Day one is almost over...

     Wow...today has been the longest day ever! But I am happy to say that I am safely in Alicante sitting in my new casa writing this blog :) My journey started Tuesday at noon when I left for the Detroit airport. My first flight was to Chicago, and it departed at 2:40pm. My whole family and my boyfriend took me to the airport, and it was a pretty emotional couple of hours.
     Once we landed in Chicago, we had about a 2 hour layover until our flight to Madrid. The flight to Madrid took about 8 hours, but it was totally awesome because each seat on the plane had its own personal iPad type thing and you could choose from a bunch of movies or shows to watch. I watched 2 movies, and the flight went by super fast. Once we landed in Madrid, we had a 4 hour layover until our flight to Alicante. The layover in Madrid was definitely rough. It was about 2am Detroit time when we landed, so our plane didn't take off until 6am, and then once we reached our final destination it was about 7am Detroit time, 1pm Alicante time. Talk about jetlag...
     We got our luggage pretty easily, and then we walked out to find our 2 counselors waiting for us. They were super friendly, and they drove us to our new homes. My family consists of a mother, Adelina, a father, Pedro, and a younger 13 year old brother named Leo. Leo and Adelina seem extremely nice, but I haven't had the chance to meet Pedro yet.
     When I got to their home, I was very overwhelmed with emotions. In Spain you don't really have houses, you have apartments. But they are much bigger than the apartments that I have seen in Michigan. This particular one has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a balcony type room or a Florida room as we call them. My bedroom is a cute little room with a bed and a desk.

     The first thing that I did when I got there was tried to take a nap. Once I set all of my stuff down, I got kind of emotional, and I think it was just because of how exhausted I am. After my nap I was feeling a lot better, and I went into the "sala" or living room, and got to know my host mother a little better. I found out that she has 2 other daughters that are both abroad doing similar things to what I am doing. We ended up skyping one of her daughters, and she was able to explain things a little bit better to me in English, because I wasn't quite catching everything my host mother was saying. My host mother and father and brother speak absolutely no English, and it is definitely a challenge communicating with them! But it is fun at the same time.
After we talked for a while, it was about 9pm, and we all sat down for dinner. It is still so weird to me that they eat dinner so late! And she told me that 9pm was early for them, as they usually eat at 10! There are a lot of things that are going to take some getting used to, but I can't wait to see what this adventure brings.
     Tomorrow we have the day to relax and get situated, and maybe explore the city. I want to purchase a pay as you go phone that way I have some way to contact people if there is an emergency. I also need to purchase a bus/tram pass, as that is the primary transportation here and that is how I will be commuting to the university.
     Friday we have orientation that lasts all morning, and then we are all meeting at a local restaurant in downtown Alicante to get a tour of the city. I am pretty excited for this, because I want to be able to go out and explore and have some sort of idea what I am doing!
So far, this has been an exhausting journey, but I am so excited to see what the rest brings.