Just got back from a long weekend!
     Thursday I didn't go back to school after lunch so I could pack. Silvia and I left the house and picked up another exchange student one town over, named Tanner from South Carolina. We got to Guadalarmaa and there were so many people! Half of them were ROTEX, which means helper who has been on exchange before. That night we just met everyone, played some games, and ate dinner, in bed around 11:00.
     FRIDAY: Woke up around 8:15 to get ready for breakfast which was at nine. Went back up to the room to get our Rotary blazers, passports, business cards, etc. Went to a sort of orientation where we watched videos, asked questions, exchanged pins, gave our Rotary banners, and got our health insurance. From there we split into groups by district. I am in the Madrid district, we are going to have get togethers with everyone in our district about every 45 days to go to museums, shopping, etc. After that we got into even smaller groups with a ROTEX and they asked for our return date home, cell numbers, passport expiration date, have we met with our counselor, do we have an emergency fund. Now it was picture time! We got into a big group first, then by district. After this we had lunch then siesta time for an hour and a half. at 4:30 we started playing dub games, but we eventually started to have some fun. After dinner at 9 or so we danced, listened to loud music, performed skits, and played singing games- girls against boys. Went to bed around 1:30.

     SATURDAY: Woke up around the same time- had to clean the room and ate breakfast at 9 again. We went back upstairs to finish packing and by the time I got downstairs Tanner's host parents were there to pick us up. After taking a few pics with the girls, we left at 10. Tanner's host parents are so sweet, they took us to El Castillo de Manzanares Real ( The Castle of the Apple Orchards) It was so beautiful and the weather was amazing. We were there for a little over an hour, then we drove back to their house in Majadahonda- I spent the day with them because Silvia and Rafa were in Portugal for a wedding. We took naps right when we got to the house, then woke up for a big lunch of spaghetti an meatballs, bread, and yogurt for dessert. Tanner and I hung out in his room after that, playing go fish, emailing, and playing guitar. We watched a Tori Spelling murder mystery with his host parents until 7:15 when Tanner's friends came over and we went to their house to play guitar. They are literally so good I almost cried listening to them. We left there at 8:30 to go back for dinner, but were gonna meet up later to go to la Fiesta de Majadahonda.

TO BE CONTINUED...