Finally Here!

Hello Everyone,

Well I am finally in Spain. I had a lot of complications getting here. I left MBS at 355 to fly to Detroit. As I left my home, I began to think what am I doing? I don’t want to leave all of my friends and family. It was a hard feeling to get but I am sure many exchange students get  this feeling as they leave there homes. I arrived to Detroit and found my gate. I took a sleeping pill so I was not awake for the flight. When I woke up and we were landing in Paris, I grabbed my stuff and left. I was so hungry because I did not eat anything on the plane so I reached inside my backpack for my wallet and couldn’t find it. Thinking maybe I accidentily left it in the plane I went to the Air France front desk and asked them if they could check. They did, and there was no wallet in the plane. I remember I moved my wallet from my pocket to my backpack after I had sat down on the plane and the guy next to me must have seen that and stole it. But, because I was talking at the desk I missed my flight to Madrid. So then I had to reschedule for a later flight. I left Paris at 12:25 and arrived to Madrid around 3:00. I had to grab my bags from baggage claim because I was going on a new airline, so I had to check in again. I had to go to Terminal 4 in Madrid which is about 10 minutes from the Terminal I arrived to. So I got on the bus to Terminal 4 around 3:25 and I was rushing really fast with all my bags. My flight to Alicante left at 3:55. I went up to the front desk to get a boarding pass. The lady told me that I could not go on the plane because I didn’t have a credit card with me to pay for my extra bag and my mom couldn’t pay over the phone. Then she proceded to tell me that boarding was closed anyways. So sadly I went over to the help desk and asked the lady when the next flight was and it was at 7 in the morning and even if I wanted to wait till then I couldn’t because I would have had to have a credit card with me to change my flight. So, panicking I called my Mom not knowing what to do. I told her and she told me to call my host family. So I hung up and she called me back a few minutes later before I called my host family and said that her best friends sister was in the Madrid airport and she most likely would be able to take me to the train station where I could go to Alicante. That ended up not working out so then my host sister arranged for a Rotarian to pick me up and take me to the train station. So they picked me up and I went to the train station and finally I was on my way to my final destination. My host family was waiting for me at the train station and it was so nice to finally meet them. I was so excited to meet them and see my city and everything. I was starving so my family and I went and got pizza. The pizza here is different than in America but it is still very good. My host parents were talking to me in Spanish and I could barely understand anything but Aida my host sister helped a lot with translating since she is very good at English. After we were done about 11:00 pm we went up to there apartment. The apartment is really nice, it is very spacious with an amazing terrace. I love the apartment and my room! The next day it was an unreal feeling waking up in Spain after I had been waiting to be here for so long. Aida showed me the city on my second day. The city is so cool, it is defintley nothing like I have ever seen in America. The city seems really big to me and there is a lot to do here.  Then after seeing the city the whole family came over and we had a barbaque on the terrace. It was so much fun. I got to meeet the whole family and they all mostly speak spanish but some speak english. As I sat down at the dinner table listening to them speak spanish I got a terrible head ache because it is very exhausting trying to translate the words in my head. It was still so much fun. The next few days I went to Alicante and saw more of the city, and many more things. On Friday I went to Madrid for an orientation for some of the inbound students. I went on a train with four other girls who are all staying in Alicante. Alicante is a town about 20 minutes away from me. Its right on the coast and it is such a pretty city. Anyways we went on the train together and I had so much fun getting to know them and I am so excited to know they live so close to me! For the orientatin we had to stay in tents one night and the next a house. It was really fun meeting the other students in Spain. We talked about all the rules, played games, had a party and more! It was a fun weekend but I am so happy I live in the South because it is so cold in Madrid at night and in the morning! When I got home on Sunday I went and saw Las Fallas. It is figures made out of carboard and wood and they represent things that citizens of Elda don’t like or politics. On Sunday night they burn all of the figures so its like you are burning away the bad things. It was really cool to watch and it was very intresting because we don’t have anything like that in America. When I got home on Sunday night it was 12 and I had schoool the next day. I was really excited for school and to meet new people. So I woke up at 7 and got ready for school. My host dad and sister drove me and my host sister who is in the USA has a friend who goes to my schoool so she was waiting for me to get there and she helped me go to my class and tell me where to go. I am very thankful for her. School was not good. I couldn’t understand anything at all. They talk so fast that I could barely even catch words. I didn’t really talk to many kids but one boy who is really nice helped me a lot. I only had schoool for an hour because it was just orientation. I had a full day of school today and it was really hard and exhausting. It's really frustrating not understanding what anyone is saying to you and what is going on in the class. It's also very hard to make friends because of the language barrier. I am trying hard though and tomorrow I have English and I am so excited for that class I will finally be able to understand something. I was feeling really homesick during school and just thinking how if I was back home I would not have any of these problems. I know that school will get better with time.  So if you guys are wondering about how my Spanish is going, its alright. I have learned a lot of words since I got here. If people talk directly at me and slowly, I can understand what they are saying but If they are having a conversation with someone else I can barely understand anything because they talk so fast. My host sister and I went out and got me a notebook so I can write down all the new words I learn in a day. I think that will be helpful for me because I seem to forget the words they teach me. But my Spanish is improving, maybe not as fast as I would like, but I have only been here for 7 days. Overall, I am having a great time, I am so happy I am here in Spain and I know that I am going to grow and mature so much this year, I can already see it happening. This year wont be easy but I know it will be worth it. Until next time!

Adios,

Brandon Dull