Madrid 2018: Día 1

Part 1:

27 months. Who does THAT?! Doing my research ahead of time allowed me to offer this trip to my students more than 2 years out, creating a more affordable opportunity to travel since the payments were spread out for so long.  

A group of 29 emerged but only 16 of them current students or newly minted graduates. We are an eclectic bunch from 8 to 67 years old and I love it. Remi is also joining for his first ever student trip and his instructions are pretty much "don't talk to me, I am working." There are two students who have traveled the world with me and their job is... you guessed it: Remi! This arrangement permits me to take students out in the eve (those midnight churros aren't gonna appear themselves!) but also the old (ish) students don't miss out on every evening event since they are splitting the duty. Wish them luck?

We always get paired up with schools from somewhere in the US and we've met Texans, Michiganders, Floridians, you name it, along the way. This time we are with a group with Granada High School, 30 mins away from our house. Pro: I got to have dinner with their teacher leader a few weeks ago and she is awesome. More pro: if the groups get along, they are close to each other for reunions and reminiscing. Concern: the school is way more well off than we are and I don't want that to be an issue (sometimes Logan get a little self conscious about that).

My wish is to have a great trip, SMOOTH FLIGHTS, make new friends, experience my favorite country in the world, practice the language and eat some amazing food. I don't ever ask for much, do I? 

In the meantime,  our amigos are in the air somewhere between Toronto and Madrid and Remi and I got a separate itinerary (don't ask!) and are running 6 hours behind everyone. For now, I'll sit back, (try) to relax and enjoy the (sky) show. 

Part 2:

Upon landing in Madrid, an EF tour director  (not ours) met Remi and I with a taxi and took us back to the hotel. I enjoyed a shower and by 4:30 met some very dead students. The exhaustion has officially kicked in. I soon figured out that the original schedule I was given wasn't followed and they needed a fearless leader they didn't have that morning. Z to the rescue! 

They had gone to the Prado Museum which is probably the worst thing you can do to a large group of half asleep people, and to top it off they weren't given guide! "Hi, this is the third largest museum in the world, here is an old handout, go find these paintings you know nothing about." Wha???? Needless to say they sat down and tried not to fall asleep, total Prado opportunity wasted. 

By the time I saw them, they had another hour and a half of free time, were bored (I'm sure I have never heard that word before on any of my trips!) and were desperate for some guidance. To say that I am disappointed in EF would be quite an understatement. 100% of the time the kids are exhausted from fun, not boredom. I sat down with our tour director, shared some of my thoughts and now I think she hates me. Oh well. Upon further investigation of our schedule,  I discovered that tomorrow there is 7 hours of free time and on Thursday 5. Omg no. Don't you worry, I am on it and we have quite a fun plan set. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!

After dinner (reviews ranged from 2 to 5 on a 5 star scale), we got back to the hotel, showered, we journaled and some of us went for churros while others decided to stay back and sleep.

On our way to Churrería San Gines, we walked through Plaza Mayor (old bullring, now a focal point of the city) and Puerta del Sol, took pictures of Kilometro Cero (central point of Madrid from which all the freeways are measured), talked about Spanish meal schedule, fake Louis Vutton bag salesmen and learned what a hostel is.

As a side note, our hotel couldn't be in a better location (hello, center of it all!) and I'm so proud of our kids for wanting to try local food. I'm excited to show off Spanish specialties and I have a feeling (most) of these guys will be adventurous. 

I know tomorrow will be a much better day.  It's amazing what a night of sleep and a plan can do and we are all set to get this thing started properly.