Twenty-four hours in Madrid

at Jessica's the night before I left

Greetings from Madrid! Biz arrived here yesterday morning and I came later on in the afternoon and met her at our hostel. I came later than her because #1 my flight arrived later than hers and #2 they left one of my bags in London! Fortunately I have backup clothes! It was supposed to arrive last night, then this morning,but... I haven´t seen it yet.

Biz was definitely a sight for sore eyes! The plane ride was long, and "plane sleep" just isn´t the same as sleeping in a real bed. And seeing another American was refreshing--especially my friend ;). I had a long layover in Chicago, which allowed me to call people and say my last goodbyes. That was nice. I looked out of the plane on the flight from Chicago to London a couple times (window seats rock) and saw a beautiful waxing gibbous moon over misty clouds far below. It was enchanting. Flying into Spain was similar--foggy mountains by the beach in the morning, and, closer to Madrid, Olive orchards and houses with tile roofs. Madrid had a dusky pink cloud above it from the plane , which was charming from a distance, not so charming to be in it. It´s so dry here! I took the Metro from the airport to my hostel, because it was $35 cheaper, and had to carry my one sixty-eight-pound bag plus a backpack full of books all the way to my hostel, up stairs and everything. I asked a police if he knew where my hostel street was and he didn´t, so he asked another man who happened to speak great English (which is very rare here, unlike most of Europe), who ended up walking me all the way to the hostel and helping me with my bags! What a great first impression of the city! But, by the time I got there, my throat was just parched--you know the feeling. It´s just so hot and dry here. I´m becoming thankful for my humid roots in the South. ;)

I really think I´m going to love it here. We had orientation today and got to meet some of the other people in the program--a few really cool girls. Biz and I are probably two of the younger people teaching, but they´re all around 22-27, probably. I feel much more comfortable with Canterbury now that I´ve been to the first day of orientation. It seems like they treat their employees well, though we´ll probably be pretty busy with classes for the next several months. Most of the classes are offered from 5:30-9:30 at night. By the way, Biz and I are seriously considering taking a Spanish class for the month before we enroll in the TEFL course. We want to be able to eat (we tried to order at a restaurant last night and were brought surprise dishes--fish, octopus, and rice soup and a mystery meat...)!

We´re staying in our hostel till tomorrow night--then we need to have or be finding an apartment. We would prefer to share an apartment with Spanish people so we can practice our skills (or, acquire skills?). There are some sweet parts of Madrid we wouldn´t mind living near, too--the Plaza Mayor or near the city center would be nice. Canterbury´s been pretty helpful, just by letting us use their internet! We don´t have to wait in line at the hostel for the single computer :).

My impression of Spanish people so far: they´re less intimidating and more casual than I was expecting. A lot of people have dark features, but some of them don´t at all. My mom´s Black Irish--she has dark hair, light skin, and light eyes--from Spaniards settling in Ireland hundreds of years ago. A lot of people have that look. There are also a lot of South Americans who have moved to Spain, and I´ve noticed several Asians here, too--speaking Spanish, which always throws me off guard. It´s awesome--hopefully I´ll be speaking Español by the end of this :). I see a lot of thin younger people, but not all of them are super hip, like I was expecting. They dress European :), but they look pretty middle class. Our orientation leader, John, was telling us that when the Euro came to Spain, prices for everyday goods went up 60% but salaries never increased. I don´t know how or why that happened. But that also means that if we´d come here six years ago, the US Dollar would have had a GREAT exchange rate. It´s ok--we´ll be paid in Euros and get used to the price difference. Esta bien.

Necessary Update

I don't know where the summer has gone, but it's already Monday the 23rd of July and I'm leaving for the adventure of a lifetime this Wednesday morning! And I haven't written in ages! Shall I start now and go backwards? Last night I had a going-away party at my house. It was just lovely catching up with friends I hadn't seen in months. Conveniently, it was a pot-luck and all my friends are great cooks, so we had plenty of goodies to much on. Have you tried Michael C's mom's Oreo pie? I LOVE it. Or Leigh H's pita bread and hummus... delicioso! (my favorite Spanish word at this point.) Jessica M. mentioned how strange it was that a lot of the people I usually have over for parties were missing: Michael G. in New Hampshire for the summer, Heather B. in China, etc. There were some refreshing new faces there, and I love it when my friends meet and befriend each other. Ellen is especially good at that! If you haven't met Ellen yet, you should! Seth and Jared, accompanied by my dad on the violin, closed out the party serenading us with James Taylor and Jump Little Children covers--I think they play them better than the originals. Anyway, last night was bittersweet--saying goodbye is always sad. But I do know that I'm going to look back fondly on the next year with Biz for the rest of my life. And that's exciting.

The past week has been spent saying goodbye to dear friend near and far: Drew, Amy, Justin and Erin in Clemson, Anna and Jason in Columbia, and Joy in Atlanta. Hannah came to Edisto Island with my family last weekend (which feels like aeons ago). At the end of June we had our Sisters-No-Misters vacation in Orlando--the farthest we've gone thus far! Oh, it was such a blast. Highlights included Downtown Disney at night, hanging out by the pool, and the amazing land of Epcot. It's really cool, if you haven't been. Epcot/Disney hires hundreds of students from around the world to work in the different "countries" represented. Each country has a couple buildings dedicated to it--like a restaurant and a shop with products you could actually buy in that country. My favorites were Morocco and Norway--two countries I hope to visit in the next year. There were no Spain or Sweden, two other countries I hope to get to know in the next few months :).

Things I've been thinking about lately: life's brevity, transcendent truth, human nature, how I want to garden like Hannah, characteristics I admire in people: humility, transparency, vulnerability, security (aka, my friend Joy who I just saw). The ability (or inability?) for people to change. I think ability. But it ain't easy. I want to be an early bird someday. Right now I'm a late-night owl, and I don't think Spain's going to help with that. I think it's so interesting when people realize they don't want to be where they are now in 20 years and suddenly change (I was just talking about that with Seth), and it's interesting that people become more moderate as they get older (ie: the sixties). I've also been thinking about something my great aunt Edy said--when she was a girl, she thought her step-sister was a little on the weird side, but now they're best friends. I think about the girls I know I just don't "jive" with. Maybe I'm intimidated because they're too cool for me so I don't feel in my element around them. But someday we'll all be old people, wearing dentures and high pants, and the playing field will be levelled out--and we'll be friends. That's good to think about if I'm ever intimidated by someone.

Now I've got to pack!