What a rollercoaster!

Wow... these past 48 hours have been a rollercoaster. When I arrived in Bilbao on Sunday night I successfully hailed a taxi in Spanish and got to my apartment. I was exhausted and had never been happier to be out of an airport. The landlady and her family greeted me and were super welcoming. The apartment is so cute (and tiny), and overall very modern. Both of my roommates have been nothing but amazing. I am so far very glad that I chose to do an apartment instead of a dorm or a homestay. The location of the apartment is less than a minute walk from our classes and is in the hub of shopping centers, bars and cafes.

I was taking all these new things in as I was also starting to feel the jetlag... or so I thought. About 2 hours after moving in I began to feel nauseous and I immediately knew I had food poisoning. I have had food poisoning only a handful times in my life, but this still clued me in immediately that I had food poisoning. I was pretty sure it was from the meal given to me on the plane and my roommate confirmed that she also had gotten sick from a similar meal. Feeling exhausted I attempted to sleep it off, and unfortunately failed. The sickness stuck with me for about 3 hours and it was a bit eye opening to have to be sick in an international country with no food and nothing to calm my stomach. One thing about Spain is that on Sunday's there are few places that actually remain open. On the bright side, after about 3 hours I started to feel like I could start to move again and so I headed out into the cold with my roommate to get some fresh air. We walked for an hour just looking at the buildings. Eventually we met up with my friend (also from NAU) for some pizza that I managed to nibble on. I met other students from my program at dinner and it was such a lively and fun conversation!

After dinner we split ways and my roommate and I headed to the only open store to get 7up and crackers for my stomach. Interestingly enough a very drunk man called me some colorful words after I ignored his catcall, a true Spain experience! Once I got home, I immediately fell asleep and prepared for the first day of orientation.