Officially finished my first week in Madrid

Okay, so today (or yesterday now) marked a full seven days since I arrived here in Madrid. I have been here for a whole week! Wow, it doesn't feel like its been a week. The days really are flying by. I am trying to plan a trip to Barcelona this month and it feels like this month is going to be over in no time at all!

You might be wondering what has happened since my last post. Well, fret not my dear ones for I shall tell you of my adventures. First and foremost, you should know that I started a Spanish class! Hooray! I've already picked up quite a bit in the week I have been here just by being constantly exposed to it. Tonight (or last night) I had my first class and it was great! The teacher is fantastic! I was a bit worried, but he is a very funny and patient teacher. In my class there are about 16 students. Only two of us are American. Most of the class is made up of people from Poland and China. All the students are great! They are all very helpful and a cheerful bunch. I am very pleased with the class I am! Hopefully, I will soon be speaking Spanish!

Oh! Random tidbit time. I learned today that I speak Spanish with a Mexican accent, and I need to stop it. I need to practice, practice, practice to break away from that habit. It is subtle things like how they say gracias. My tongue needs to be pushed between my teeth when I get to the "ci" part of gracias. Also, I need to learn to make the hard "r" sound which also involves my tongue, but this time it touches the inside of my top front teeth. My poor tongue... It isn't use to making these sounds. I will get it down though!

Next, I went into Madrid last Saturday and happened upon the Pride Day celebrations. It was amazing! There were so many people. They had roads closed down, and they were just filled with people. I've never been to something that big before. It was quite the experience. I will attach pictures below.

On Sunday I went out with an au pair from Poland. We wandered around Madrid for several hours. She had a handy map that showed all the famous places that tourist want to see when they are in Madrid. So, we started walking and saw practically all of them. I will post pictures of the places I saw below.

Be forewarned, some of the tile that makes the sidewalk is loose and it caused me to trip and actually hurt my foot. It has been painful to walk for the past couple days, but carry on I must! My host mother says it is not uncommon for people to fall in Madrid and actually break something. Which doesn't surprise me because everywhere you look there is someone with a cast on. I really hope I am not next...

Well, when I wake up tomorrow I will be beginning my second week here in Madrid. Only 11 more weeks left abroad!

Well, Shoot...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Okay, so I didn't sleep a wink last night on the place. They kept coming by with coffee, and it was just too yummy to say no. I wasn't thinking! I tried to sleep, but couldn't. Then the sun came up right when we were going over Ireland and I didn't want to miss seeing as much as I could from the air. Which by the way, I am glad I did have my forehead pressed up against the window. The view was beautiful! I would absolutely love to move here. The fields are so green! When the wind would blow it would look like a sea of just pure green. Gorgeous! Not to mention the lovely cloudy weather! Yeah, people think I am weird when I say that but I love overcast weather. Grey is my favorite color. Stephen, pack your bag 'cause we are becoming Irish!

However, I made a grave mistake when I stepped off the plane. I didn't go down the hallway marked airport exit. Nope, I walked down the path that said connecting flights. Because brilliant me was part zombie and was all 'hey, I have a connecting flight!' For those of you who didn't know my original plan. I was planning on taking the bus into Dublin and spending my 8 hour layover being a tourist and taking pictures and eating food and maybe getting a pint. 'Cause you can't come to Ireland and not have a beer. I feel like that is in the fine print when you buy a ticket here.

Now I am stuck in the airport. It's not so bad though. I find people are very nice here and quite lovely to chat with. I made my first purchase with euro currency (and it was for my first meal!) I got a meal deal offered at Boots. Sandwich (Three halves of different kinds, yogurt with granola and strawberries, and a Ribena drink. All quite delicious and only for €4! Not too shabby!

My flight to Madrid isn't until 16:20. So, I am left wandering the airport. I feel a bit like Tom Hanks from that one movie. I can't wait to actually step out of the airport though!

Yay! Pictures!

An Adventure Begins!

Hmmm, I am not sure where to begin this post. I guess Saturday is a good day to start about.

I know where I will start. I want to apologize to all the people who are sadden that I didn't say goodbye to. I am very sorry, but fret not my friends! I am not going away forever! I am pretty sure the EU would send me back to your open arms if I stayed longer than I was suppose to. Plus, I don't want to risk not being able to get back into Europe so I will be home in just a few short months. I've gotten a lot of texts with sad faces because people wanted to see me before I left. I'm sorry I couldn't see you all, but I will see you when I return! Besides, I really hate goodbyes. I mean I really hate them. I get all panicked when I know goodbyes are coming up. I could just be visiting a friend's and still I become filled with anxiety when I know I should be saying goodbye soon. So, soon I will come home and tell you all hello and give you a big hug!

Okay, so Saturday morning my lovely boyfriend made me pancakes for breakfast as that was the day he would see me. The pancakes were delicious by the way. Good job Stephen! It was a nice breakfast for the two of us (besides being at 6am because he had to go to work, and I wanted to beat the heat on my drive up to Placerville). However, you'll never guess what happened when I said goodbye. Did you guess cry? If so, you are correct. I cried (just thinking about it is making me tear up). I dried my tears and started driving up to my grandma's. Along the drive I cried again. Surprise! I'll just tell you that there were a lot of tears and a lot of packing going on that day. My padre came down and hung out with me, and my dear friend Jenae also came over to spend some time with me before I left.  Oh, and Stephen was able to get the day off on Sunday! So, that was a very good piece of news. He came up that night and we went up to Tahoe with my family for dinner. When we got back Stephen and I worked on decorating picture frames for each other. They came out wonderful! Ill edit this post later and add pictures of them.

The next morning was... Sunday! It was the day I was leaving for Boston.  It felt weird...like it wasn't really happening. Stephen drove me to the airport and dropped me off. We said our goodbyes and I cried yet again. Oh yes, there was more of that. I checked in and made my way across the United States. When I landed in Boston my grandma surprised me with a hotel room an Omni Parker House in downtown Boston. It was such a neat hotel, and the bed was HUGE. I didn't want to get out of it in the morning! I did eventually dragged myself out and wandered the city. I walked the Freedom trail. That was quite the experience. Especially because I grew up reading books about American history! It was so humid and muggy though! Not appreciated. Oh, and I tripped down the stairs at the subway on my way to the airport and broke my suitcase handle. Perfect. Fortunately, I can still use it to pull my suitcase. It just bends...a lot. Currently, I am at the airport waiting for my flight to Dublin. It is my first flight to Europe and it doesn't feel real. I can't possible be going to Europe. That is just something i've daydreamed about for years. I don't think I will believe it until I get there.

On a side note, I've been so excited and nervous that I forget to eat! Yesterday, I had lunch with Stephen, but I didn't eat until I got to the hotel at 1:40am and that was just a sandwich I had picked up in Chicago. Today, I got bubble tea but didn't eat until I got another sandwich here at the airport just a bit ago. I guess I am just waiting for all the delicious food in Europe.

I think that is all I have to update for now. I want to thank all my friends and loved ones for their support! Your words of encouragement and your shared excitement for me really mean a lot.  Truly! The next time I update this I will be in Europe (most likely Dublin as I have 8hrs there).

Until then!

Sweet Relief

Okay, remember when I was worried and pretty stressed out yesterday? In case you don't, I was basically extremely worried that I wouldn't be able to go to Spain this summer. I know, I know. Not the end of the world, but it would still make me quite sad. It would be like taking a toy away from a toddler. You can't do that without tears. Trust me. I've worked as nanny for over five years. Anyways, I am here to tell you those fears have been put to rest.

I received an email today from the agency saying that everything had been cleared up, and that they were sending me papers tomorrow to sign. They instructed me to email my host mother to find out when I should arrive in Spain (as she is picking me up). I sighed a huge sigh of relief and did a little excited dance. To be fair, my employer was practically dancing with excitement with me. I love how everyone is so excited for me and just so supportive.

Oh! And, my host mother and I have been emailing each other too! I am really excited to get to know her family and become a part of it. The kids are adorable (as previous mentioned), and I can tell I am going to have so much fun with them. Also, the agency stated that my host mother loves me and really wants me to come out after speaking with me. I am really happy about that! I was scared that my host family wouldn't like me. To which all of my friends responded with "who doesn't love you Laikien?!" My friends are obligated to say that as my dear friends though...

Well, I just sent off an email asking my host mother when I should arrive in Spain. I found a reasonable flight so I hope to hear from her soon so I can buy the ticket! Eek! I can't believe I will be buying a ticket soon! Egads!

Have I mentioned that I am excited?

PS: I made a friend already with a girl who just arrived in Spain earlier this week. She is working as an au pair too! Can't wait to meet her and hopefully be able to explore the city a bit.

Just a quick update...

I will go into more depth later tonight. I just wanted to let you know that I skyped my kids in Spain today, and I am in love. They were so funny and just absolutely adorable! I am really excited to go, and they are excited for me to come!

Drat!

I have been waiting for over a week now to be able to skype the family that I will be living with for the summer. It's a single parent family so understandably the mom is extremely busy, and it is hard to get a time when she can skype with the children. Especially considering the 9 hour difference in time! When it is 2pm here it is 11pm in Spain! She emailed me today asking if I could be online in an hour. That was at 12:30pm. I didn't see her email until I had the kids I nanny down for their naps at 3:40pm. I felt horrible! Thankfully, we are going to try again at 1pm. I will be working and the kids I watch will be up still, but I guess they will meet my host family as well. Don't worry, I already asked both mothers if that arrangement would work. I have to say that I am pretty excited to meet my host family!I shall update tomorrow how it goes!