished school at 5pm, so we picked them up after we finishing eating and cleaning up. (They finish school Friday)

Rodrigo and Natalia are adorable and kind. It's going to be really fun hanging out with older kids this summer. Pilar speaks zero English, Jesús speaks Spanglish, Rodrigo's English is more conversational and Natalia has to retake her English final next week. Hah, soooo my Spanish better get its act together! Hopefully after some more consistent sleep I'll be more chatty instead of worrying about the accuracy of my conjugations.

The time between picking up the kids at school and eating dinner at 9:50pm was spent looking through photos and telling stories. Oh, and watching Spain lose to "Suiza," but we can't talk about that. They told me about their love for the US national parks like Bryce Canyon and Yellowstone and I told them about Mexico and other school trips.

Dinner was pizza. How American, right?! Wrong. Tuna pizza. It was quite good, but definitely not pizza as I know it. Everything I ate today I didn't hate, it'll just take time to get used to their popular smokey/salty flavors. Alright, time for bed, it's after 11 here. I have the house to myself tomorrow so I'm sleeping until forever and unpacking. Adios!



"El sol se levantará mañana y quién sabe lo que traerá la marea."