aventuras de alyssa

Hola! I’m currently in Valladolid, España with the rest of the group for our orientation. My flight was uneventful, which was great! I sat next to a nice man from Alabama who’s been spending the last 3 years traveling to all 50 states in a motor home to provide disaster relief. I watched Mission Impossible: Fallout and slept the rest of the way. I arrived pretty early, found a café and got a Coke in an effort to keep myself awake, which wasn’t hard because my adrenaline was high in anticipation of the trip and finding the rest of the group. At almost 10:30 on the dot, I saw Laura (the CIEE coordinator) walk past and any anxiety I had had disappeared. She is incredibly friendly, accompanied by her colleague Kate (from NY!), and I knew I was in good hands. We waited for the rest of the group (there’s 6 of us in total) and boarded the giant coach bus, which we had to ourselves, at noon. I was fading at this point and nodded off occasionally on the bus trip. I missed some beautiful sights – caught glimpses when my eyes opened – but the nap was much needed.

We arrived at our hotel, Eurona Silken Juan de Austria, and were assigned rooms. The hotel is beautiful and so clean! We had three hours to spare, for a siesta or whatever we felt like doing, and then the group was meeting at 6 pm to walk around Valladolid. I set my alarm for 4:30 pm and was hoping to wake up and write a bit before the walk. Turns out, my roommate and I overslept my alarm and I woke up at 6:30 pm – missing the group! Thankfully, I was able to get my phone to work to call Laura and my roommate and I met up with the group, albeit pretty late to the game. We saw a bit of the city, which is basically one main strip with quaint alleyways. The architecture reminds me a bit of Madrid.

After our little exploration, it was time for dinner in the hotel. We had gazpacho, chicken wings and fries, and an assortment of fruit for dessert. The juxtaposition of the gazpacho and wings was interesting – a mish mosh of Spanish and American culture at one dinner! Laura and Kate went up to bed and the rest of us went to the adjoining bar, where I dangerously discovered that a whole entire bottle of wine is only 10 EUR!!! Wild compared to NYC where just a glass is $12. I don’t think I fully realized the disparity in price when I interned here in 2014, mainly because I hadn’t moved to NYC full time by then. We got two bottles and shared stories of growing up in our different regions of the US and how we got here.

Tomorrow is a day of orientation and then we’re being picked up by our host families, since school starts on Wednesday! It’s been a whirlwind so far and I’m so excited!

This is our group in Plaza Mayor, Valladolid! From left to right: Kate from CIEE, Kahori (from El Paso), Zach (from Indianapolis), Tonisha (from Cali), me!!, Amanda (from Denver) and Brandon (from Indianapolis too). We have a pretty decent chunk of America covered, which is pretty cool! I’m excited to get to know everyone better and meet my host family 🙂

I’ll be back tomorrow!!