a world without cellphones

So I have been in Madrid for what feels like an eternity and I finally remember what it was like to live without cell phones....and I don´t miss it. lol Yesterday (which contained the 13th in boston and the 14th in madrid as one continuous day) felt like an eternity!

First off, leaving at security was a mess...emotionally anyways. I guess I didn´t realize how hard it would be to continue walking out of sight as my parents were waving at the gates behind me. (Good thing I didn´t go to GW or I´d have to do that every semester!) After pulling myself together and waiting for a delayed flight (yeah my flight didn´t start loading passengers until 630), I spent six hours rather uncomfortably attempting to sleep on the plane. Surprisingly the food was very good, so that made things slightly easier despite my "sick" landing.

After that I successfully made it through customs and into the other terminal via "el verde autobus", as described by the airport attendant, and waited for the group flight to arrive.
All 84 of us successfully made it to the hotel rather jetlagged and eager for communication access to back home. Unfortunately, the hotel internet is not strong enough to hold a connection so none of us have internet access. Additionally, our cellphones (which we purchased eagerly) are not activated for 24 hours we discovered to our dismay hours after purchasing them. Thankfully, today orientation is at the college so I found a computer lab!

We attempted to sleep for a few hours after our shopping; however, that decision was a fail, making us more tired for the evenings events. The evening was spent discussing our nonfunctioning cellphones and details of our classes.

Last night a group of us went out to celebrate a student´s 21st birthday/find our way around the city with the help of a female student in her second semester abroad here. There are lots of solicitors trying to pull you into their bars and we´re pretty sure they put in the "gringo" cd the second they got us inside, but all in all it was a pretty fun/early evening.

This morning was an early rise. It doesn´t light out here until about 830 or so in the morning so it is very difficult waking up. Our day started off right at the instituto after breakfast and this is where we have been all day in numerous orientation meetings, getting organized and loaded with information. Thank goodness a friend and I toured the building after our last meeting and we discovered this computer lab the professors have been talking about! No one is here but us, and we are oh so happy to have internet access for the first time in days! There is no other way to make American students abroad in Madrid happier than providing them internet access for longer than 5 mintues lol

So it is currently504 pm here (idk where the colon key is on this spanish keyboard) and it is still very strange thinking that back home it is six hours earlier. It is making it rather difficult to communicate in ways other than email, but at least I have found communication!

I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all terribly and can´t wait until I can update again for you! =)