Well today is the end of day five in Spain (I suppose really only day four as the first was all travel time.) The first day consisted of 4 different flight that took me from Des Moines to Chicago to Boston to Madrid and finally to Marbella to meet up with my host parents, Manuel and Maria Luisa, the sister of Maria Luisa, and the daughter of my host sister, Gabriella. I left DM on a Saturday and arrived on Sunday. Sunday was mainly spent adjusting to the seven hour time difference and working on my rusty Spanish. The highlight of the day was being able to see Africa from our patio. The two other days spent in Marbella consisted of laying on the beach and eating. I was able to eat some authenticate Spanish paella, not as good as what Maria Luisa makes but better than what I make. I also took a walk on the beach and took some photos of Antonio Bandaras's house though he didn't invite me in for drinks. Today was spent riding in the car up to Madrid. It took about seven hours including stops which suprised me as I would have thought it was less than that to cross the whole country. Other than that the evening was spent settling into the house just outside of Madrid and trying to get a trip to Lisbon figured out. If things work out this post should also contain a photo of us at lunch the second day in Marbella. Going from my right in the photo we have Maria Luisa's sister, Gabriella, Maria Luisa, Manuel, and two friends of my host parents.