01.03.10

That morning was very interesting and i mean interesting. I was woken up around four-four thirty in the morning by someone standing over me talking German. I was completely thrown of guard by this especially since I had been awaken from a deep sleep and the only thing i could do is say "wait what?" Luckily this kid spoke English too.

He said: "you are sleeping in my bed, my bed is number 203-2 and this is that number, get out of my bed."

I didnt know what to say, it was still completely dark and no lights were on.

"Look you are in my bed, look at my receipt, see the numbers it matches this bed."

I couldnt see shit so I told him we can walk outside and look at everything. Sure enough his receipt said he should be staying in my bed. I told him I will put some clothes on and we talk it over with the front desk. He said some rude remark like you better cause your in my bed-or something along those lines, I was still quite sleepy.

He went down stair, I got dressed and went down to the locker room to get my paperwork. I met him at the front desk and he didnt look happy. We talked with the front desk man(im not sure what to call him) for almost a half an hour trying to sort this out. He couldn't find me in the computer anywhere and he said I was probably supposed to change rooms that night. Well after every we figure out that I didnt have a bed there that night and that I didnt book enough nights and the hostel was completely full.

So upset and disappointed I went back into my room-well his room and gathered up my few thing in there and went down to the lobby. Luckily in this hostel there is an upstairs smoke lounge with a couch and a few chairs so I went up there for the night.
I didn't get shit for sleep because it smelt terrible and the front desk man was blasting this cover songs. To make matters worse his cd only had about eight songs on it so I had to listen to the same song over and over

Finally but not soon enough light and morning came. I eat some breakfast fast and then headed of to the Dom to meet Gabe so we could go to the airport. We get on the metro and head to the airport. It was a very long and tiring ride. Other than thanking Gabe for inviting me to Germany and telling him about my night not much was spoken on this almost half hour ride.

We arrived at the airport over an hour early luckily. It took about fifteen minutes to get my tickets, then Gabe and I said our goodbyes, then into security. You could definitely say that I was new to how things work over there. People were just slowing "cutting" there was through line. I was cut by almost twenty people. Finally I got through as they were starting to seat the last half of my plane.

I made my way to the very last row of the plane, as bad as that seem I believe that those seats recline even farther then regular ones so I didnt mind. This take off was the first time I seriously considered if planes were meant to be flown. As soon as we take off from the airport the plane is taking plunges, moving left and right and shaking terribly. It was fun at first but this continued for almost ten minuets and everything seemed to be getting more severe.

To make things even worse I was sitting next to a lady who must have been terrified of flying and today was not a good day for her to be on a plane. With every jolt of the plane she let out a little gasp or squeak. She was glued to her chair, arms clenching the seat and the wall and her feet braced as hard as possible on the floor. The only time I saw here hands move from clenching on to things was to tighten her seat belt as tight as humanly possible.

Eventually the plane settled down and so did the lady next to me. Soon after I fell asleep. I was sleeping very peacefully and was actually dreaming of snowboarding in the Swiss-Alps. Everything was going so well, it was a nice blue bird day and there was knee deep powder. All of a sudden I hear a squeal and feel a jolt; the plane landed on the ground. I must have made some noise oh ha when the plane was landing or something because the gentleman in front of me turned around looking at me and said" Oh you that that was fun too."

Im still not sure what that meant, but I got off the plane and on to the next. Finally out of all my flights so far I finally got a window seat, I put me head against the wall and was asleep before the plane took of and woke up when when it was landing.

Still not sure what my family looked like I got off the plane a little bit nervous. Got my back and headed out of the terminal. I pulled out my poorly drawn/written sign that said OSCAR VEGA. Sure enough my worst fears were coming true. I walked up and down making eye contact with everyone and making sure that they saw my sign. I walked up and down four or five time when suddenly I heard "Jeremy?"

Irene(Mother) and Sofia(12 years) came walking into sight. Re-leaved I followed them to their car and off to their house. Sofia was a bit shy and didnt say much the whole car trip other than she just had a birthday and she got some new clothes as presents.

Soon I arrived in the beautiful suburb Santa Domingo. This is a very nice upper-middle class neighbor hood. Irene drove me around and showed my Sofia's school and the small mall in their neighborhood.

At the house I met Miguel-13, Gonzalo-9, Cata-5(Dog) and Malco-4(Dog). They are both really nice boys. Luckily they like to play soccer so we did some of that and then Miguel showed me the house. It is a very nice house, I have my own room and a shared bathroom downstairs. It was around dinner time after that so we ate and then it was time for the kids to go to bed. We didnt eat until around nine which is fairly common here in Spain.

I too went to bed so that I could catch up on the rest of my sleep and be ready for my first english lesson tomorrow.
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02.03.10

I woke up fairly early that morning at eight to the beautiful sun and the sound of birds not chirping but whistling different tunes. I stayed in my room for a while and planned out my day and finished my slides of my family for the first english lesson.

When i left my room to go get breakfast I was very unsure of my place here. No one was home, except for the house keeper Margarita who had just arrived,so I had to help myself but felt very weird about doing so in someone else's house with out any sort of permission or introduction. All of that must have been covered in the greetings the night before. It seemed quite strange to me and what im used to to be put in a situation and all that I was told was when my classes were and what time I needed to pick Sofia up from school.

After breakfast I decided to get out and explore the neighborhood. It was a nice sunny day, perfect for a t-shirt, got some music and off i went. I walked down the main road Guadalix and then turned off and headed up the hill. I walked up the hill until i found a nice little park near the top. I sat down and read my madrid book and wrote in my journal.


Not wanting to be late for my first obligation of picking Sofia up from school I headed back to the house however I decided it would be a good/fun idea to take different roads back down to the house. This was going great until the roads I was following down started looping back up the hill but in a different direction. I had to make some fast lucky decisions and eventually found myself back on Guadalix.

With still some time to kill I headed back to the house. I played with the dogs for a bit and then walked to Sofia's school which is only a few blocks away. Only a couple minutes away I notice that Cata is following me, I figured that I left the gate open so in fear I ran back to make sure that Malco was still there.

When I got back Malco was laying inside of the closed fence. A bit confused I put Cata back in and headed back towards the school and within a few minutes Cata was right behind me again. So once again I went back and put her in the gate. This time as soon as I shut it she slips right between the vertical bars and is at my side. Frustrated and confused I took of to the school with Cata by my side.

I arrived just before school was dismissed. On the way back I asked Sofia about Cata and she said the Cata just comes and goes as she pleases and it is impossible to get her to stay in the yard.

Sofia and I returned to the house, got some food, and started our first english lesson. It was very basic and we just talked about some of the things she likes and I showed her a slide show of Missoula and of my family.

Then Gonzalo and Miguel got home. Id did about the same thing with each of the boys however with Miguel there was a lot more conversations because his english is very advanced.

After lessons we sat down for dinner of pasta. It was really good and full of cheese. Shortly after dinner it was time for bed and the kids went of to their rooms and I followed so that I could plan my next day in Madrid.