Hola amigas y familia! Estoy finalamente en espana!

It's offical! I'm hear and it is sooo much better than I ever could have hoped for and it hasn't even started yet.

Let me start from the begining, so sitting all alone by myself in the Chicago airport for 3 hours I get a really exciting e-mail from Esteban who is my contact in Spain that I know through work. He has invited me to stay with him in Barcelona and is going to set me up w/ a job shadow as well as go out on the town with is son! (don't get excited mom and dad, I'm just excited to make some actual spanish friends)

So after that exciting news I board the plan and who do i sit by on the entire ride there....a girl who just graduated from the University of Iowa...small world....i know... So that was cool to talk to her. She was going to see her bf/friend in London and Pairs....I still think my trip is better. She was only going for a day.

After I made it through to the next two airports I had time to kill and decided to look around the shops....I went in Zara, Coach, Dior, Guess, and realized that I better become a really really rich doctor fast to feed my expensive tastes and love of traveling to europe. (mom/tara please don't disown me for not buying anything thing but I thought it in my best interest to save my money so at some point I will be able to have enough to get home.....However now that i"m here staying doesnt sound so bad)

So after about 6 hours of silience i finally build up enough courage to decide to speak spanish to the lady sitting next to me on the plane. We had a 20 min conversation and she told me my Spanish was really good! (I was thinking she needed to get her ears checked...but of course I didnt know how to say that in Spanish...yea not that good) So after her and her retired husband took a liking to me (i'm assuming they were retired....like i said...spanish not that good...lindsey smiling and acting like she knows exactly what they are talking about...really good) they helped me get my bags from the baggage claim and then made sure i was first in line to get the best taxi. And it was def better than any taxi I had ever ridden in in New York.

Finally I got to see some sights of Alicante....even at night the sea looked breath taking! I chatted a little with the cab driver and he told me again that my spanish was good...and once again I thought....its only bc now i've offically run out of words i know how to say. U know one thing about me not being able to keep my mouth shut for more than 10 mins is that it will force me to use my Spanish while i'm here!

So now that i'm offically check into my very nice hotel room and dicovered that my roommate for tomorrow is here as well i've already made plans to get up go running and then hit the beach tomorrow morning before we have orientation. This is the life! :)

Any fears/nerves that I had for this trip has offically gone out the window.... I'm so happy that I made this decision to come here and I already know it will be one of the best experiences of my life. I really hope to learn how to live in the Spanish culture and develop my spanish like never before. Not to mention get my research in and job shadow a spanish doctor! Sweet! Now there is still a few pieces missing from this perfect picture....a wonderful host family...and fun but not too demanding of classes.....ok nerves may just have come back a little bit....but at least the beach won't let me down.

Stay tuned for next weeks episode to find out how the rest plays out

adios!