The trip so far...

Wow.. so I haven't been able to post at all because I haven't really had access to a computer long enough!! I figure this can't wait any longer! I want to tell you all everything I've experienced so far, but obviously there is not enough time to tell you everything about the last week!
So... I will give you a brief recap..

Send-off & Plane Ride - Sept 7th
I thought this would be terribly sad, but with my parent's calm composure, and my surreal feeling for the day, it was fine. Once at the airport, Jenna and I hung out with our parents for one last time... for the next 3 1/2 months anyways..
The plane ride was pleasant, but short. Here, I was thinking I would have a great 8-hour plane ride to sleep and dream about this new experience awaiting me, only to find out that the first 2 1/2 hours would be utter chaos while trying to get food, and spend our last remaining American dollars on as many alcoholic beverages as possible (i.e. as many times as the beverage cart came by..) We then dozed off for about 2 hours, only to be awoken for breakfast! An hour later, we arrived in Barajas International Airport in Madrid.. All I could think was, Wow, it has begun..

Madrid, Espana --> Santander, Espana - Sept 8th
When we got in the airport, it really hit hard when we approached customs and the guy just sat there and rambled on in Spanish.. I'm screwed!! Oh well, we grabbed our bags and headed off into Madrid.
Our first task was finding out how exactly we get to Santander.. We knew we had a Eurail Pass that we spent a crap load of money on, but no idea how to use it.. So we headed to the Chamartin Station in Madrid where our train would leave from. We took the subway there, which by the way is the cleanest subway in the world probably, only to arrive at the station, three levels below the main level with NO elevator!! I had to drag my two bags (about 40 lbs each) along with Jenna's two bags (about 70 lbs each (no joke.. she had to pay extra for both to go on the airplane!)) up three flights of stairs.. and these were not short flights!!
Once we got to the station, and bought our tickets, we started around Madrid..
We walked for about 4 hours around the city and then returned for our overnight train to Santander..








Santander, Espana - Sept 9th
The trip to Santander was fun. We saw a really cool castle on the way, and then started dozing off.. We woke up multiple times to find the train stopped at a station, sometimes for up to 45 minutes per station. Later, we found out that was so that the train, which only takes 5 hours to get to Santander, arrives at a decent hour, 7:30 am. Nothing was open!

We finally got in touch with Chema, the head of the English department at the school I'll be working at, so that he could come pick up our bags. He agreed to hold half our bags with him so we didn't have to drag them across Europe..

We explored Santander all day, and went out at night. I have fallen in love with my new city. It is everything I could have hoped for! We went out to an awesome Spanish club that night, and danced until 4am!! It's going to take some getting used to before that will feel normal!

I'll write more as soon as I get a chance! Today we were in Rome, but you'll find out about that soon enough!
I hope everyone is doing well! If you haven't already, send me your address to get a postcard!

Besitos,
Mateo