Old Friends/New Friends

I haven't posted in a few days and a lot has happened! On Wednesday, a few friends and I went to Retiro Park. It is a huge park located near the center of Madrid. It is so big and it is so beautiful, even in the winter. I am posting some pictures from the park in a slideshow at the bottom of my blog so check them out. We had a lot of fun exploring the park and of course taking a bunch of pictures including the one above. After Retiro, I got to go and meet my host family before I move in with them on Sunday! I was definitely really nervous to meet them but also excited. I had to go there all by myself, thankfully I was able to make it there without getting lost. It is really hard to navigate Madrid because the streets aren't linear and perpendicular to each other. They are all over the place, and they aren't very well marked either. Thank goodness for google maps. I put a map on my ipod and managed to get there "sin complicaciónes" However, I did accidentally ring the wrong buzzer twice. I literally sat there for 5 minutes waiting to get buzzed in, thinking my host family already hated me. Of course once I figured out my mistake they buzzed me in right away! It was so nice to meet all of them. They are actually a four generational family! I have a host mom and dad, and then the mom's mom and the mom's daughter and the daughter's son live with them as well. I met all of them except the daughter. They were so nice and the daughter's son is named Omar and he is pobably around 5 years old. He is so cute and he talks a lot which is great for me! The next day, after my classes, I went to visit Marina and her family. Marina was an exchange student that stayed with my family about 9 years ago. She came for a month in the summer of of 2002 and 2003 and in 2004 my whole family went to visit her family here in Madrid. I got to visit them again in the summer of 2008 when I came to Madrid on a trip through my high school. It was so nice to see her and her family again! I ate lunch with Marina and her mom and then chatted with them for a while after. I was happy because I was there for 3 hours and I spoke in Spanish the entire time! It was a baby step towards fluency!