Day One

-Sorry for the delay, but we didn't have internet in Madrid- On June 16, we flew on a 9 hour flight to Paris, France. It was not a fun experience. The flight was full of intense turbulence, disturbing our sleep.  We arrived in Paris at around 8:45 AM, all exhausted and tired of flying. Our plane let us off in the middle of a field, so we had to take a bus to the main terminal and you would have thought we were driving to Madrid it was so far. We go through customs and go to wait for our connecting flight to Madrid. Starving, we all run to find snacks in the airport. It was an experience ordering food because I had no knowledge at all about the language, but good thing Shelby was there to help me out. We got on our 2.5 hour flight to Madrid and I immediately fell asleep. After landing in Madrid, we go to get our luggage. Thankfully, everyone's luggage made it to Madrid. After we got our luggage, we met up with our two National Geographic Guides, Megan and Davin. Then, we got on our charter bus and drove to Hostal Nuria, the hostel where we were staying. I was shocked at the conditions of Madrid; it was definitely not what I had expected. First of all, there was a ton of construction all over the city and it was full of people, making it really chaotic. We made it to the hostel and got our room assignments, all the guys were together and then the girls were grouped into groups of four. The hostel was actually really nice, our room had four twin beds and TV with only spanish channels. Conner got dilusional, and told me all about his artwork. Robert, well he's an idiot, those comments are really starting to get to me. Brandon, he sleeps next to me. Well he's not sleeping right now because he found Patron. For some reason he thinks that the middle courtyard is an alien landing stip. Weirdo. After getting settled in we started exploring the city and taking photographs. Forty-five minutes from leaving the hostel, we notice a member of the group is missing, yes missing. Connor had disappeared on the first day. The teachers and group leaders immediately head out to find out where we lost him. We waited around for a good 30 min and we were all certain we would never find him. How good would that have sounded; "National Geographic Student disappeared on the first day of trip." Don't worry though, they found him, in the hostel Turns out we left him there. Exhausted from jet let, we all went back to the hostel and crashed.