Leaving NYC

We arrived at Berkeley Carroll in the late morning with mostly giant but some small suitcases and all fearful but excited faces. There wasn't much to do once we arrived though, so we started wandering around to find last minute necessities or food cravings. We went to lunch at 67 burger, our last real American meal. At last we dragged our suitcases out of the door to the bus to conquer the hours and hours of travel. Because the plane wasn't full, most of us had an extra seat in the row that we used to stretch over as we attempted to sleep (mostly unsuccessfully). As we started to fly into Spain, we were lucky enough to follow the sun and see the most incredible sunrise welcome us into Madrid. When we arrived, we started trying to adjust, finding it difficult to order our sandwiches in Spanish. After a long layover of card games, snacks and attempts at accessing the wifi, we boarded our plane from Madrid to Granada, walking out onto the Tarmac to breath our first breaths of Spanish air, which was surprisingly cold.  Our one hour flight went by quickly and soon enough we were on our bus to get dropped off with our buddies, shaking in our chairs from nervousness and excitement. The first buddy we saw was Jess's, Andrea, who was holding a huge "bienvenidos Jessica" sign. We watched as a few of our students left our group to go join their new "Hermanos españoles."


Finally those of us with Hermanos at the high school Soto De Rojas arrived to a huge gathering of our buddies and their parents and ran out to give them all hugs and two kisses. The excitement snd nervousness made my body shake and mouth unable to speak Spanish, but after a few minutes I was sitting down at the table for lunch with my family, and I already felt at home. After lunch we sat on my bed talking for hours about everything. I was able to speak and understand more than I thought I would. Within hours I saw my Spanish improving, and after a couple of days it's even obvious to others. Sometimes Spanish comes quicker to me than English, even when I'm talking to Americans.

¡Besos! - Emily & Camille