It's hard to believe that I have only been in Spain for a couple of days. It seems like much longer! I left Monday afternoon and arrived in Santander, Spain at about 11am Spain time on Tuesday--but not without a mad dash through the Madrid airport first. Luckily, since there was a large group of us coming from Madrid, they held the connecting flight to Santander by about 30 minutes so that we could all board.
Upon arriving in Santander, we picked up our luggage and headed to our school, the UIMP (Universidad Internacional de Menéndez Pelayo), where we met our host families. I will be spending the next eight weeks with an older couple who love being a host family and have been hosting MSU students for 15 years! They are very patient with me when I don't understand what they are saying, which is very appreciated. However, I have probably agreed to several things that I didn't know I was agreeing to (when you don't know what else to say, you usually end up just saying "si" or "vale", which means "okay").
Today, we had our first day of classes. I am taking a media and conversation course, a literature class, and a Spanish culture course. All of them seem like they will be interesting, especially with the enthusiastic professors!
Tonight, we had a tour of Palacio de Magdalena, a beautiful palace overlooking the bay, and also visited the Faro de Cabo Mayor, a lighthouse on a cliff. Then we made our way to El Centro, the downtown area, and visited what I'm sure will be our first of many heladerías (ice cream shops). It was delicious and the MSU Dairy Store ice cream has some new competition!

This is the view off of the coast. Santander is very hilly and there are mountains very close to the city.  

All in all, it's been a great, albeit busy, first two days. 

¡Buenos noches!