All settled in :)

Just finished up day 2! Everything is going great... I landed yesterday morning and then took a 2 hour nap, went to orientation and settled in. My senora has been just fabulous - she is very accommodating with me eating vegetarian/vegan. She is a lot of fun to talk to and is helpful when I don't know all of the vocab. She's a grandma whose kids and grandkids all live in the Madrid area so I think she sees them quite often. Yesterday, we - her, Marisa (another American student staying here from Tulane Univ) and I - ate potato chips and drank "CocaCola Light" and talked about shopping :)

The orientations have been pretty good so far... there are around 20 students here from UW, some from Indiana, some from Purdue and some from Tulane. The office is called the "WIP" office and has 3 staff members, all of whom are running our orientation. We now have the schedules for the classes, both reunidas (w/ other study abroad students) and complutense (in the bigger university). I register on the 25th or so... I'm not quite sure what I'm going to take yet, but will probably do one about indigenous Mexican/Guatemalan culture, one about Spain's role in the EU and maybe a history of Spain one. My job for tonight is to try to figure more out, wowoo!

I just went to the biggest store ever called El Corte Ingles... they have everything. Seriously! It's 6 or 7 floors levels plus 2 basements... it's like a Super Target plus a Macy's. I got some shampoo and pens. I was surprised at how most of their brands are American - most of the shampoo/conditioner was Garnier Fructis, Herbal Essences or Dove. It was also kind of expensive... but probably no more than in New York or anything. I also just looked at my body wash that I got and it says that its in the conglomerate of Sara Lee. crazy

Today I had toast (which is really small, 2 inches square) with jelly, fresh clementine juice (that my senora juiced herself), tea and a banana for breakfast; then she packed us sandwiches for lunch. I'm not sure what we're having for dinner, but she has this great thing called a Thermo-Mix that is like a blender and stove top in one - it is really cool.

Today at orientation, we had people from the US embassy come talk to us about what they can do for us. Tomorrow, we are talking about housing (our homestays typically end after 1 month), and then Saturday we have a day trip to Toledo! All for now, sending my love!