We found a studio!!! Yey!! We were so stressed about maybe having to be homeless for a few days, but we found a little studio that I hope will be perfect for us. It is Right in the center of everything!!! The only thing is that when I say little, I mean LITTLE!! haha. But it is going to be fine. Brian and I are use to sharing a confined space, and being in a good area, and having everything really near us was important. Just make sure that when you come visit you are ready to rid your space-bubble and sleep on the floor or really close to us!! haha.

Brian loves it because of the area, pretty cheap for Madrid 550 euros (still a lot for a studio back home, or maybe the same as living in the city in a crappy area for a studio).But we like it. We also love the fact that theres a little place down stairs that sells tapas and a beer for 2.5 euros!! The landlord reminds me of nidia, and theres a dog in the apartment next to us that is super cute and friendly, so we felt at home there. I think it is a good fit for us. Once we get a bed and the bare necessities, then we will take more pictures of our little home.

Moving on, we went to the University of Alcala today. It is such a cute little medieval town, which is pretty much based around the University and Don Quixote History. We also learned that the Palace of Alcala is where Christopher Columbus went to get permission to travel to the New World. We got to the classroom and the building is also a medieval old building. But it is really cute. They gave us an intro to the program, our health insurance card (YAAAAAA), a little back pack, paper work, and a T-shirt! We get our first stipent at the end of the month, so money will be tight this first month. It seems like a really interesting program, and we are excited to get started. Tomorrow we get up to go meet the people in charge of the School we will be interning for, and then we will go check into our little studio. We also met a couple around our age during the program meeting. We had a beer and coffee with them, and let me tell you, Alcala has cheap deals. I think I am turning into my dad and Brian, with all this cheap deal talk, haha. But really, we got 2 cappuccinos, 2 beers, a hamburger, and a typical dish of potatoes with meat and eggs for 6 euros!! We will be back for our next meeting at the University. I am excited to have a couple to hang out with every once in a while aswell. Everyone else in the program seemed to be in their early twenties, party hardy type people, and I kind of felt really old. :'(

Brian says hes just glad it wasnt a scam. haha. Thank god. Other than that we have been having busy busy days, trying to stay alive, and just getting ready for a new year. We finally had one bad experience with a Madrid Native. The train station ticket lady!! >:-/ she was so mean, and gave us a ticket, because we didnt know that we needed the ticket to exit. No one told us, and this whole time we kept ticket after ticket from the Metro station thinking we would need it, and we never needed it to exit, but I guess on the Train back from alcala we needed it, so she gave us a ticket. But she was really mean about it, as if we were suppose to know, and telling us that it is the same way on Metro (which it isnt at all!!!). I dont even want to talk about it, I just hope one day she gets a ticket for something dumb, so she feels what we feel. Anyways, its late, and we have to wake up early again, today was a long long day, so good night! oh... I hope soon we will get to know a lot more of Madrid, have wonderful pictures of all the beautiful areas we will find, and just feel more at home. A lot of the people we met today have been here for over two years, its crazy. But then a lot of them I believe probably dont have wonderful people to miss, or a beautiful city like San Francisco (sorry Fremont) to come back to! love you guys!Oh, and another thing..every day I have a GREATER appreciation for our parents, and the fact that they moved to an entirely new country with no one by their sides and succeeded in life. I hope one day I can be as great as that! <3 Nat