Day 1

I made it to Spain. After waking up at 4 AM on Monday morning and not sleeping again until at least 24 hours later, I made it to Spain. Honestly, the worst part of the whole experience was waiting in Chicago for hours on end. I arrived around 8:30; my next flight didn't leave until 5. After struggling to find my gate for a bit (it wasn't on the monitors cause I was just a tad early. Iberia airlines wasn't even set up at the gate at the time) I hopped from chair to chair for changes of pace while I amused myself with Pokemon and my new Star Wars novel. Eventually, people from the SIS group began to arrive. This is where I should say I ran up, introduced myself, and began discussing the wonders that awaited us in Seville. Instead I sat quietly with my book. Eventually my phone began to die so I had to move to plug it in. This led to my first social interaction of the day since 9 AM when I told the flight attendant for Air Tokyo that I wasn't getting on the plane since power outlets are prime real estate in airports. Eventually the other student from Geneva arrived, so I had a familiar face to talk to. The next bit of socializing took place on the plane. I talked to the girl I was sitting beside, and my screams of excitement in regards to Lord of the Rings being on the movie list for the flight sparked some conversation with another girl (there's only three other guys even in this group. I'm not seeking out the ladies, they're just literally the majority of people I can talk to). Towards the end of the flight, after watching two movies, beating the computer in chess, playing a bunch of other in-flight games, and watching our flights progress, I began to loosen up quite a bit. This is mostly since I hadn't slept the entire 8 hour flight.  We landed in Madrid in the early morning, which was weird because it was super dark out and felt like night. But the sun eventually came up, so it actually was morning. There we waited some more until our flight to Seville left. After well-over 24 hours without sleep, my body went on autopilot and I was out cold the entire flight from Madrid to Seville. It was only a 45 minute nap, but it was good nonetheless. After getting off the plane I endured the usual panic of "what-if-my-bag-isnt-here?", but as always my bag showed up in one piece (which is a big deal cause I forgot to lock it). Its purple color got me quite a few comments (thanks MOM). I think a girl actually picked it up because she thought it was hers. But anyway, we all loaded up into buses and headed out to be picked up by our host families. Right off the bat the director lady tells us that greetings are done with "besitos" (little kisses). Its the usual european kiss-the-air-beside-their-face. Just great. I just met these people and I have to get all up on them. I was okay with that for the mom of the family. Wasn't expecting it for the 23-year old daughter. Thankfully, I'm super suave and just kinda rolled into like I knew I was supposed to do that. Also thankfully, guys just shake hands. Right off the bat though when Marga (mom) started speaking to me,  my brain looked like this:

WE THREW OUT THE SPANISH!!!

I've only been here a few hours and conversing with the family has been quite the chore. Very fun when we get on a roll of understanding each other; very awkward when I have no idea what a word means they say. They've already taught me some new words like "to hunt" which I've since forgotten, "ciervo" = deer, some other words the dad (Sera) taught me that again I've forgotten, and told me which Seville futbol team to root for. After a wonderful lunch of potatoes, bread and meat, the family took a siesta, which I think is the most wonderful thing ever done. They literally just stop everything to chill for a bit. The dad even comes home from work for it. After a brief battle with the wi-fi, I'm all hooked up and ready to go. If I do anything else tonight, it will probably be checking out the gym that the son (whose nickname is something like "toto", but im not sure) and daughter (also named marga) go to. Tomorrow starts orientation!

Nos vemos!