Snow!

It snowed here this morning. That's rare enough in Madrid, but it apparently it hasn't snowed like this in 40 years! Earlier we saw some people -- grown men included -- tossing snowballs in the street; everyone's in awe. Pretty cool. We'll decide it's a good sign.

For a more detailed, boring narrative:

We arrived yesterday morning, Madrid time, all exhausted. (My flight was long but I sat next to some nice chatty Españoles from Toledo.) We had pretty much all day to chill with our host [families] and explore our neighborhoods. My "roommate" Joslyn -- we have our own rooms -- and I only have one host-person, una señora named Pilar. They're both very nice, the apartment is roomy, the food's great, etc.

This morning at the Hamilton Center there was more time to get to know other people in the program, along with a bunch of general info sessions by the family of directors (who are all awesome). Later, some of us went shopping in Sol; I bought a converter to finally use my computer (yesss).

We all look like tourists, big-time. Oh well.

The transition to speaking Spanish all the time is a little rough, mostly because it just leaves both ends of the conversation feeling incompetent. That'll get better, at least somewhat (I hope).

Tomorrow, we leave for a week-long orientation traveling through the south. So far, so good!