finally

i'm in madrid. i'm currently sitting in my apartment, with bootleg wireless (i have been very lucky with that). so far, it's really great to be back here. just like home. my spanish is pretty weak after a good 8 months of no speaking and not even a spanish class. hopefully that will come back. soon. either way, i'm here and happy.


after a great weekend in boston, i finally made it. though it was after a pretty painful plane ride sitting next to a group of 30 or so high school spanish kids. very wound up, very loud, VERY irritating. kids aside, the trip was pretty decent. after i got here, it was orientation time (not very helpful, full of boring meetings). i did meet some cool kids though, including attractive IRISH men. mmmm.

and then, the APARTMENT. i'm living with mike, from madrid round 1, and two other people from the program. a guy from cincinnati, and a girl from pittburgh, who went to BC. they seem quite cool. and the apartment is amazing. we're each paying 300 euros for a really nice place. i've got a large bedroom, and there's a good sized kitchen and living room, and two bathrooms. and it's in a fabulous neighborhood. 4 or so blocks from the park, and the street has a parkway in the middle with outdoor cafés. LOVE it.

today (and yesterday) we went to ikea. it is on the metro, which is fabulous and dangerous. yesterday, i got bedding and things, and today was ridiculous. we went originally to get kitchen stuff. we left with over 400 euros worth of things like desks and nightstands and random things. and really, we didn't leave with all of it, because we had to get most of it delivered. good for us. but considering the amount purchased, it's still pretty cheap. i heart ikea.

work starts on monday. should be interesting. i heart little kiddies.