See ya later pero No Goodbyes here.

January 5th, 2011

Wednesday morning began as early as possible with a ring at my door from Jamil letting us know he was downstairs so that we can head to the bus station to Madrid. Most of the day wednesday consisted of traveling to Madrid from Barcelona which was approximately an 8 hr ride. Once we arrived in Madrid we had some difficulty accessing the already booked hostel and dragging our luggages around the city once again. Once we found the hostel they told us that we hadn't made any reservations. Good thing I had my print out of the receipt. The other dilemma was once again the stairs issue in Spain. Almost all the buildings have no elevators. Something I still am not used to. Once given our key we decided to go find a place to eat nearby "puerta del sol" which is the plaza closest to our hostel. Although we were in Madrid we winded up eating at a Texan/New Orleans restaurant. But the food was great. Once dinner was done I decided to head back to the hotel as Kafiyah and Gitzel roamed the town for a few hours. I wasn't feeling too great and just felt like watching shows online via the free internet access. Wednesday was very much uneventful.

1/6/2011

Today is Gitzel's birthday and we planned to go out and celebrate in Madrid. She is finally 22. The morning started with eating breakfast at an Iowa restaurant this time and then walking around downtown Madrid. Madrid is a spectacular city with grand buildings, and a sort of elegance about it. I fell in love with the city automatically and started thinking that my spanish professor Felipe was right. I should've chosen to do my program here in Madrid instead of Barcelona. Nontheless I convinced myself that I hadn't given Barcelona a fair chance since I ultimately knew that that was the city were most of my time would be spent. Madrid is a huge city much like Nueva York, hence the instant falling in love. I always saw myself moving to a bigger city and being a city gal. And Madrid gave me exactly those feelings once again. Noted: look into perhaps applying to work here after undergrad school.

As we walked around downtown, we passed the Plaza Independencia, El Banco de España, A small museum, saw loads of statues and decorations for the los reyes holiday, walked around el parque de retiro, and snapped away just in case I wouldn't ever be able to make it back to Madrid. All in all, thursday consisted of loads of walking and laughing and mesmerizing over la ciudad de Madrid. Tomorrow I will have to say goodbye to two of my closest friends since they will be going back home to finish their last semester as I stay behind to start my program here in España. I am really hoping that I don't cry like a baby when I say my goodbyes, for besides missing them, I will not be able to attend their graduation nor go back home after everyone has moved away. But true friendships last the distance so I am sure that mis amigos will always be mis amigos. I mean we have lasted since the first day of freshman year of college through all our ups and downs. Why not the rest of our lives. 

To starting new journeys...