Estamos Aqui!

In case you've never taken intermediate Spanish (or are Mallory Price), that title translates to "We're Here!" After a dramatic and loooong day of traveling, the three of us have officially arrived in Madrid and have settled cozily into Casa de Isabel. While Laura and Mal had very few hiccups with the airport situation this morning (yesterday morning?), I panicked about a three hour flight delay and thus my dad came to the rescue and one thing led to another and I flew first class into JFK and after we landed, the girl in front of me gave me two fashion magazines, though whether she did this because she had to listen to me sniffling the entire flight or because she thought I had really poor style is still unclear. After making eye contact with Mark Ruffalo while I gaped open-mouthed in the security line, I reunited with Mal and Laura, much to the disdain of fellow airport-goers. We bought some identical apple brie sandwiches and eventually boarded the (slightly delayed) flight to Madrid, during which I took off my boots and then watched one get pushed up the aisle by the drink cart. Sleeping overnight on the plane, however, was not ideal--though shockingly none of us are that crabby (yet), except that both Laura and Mal are currently laying down in me and Mal's bedroom (we selflessly gave Laura the single bedroom AKA neither of us wanted to sleep alone) and Laura is selfishly snuggling with both Mal's and my stuffed animals, but I digress.
The greatest news is that even though the trip to Isabel's was a little bit scary--no cab driver would accept all three of us plus our obscene amount of luggage, so we had to split up and the driver caught on too quickly to my limited Spanish and then I had literally no idea what the doorman at the apartment was saying to me until Laura, translator extraordinaire, showed up on a white horse/taxi--she is the sweetest woman and the apartment is roomy and clean and perfect. Granted, Isabel's English is virtually nonexistent, but she speaks slowly and worst case scenario, we all just nod and pretend that we know what she's talking about. This afternoon, if we ever stand up and stop listening to country music, we're going to blindly explore Madrid. It's a beautiful day, so at least when we get lost none of us will start crying (hopefully).
Renatta