Mi numero de telefono

I just got a cell phone in Spain and the number is:

+34-622-147-129

Just thought I would post this on here in case anyone has an international calling plan or something and wants to call me! Or in case of emergency... Either way :)

Its free for me to receive calls and texts so if you want text me that is always another option! just make sure you tell me who you are, since I have no phone numbers in here.

xoxo

Mi casa en Valladolid

Buenos Tardes!

So today is Wednesday, my first full day in Valladolid. Unfortunately I slept horribly last night because my bed is extremely springy and every time I turned a different way I got a spring to the rib. hah... OH WELL! Guess I will have to learn how to handle that. Today we woke up and went straight to the student union at the university which is about a 30 min walk. Then we took a spanish placement test to see which class we will be in. There are some other international students here as well, some from Wisconsin and others from all over the world. I met someone from Germany, from China, and from Sweden. That will be fun to get to know those people!

After we took a tour of Valladolid and our professors from Cal Poly pointed out important places to us such as the post office (be expecting post cards soon), Plaza Mayor, the book store, etc. This place seems kind of confusing now but I know that soon I will be able to navigate my way through the streets. We still haven't figured out the bus system yet but tomorrow I think we are going to take the bus to our language class.

Talking to some of the other Cal Poly students we are lucky that we have internet in our house because a lot of them don't! So you all should be excited as well :)

I took a few pictures of the house so you could see where I will be living for the next 3 months... It is really cute!

This is the kitchen, its small but has everything you would need: refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, oven, microwave, and the washer is in here too!

This is the living room where I can get the internet but I can also sometimes get it in my room too

Hallway by the front door and my roommate Laurel!

Hallway leading to all of the different rooms. I am standing right outside my door and at the end and to the left is the kitchen/living room. The first door on the left is my bathroom, the doors on the right are my madre's room and her daughters room.

My room! My bed is on the right next to the window which actually looks into the laundry room... so no windows to the outside. We each have our own small closets and those are on the wall to the left.

Finally, Valladolid!!!!!

Buenos Noches mis amigos!

So I haven't updated in a few days... I have been very busy and haven't had time to do everything that I want! But now I am officially in Valladolid. So excited to be here as well :)

Before I talk about Valladolid I will tell you a bit about Madrid. We went to the Reina Sofia which is a modern art museum with works by Picasso and Dali. It was very cool. We also went to a small town near Madrid (I forget the name right now, Ill look it up later). I loved it there! There were so many cute buildings and they were all so colorful. The people were also very nice. We walked around and visited a palace/basilica/library from the 16th century. The people in Madrid were not very nice... I dont know if that was because we were 45 americans in a large group going everywhere or what. I hope that the people of Valladolid are nicer and more patient.

Now about Valladolid! We got here about 5 pm, a lot later than we were supposed to so our families were waiting for us at the bus station for a long time. It was because all of our luggage didn't fit in the bus! So we had to rent a separate car in order to fit everything. I could have told them that everything wasnt going to fit in the beginning! 45 people with 2 giant suitcases each... UGH! Anyway, we got off the bus and our mama was there waiting for us when we got off the bus. It all happened so fast! We met, she helped us with our luggage (My roommate Laurel and I) and we drove to her apartment. At first glance Valladolid is very clean, metropolis kind of city. They have big apartment buildings and there are lots of people! Her house is on the top floor of a big apartment and she has the entire floor. Its a very big place with lots of rooms. Laurel and I are sharing a room and we each have a closet and one window that is actually just a window to another room! but it will be fine. I will take pictures later and put them up on here to show how the apartment looks.

Mi mama es muy simpatica. She is 41 years old and has one daughter who is 24. I haven't met her daughter yet, I think she said she was at work or school or something. She does live here though. She has 9 brothers and sisters! most of which live very close to her. One of them lives on the 3rd floor of this apartment. She has lived in Valladolid her entire life and has been hosting exchange students for 9 years. So she knows pretty much exactly what we need/want which is very nice. She is also very patient with us and our spanish. It has already been a challenge communicating with her about certain things. I dont even know what we are doing tomorrow and how we get to the school! I guess I will just have to learn as we go... She is a nurse and works either in the night or in the morning so sometimes we will be on our own for dinner/lunch but she said that she will leave stuff out for us when she has to work.

I still cant believe I am here!!!! THis is crazy! I said to my roommate as we were unpacking our suitcases, "what are we doing in this foreign country again?!" We start school tomorrow, which will be weird getting into again because I haven't had school in so long. We will be taking a test to see which spanish class we will place into and then after taking a tour of Valladolid.

I do miss home a lot, but I think once I get into the groove of things everything will be a lot better. I just wish I knew more spanish! Oh well... I will learn, thats for sure!

Love you guys :)

Mi viaje a Toledo y Museo del Prado

Buenos Tardes! So these last few days have been amazing. After the fiasco with my luggage was all taken care of (I received my luggage last night after returning from Toldeo) I have been having a very good time. Yesterday we went to Toledo on a bus about an hour away from where we are staying. It is a very big tourist city and a very historical one as well. It was beautiful, but I was exhausted so I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Mi parte favorito fue el Catedral de Toledo. It’s huge! The 3^rd largest Cathedral in all of Europe. It is in the center of the city and it is also considered the “heart of Catholic Spain”.

Catedral de Toledo

We have our own tour guide that travels with us everywhere we go, telling us about the historical significance of all the different buildings, streets, architecture, etc. That is very nice to have because otherwise I would be walking around looking at all of these beautiful buildings with no idea about why they are so important to Spain. The walking tour of Toledo yesterday was very informational, but like I said I was just really exhausted and still jet lagged so I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked.

Me!... I know I'm such a dork

The Toledo skyline

The food. Ok so most of the food I have been eating is with my 50 person group at various restaurants and I have yet to have a quality meal. I am so down to try new things, however, when the quality of the food is poor I don’t like to venture too far out of the box. I think we haven’t had very good luck with the food yet just because we are such a large group and the places have been mass producing the food. I am really looking forward to going out on my own for Tapas etc so I can really experience some good food.

Last night was the first night that I went out. I was still tired so I ended up just going to a small bar and getting a beer. We met up with some friends of friends that are also studying in Madrid but have been here for about 3 weeks so they know their way around the city pretty well already. So that was fun!

So far I have found the people in Madrid have not been super friendly, but not necessarily rude either. I think its because we have been traveling in a large group (50 plus people) that people aren’t that friendly.

Hoy, fuimos a Museo del Prado. This was a very cool experience. Although I am not a huge art fanatic it was interesting hearing about the history of the different paintings and artists. My favorite were all of the Velazquez paintings. The history behind them and the style of paintings he does are right up my alley. We also had a guide there to tell us about the different works of art.

I have been making friends in the group but not necessarily sticking with one group or person, which is fun because I am getting to know everyone. I can’t wait to get to Valladolid to meet my host family and get settled! I am really enjoying myself but of course I am a little homesick. I miss everyone a lot! I think I am going to take a siesta now, because I only got like 4 hours of sleep last night because we had to wake up so early. Anyway, love you all J

Xoxo

Abby

At last!

I am finally here! These past 36ish hours have been the longest hours of my life. I have been stressed, excited, panicked, angry, tired, and anxious. I will start from the beginning: My flight from LA was an hour and a half late, making every connection flight from then on late too. So basically instead of arriving in Madrid at 12 noon I didn’t get here until 7 pm. Being my first trip abroad ever and being by myself this was a really stressful for me. Especially since 3 of my layovers were in a different country! This was my flight schedule: LA to Detroit to Amsterdam to Paris to Madrid. Kind of crazy right? Oh and I also had to SPRINT to all of my gates because they were so close together in time. Leaving me with bruises on my feet from my stupid loafers and I’m pretty sure I have shin splints now.

As if that wasn’t enough when I arrived in Madrid of COURSE my bags weren’t there. So the airline will deliver them tomorrow morning. Until then I get to wear the same clothes I have been wearing for about 36 hours.

But the most important thing is that I am HERE! I met up with the group at the Plaza Mayor and we had dinner there all together. It was nice to meet up with Cal Poly people but I still don’t have any close friends in the group so I’m still pretty out of my element.

I didn’t take any pictures today because I was by myself almost the entire day and I didn’t want to stand out like a tourist because I figured I was kind of an easy target. Tomorrow we are going to Toledo and will be there the entire day. I will take lots of pictures there of course!

All in all it was a good learning experience and I feel like now that I have done that by myself I can pretty much do anything J

Hasta Luego!

Abby Mathis

Leaving on a jet plane

Today I am finally leaving!! I think these past two days have been the longest days of my life. I wish I could just skip ahead 24 hours and already be in Madrid, in my cozy hotel room waiting to go on a tour. I am very anxious/nervous/scared to travel all by myself across the world. I think this is the part that I have been dreading the most. I have two GIANT bags with my entire life in them that I will have to carry all by myself. I'm kind of rethinking the decision of taking so much stuff! Oh well... too late now.

My next post I will be IN SPAIN. That is so crazy! Finally, the day has come that I have been looking forward to for months. Hasta Luego!

Abby

This is my bed with 3 months worth of clothes on it?! It doesn't really look like that much...

My first post! Well I wanted to write something before I left just about my trip in general. Started packing yesterday, which I probably should have done earlier but I will still get everything done. This is so crazy that in a day and a half (allowing for travel time) I will be in a different country and won't be coming back for 3 months! I return on December 18th, just in time for Christmas.

I have never been to a different country. Hard to believe, right? Well I guess if you count Rosarito, Mexico as a different country then I have, but other than that I have never ventured outside of the US borders. My first time abroad I will be living there for 3 months. That is just so crazy for me to wrap my head around.

The town that I am staying in is named Valladolid. It is north west of Madrid and from what I heard is about an hour and a half train ride to Madrid. The town itself is made up of a lot of students from the University of Valladolid, and there will also be lots of international students there. My classes consist of two Cal Poly Ag business classes, taught by the professors that are going on the trip with us, and two spanish classes at the University. I think I will be in class with lots of other international students so that will be really cool getting to know some of them as well.

This trip is through Cal Poly so the cool thing is that I am going with a group of about 40 Cal Poly students and all of my units that I will be taking will transfer over no problem! I will also be staying with a host family with one other person from my Cal Poly group. This is the part of the experience that I am most excited/nervous about. I don't know anything about the family except for their name, and I'm not sure how many people are in the family. I am hoping it won't be too hard to communicate with them at first considering my Spanish is not that good...

Must finish packing now, and then off to do some more errands on my LAST DAY in the US! EEEKKKK!!!!!

Abby

p.s. here is my address just in case anyone wants to send me some snail mail :)

Abby Mathis

Centro de Idiomas, FG, UVa

Ciudad Universitaria Miguel Delibes

c/ Cementerio, s.n.

47011 Valladolid

Spain