Today was the first day of class. There is a bus stop near our house, but Kathryn and I decided to enjoy the weather and walk the 30 minutes into the city. We met up with other students from our program and took the LC bus to school. Upon our arrival, we had a brief orientation and then finished out the day with what would be our regular schedule. Classes are always done by 2pm because of lunch and siesta. My life is so rough. ;) After class, we all got on ...

The past few days have been spent organizing our few belongings, as well as becoming familiar with the city. Some of the students from the university we will be attending, Universidad de Extremadura, have been taking us around to show us some history as well as places to shop, eat and hang out. We start class tomorrow and I must say I've never been so eager to learn. I am absolutely loving every bit of this and cannot wait to see how the rest of the semester u...

Wow, we're finally here! After arriving at the Madrid airport, along with both of my pieces of luggage (yay!), I found my way to the Food Gallery where I met up with all of the Iowa State students. There we sat and chatted about our flight experiences, our lack of sleep from the previous night and what we anticipated this semester would bring us. I arrived in Madrid at 10:05am, 3:05am states time, and we left by 1:30 when our advisor, Toni, arrived to greet us...

Frankfurt, Germany Airport USA: 11:45pm (Wednesday, January 21, 2009) GERMANY: 6:45am (Thursday, January 22, 2009) Here I sit, patiently waiting for round two of flights. I said the last of my goodbyes before my flight left Chicago at 2:33pm. That would also be the time at which my cell phone experienced its final moments until May 18th. The flight from Chicago to Frankfurt wasn't that bad. A little lengthy, but I watched a few inflight movies and attem...