May 6, 2019 - Katt Harville

An eight-hour flight doesn’t quite feel like an eight-hour flight until you take your first steps off of the airplane and you feel your joints scream. By the time we had navigated our way through Madrid’s airport all I wanted to do was run a couple miles and then pass out for the rest of the day. Despite the majority of us struggling to keep our eyes open, we pressed on through the rest of the day (literally the whole day, we arrived at 7:00AM).

The morning consisted of meetings with our ISA agents and a large group lunch following. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get used to the differences in meal sizes. Typically, while in the states I eat small sized salads for lunch most days- here the amount of food is HUGE. Lunch was a three-course meal, and I was no wear near close to finishing my servings. Also, the time differences when people eat are quite later than in the United States. I knew about this difference way in advance but waiting until 9:00PM or later doesn’t seem like it’ll be as easy of a task to do as I initially thought.



During our afternoon we had the opportunity to tour the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, which is Spain’s national museum of 20th century art. In general, I’m a huge fan of art museums so I was excited to hear that we were touring here. What I didn’t realize before arriving was my favorite artist of all time, Salvador Dalí, had some of his work displayed here. It was incredible finally seeing artwork I had previously researched in person. We also got to see many other famous artists work, such as Pablo Picasso and Francisco Goya!

Face of the Great Masturbator, 1929 - Dali

The Invisible Man, 1929 - Dali

 After exploring the museum, we were given time to adventure out on our own and explore Madrid. We ended up splitting up into groups and finding small restaurants for dinner that were near our hotel. My group was feeling a bit adventurous, as we just continued to walk with no real direction or idea of where we were going until we found a random spot that worked for everyone. Despite the language barriers we all managed to communicate with our server, which I think I can say we are all proud about. With that our day came to an “earlier” than normal end, but after being up for what seems like an eternity we are all ready to sleep.

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