Finalmente una biblioteca!!

Well i´m in madrid and finally found my biblioteca so i can use the internet for free for 45 minutes (this time at least). i arrived on saturday in the afternoon from italy and my padre and hermano were in the airport waiting for me although we were supposed to find our way to their houses on our own. que suerte! my dad´s name is Kike (like "Quique") and my mom is Lucia and lucia has 2 kids, Ivan (15)and Victoria (11) and Kike has 2 kids, Lucas (15) and Bruno (12) and now they are a new big happy family. our house is a work in progress because they moved there in july and a dentist and his family lived there before and Kike is making many changes so right now our kitchen is outside of our house and one day i didn't have hot water for a shower because it was unplugged so he could work on things in the kitchen. it's very interesting, though, and pretty crazy around the house with that many kids of those ages and all in school now and a house that is under construction and 3 dogs and we live basically in the suburbs. it pretty much takes me 40 minutes to get anywhere (or longer) by metro. I have a 10 minute walk to the nearest metro stop, too (Arturo Soria, for those who know madrid). it´'s nice though because it's a more residential area, but we are still in the city, so it's quieter but it's not like i'm out in la mancha (think don quijote).

we started class on monday and they all should be alright. i´ve done all my reading in parks and seen a fair amount of the city so far. when i have to travel so far, it´s easy to know a lot more about the city. this afternoon i have class in the prado museum to see some el greco works. last night we have a welcome dinner that carleton paid for and that was wonderful- i made sure to get the most expensive dessert at the end, too. then we went out with the monitores (madrilenos who are in their 20s and are there to help us acclimate and experience the city, and whatever else we need help with. and then i had to go back to my house really late by one of the night buses and i was a little lost, but it only took about 5-10 minutes to find where i was supposed to be.

p.s. i promise i'll do my best to keep in touch and get some pictures up here...