Good Golly, I'm living in Spain.

The road goes ever on and on...

Well!  This is my blog.  About living in Madrid as an Au Pair.  I'll just go at it then.

My journey started at 4 in the morning at a somewhat sketchy hotel in Tacoma.  I had one and a half days of airplane travel ahead of me.  For some crazy reason, I thought it would be cheaper to fly to London first and then Madrid, in the end it was about the same, though I had 10 more hours of travel.  I got through my three flights and hours and hours of waiting in the airport without a hitch.  Thank god for those duty-free stores with loads of perfume and makeup for me to play with.  I arrived in Madrid at 10:30 the next evening, exhausted and somewhat bedraggled, for in two of my three flights I was stuck on the window side of a old, large, and grumpy couple.   

Carmen (the mother) and the two kids I am to take care of, Jose(10) and Felipe(12), were there to welcome me.  The family is lovely, the father, Felipe, is a surgeon, and Carmen is a family physician.  I'm set for medical emergencies.  They live in a large house in the north part of central Madrid, and the house has all marble floors.  Woah.  All marble floors.  It floored me.  

I have my own mini-suite, complete with bathroom.  And marble floors.  These are especially important because marble is 11 degrees F at room temperature.  The rumors are true.  Its hot here.  Siesta is a survival skill.  I made the mistake of walking to the park at about 3:30 yesterday, and it was a ghost town.  For good reason, I did not stay 2 minutes it was so hot. 

I haven't started Spanish classes yet, and the boys haven't started school, so things are quite relaxed until Tuesday.  I am well settled in, and have had  a chance to explore the city a little, this morning we went to the Sunday Market at El Rastro. Its huge and glorious, I didn't get pickpocketed.  It was at this market where I tried something that I never thought I would.  Caracoles.  Snails.  Oh boy.  Carmen assured me this was the best restaraunt to eat them, and that they were "typical espanish".  Well, I did it.  I at 4 snails.  Suprisingly, they tasted good, but I couldn't quite get past the idea.  I'll have to work on that.  

  Everyone thought I was going to Madrid. Nope!  Living in good 'ol Nebraska.