¡Estoy aquì!

This morning the alarm clock rang at 8:45. Like usual, I rolled over to turn it off. However, as I rolled, suddenly there was no bed under me. You see, my bed here is a little less wide than mine at home, but hey, it woke me up pretty well.

Other than the bed mishap, everything else here is going well -- amazingly well. The flight wasn´t too bad and I got a tiny bit of sleep. And even though I am petrified of hieghts, I managed to gaze out the window as we landed in Madrid, which was my first ever glimpse of European soil. From the airport, vans picked us up and brought us to la Fund. The unfortunately was an accident on the highway so it took longer than usual, but that was okay because it just meant we got to talk me and see more of the way to Toledo. Andrea and I met two girls from St. Norbert who are also going through U of M, Amy and Chelsea. There´s really cool and it seems like the four of us got really close. Much like Andrea and I they both are doing homestays because they see it as much more valuable than stay in the dorms. While on the bus we found out that homestayers were going to get there families tonight, which is contrary to what we had found out back in the States.

At La Fund we had a tour of the building. It´s fairly quaint, but I would see myself going stircrazy if I chose to live here. The classrooms are on the same floors as dorm rooms and everything...however because I am living with a host family I have the variety of sites so all is well. The coolest part of la Fund is the aula (classroom) at the top of the monastery (btw, my school is a remodeled monestary which is absolutely gorgeous). There are stairs in the aula that lead up to an amazing observation deck where you can see so much of Toledo.

Then we got our family assignments. I was so excited because my family lives in central Toledo, which itçs rare because only 1/7 of the population lives there and are mostly elderly. However, I lucked out and happen to live a mere 4 minutes by foot from the Fund, which makes me happy since I did not bring my computer and have access to the labs now. My family is fantastic. It is mainly mi madre, whose name is Blanca. She´s really nice and has hosted before, so knows what to expect. I have a wonderful room, a little bigger than a Ripon double room, to myself. It has a desk overhead and desk light, closets and two beds (okay, don´t understand the two bed thing but que serà serà). The house is fantastic -- it´s the entire second floor (primer piso) of a building and the living area wraps arounf a patio, where the family dog livee. I also have older siblings. My sister is a little older than me and is studying in Madrid. She is really sweet but doesn´t live at home. My brothers are 27 and 29 and live at home. Carlos works in a local discotec and also is really nice. I have not met the other brother Ricardo yet because if I understood correctly is a visiting Ukraine right now. That is one of the hardest things to combat, country and city names. Some of them are much different in Spanish.

Today we had a tour of Toledo and I have learned one thing, the cure for a fear of heights is to live in Toledo. I have noticed heights that used to scare me are getting much easier. The city is gorgeous and I have learned on the tour that I live 30 seconds from the largest and most important plaza in Toledo, el Zocodover. I didn´t no this last night when mi madre brought me there to withdraw dinero, buy a phone card, and recharge minutes on my mobile, which soon I will figure out how to get us people to use.

Well, that´s pretty much it for now. Classes star Tueçsday and Monday we have level exams, I´ll let you all know hoe those go!