Back from dinner and ready to crash. My dreams did come true - tapas AND sangria. I made sure to drink a glass of water for every glass of sangria. Hung over and jet lagged = no fun. Gloria has a friend in the city who graduated from the Suffolk MA program a year ago. He, Diego, walked us around the area near the restaurant - Plaza Mayor and the Placio Real. I've already grabbed the pictures off my camera.

Our tour guide at the restaurant told us the building was part of old caves used by bandits when they came into the city from the hills. The local police were afraid to venture into the caves because few came back alive! Now the caves are funky bars and tapas places. You can sort of see the curved walls in the first picture. In the Plaza Mayor, touristy shops sell bandit masks and capes, ala Zoro. Very funny. The people in the picture are about half of the students attending various Suffolk classes this June.

The second picture is a Cathedral across from the Real Palace. I'm off to bed, even though at 10pm it is still light here! Buonas noches.

I have arrived! As my boyfriend would say, I'm feeling a bit squirrel-y. It is 7:30am in Boston but 1:30pm in Madrid. I've slept maybe 3 hours, so forgive any nonsense. I'm blogging from the apartment I'm sharing with my colleague for the month. It is SO cute (read: small in that Euro way), clean, in an central area, and we've got wireless DSL! Yay for the worldwide Internet. I should have no problem keeping in touch. This evening all the Suffolk students and faculty (about 50 total) are meeting for a TAPAS dinner! Right now I plan to unpack - those who know me, know I can't wait to unpack) and then sleep for a couple of hours. I've jumped right into summer; it is hot, but dry here.

If you ever fly in to Madrid, you will arrive in Terminal 4. It is brand new and looks like something out of a Kubrik space movie. LONG corridors, lots of glass and strange objects that appear to have more form than function. We had to walk nearly a mile (no, really) to get from the gate, through customs to our bags. As we exited the terminal, a group of Suffolk-Madrid people were waiting for us holding Bienvenida Suffolk signs. It felt quite wonderful to receive a warm and familiar welcome. Well, as I said, I'm off to bed for a bit. More later...Did I say, I'm having TAPAS later! And, if my dreams really do come true, some sangria!