My First Week in Madrid

Hello my dear avid readers. I am very sorry for my lack of updates. I am afraid that I have been settling down here, and by the time I got a chance to write a blog I was utterly exhausted! I will try my best to fill you in on what has happened these past few days. I don't even know what day it is...My host mother said that it was Saturday tomorrow and I was shocked. I didn't even realize that I've been here for four days already.

Okay, so my lost post I was waiting for my flight to Madrid in Dublin. Can I just say that waiting for 8 hours in an airport when you are just exhausted is not fun. Not fun at all. I just wanted to sleep, but it was so cold. In fact, when I was finally able to board my plane I still couldn't sleep because it was so cold. I got a few minutes here and there, but I would wake up freezing. Oh, and I woke up right before we landed with a upper and lower lip swollen on one side. Also remember that I haven't been able to wash my hair since early Monday morning. So, Tuesday night I met my host mother at the airport in Madrid looking like a mess. Nice. Off to a good start...

Do not fret though! My host mother is very sweet and caring. I couldn't have been given a better host mother. The children are absolutely adorable. A bit overwhelming as they yell at each other in Spanish. But, they are good kids who are also very sweet. They are now introducing me as their sister!

If you don't know, I am living in Las Rozas de Madrid. That is just outside of Madrid itself. On Wednesday I went with a girl named Eylo into Madrid. She showed me how to take the bus and the metro. I bought passes for both (Yay). We went into Sol. I'm sorry, it is now Vodafone Sol... The Spaniards are not happy with the new name change. Vodafone is a mobile company here in Europe. Anyways, what I saw of Madrid in those few short hours was fantastic. It is absolutely beautiful here! It feels strange walking around a European city though. A good strange.

I haven't had tapas yet, but I had this delicious treat. It was watermelon juice with frozen yogurt, fruit sauce, and fresh mangos. Eylo has one too, but with orange juice. Oh! Orange juice here is delicious. I squeeze oranges for my breakfast. Best orange juice I've ever had.I have tried a lot of delicious Spanish food though thanks to my host moms wonderful cooking. I hope I can remember how to make some of the delicious to impress all of you back home.

As far as my Spanish is concern, I am picking it up rather fast. The mother is constantly telling me what things are in Spanish and how to say something in a sentence. The kids are eager to help and they usually speak in Spanish to me. I try to read anything I can and figure out the meaning. I should be registering for a class for the month of July. I would August, but we are going on a trip. The mom has a lot of antique history books that she says I can read once my Spanish is up to it! Incentive!

Lets see... What else, what else. Oh! I may be joining a sports club. That should also help with my Spanish. I have plans this weekend with another au pair. Well, I need to get to bed. It is 2:40am here. I will attach some pictures though! Now that I am settling in I will be able to post more! Oh! One more thing. Time here is crazy. I kept saying afternoon meaning one thing, but to Spaniards it is a whole different time period. Morning here doesn't end until 2pm. Afternoon ends at 9pm. Lunch is at 2-3pm and dinner is at 9-10pm. The kids don't go to bed till 12-1am.

 Picture above is of a street I passed by. I thought it was very beautiful. You may not think so, but this isn't your blog is it? So enjoy the picture!

 This is a picture of the royal palace. Didn't even notice the lovely couple until I loaded the pictures onto my computer.

                                              A statue that is in front of the royal palace.

                                                          The royal palace...again!

This is rather neat! Can you tell what type of architecture this is? If you guessed Egyptian then you are correct! It is called the Temple of the Debod. Beautiful! 

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!

BOARDING

You heard me!

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!

Just a Quick Note

I just received an email from my host mother. It was very short. It was mostly just confirming that she had received my flight information as she is the one picking me up on Tuesday. However, she added something that made me feel... Well, it made me feel really good about what I am doing. She told me "Finally that emotion. Children are happy."

That probably doesn't make much sense to you, but to me it was very powerful. You see, they are dealing with something very tragic. Understandably, the kids have been having a very difficult time. It was the reason the mom wanted an au pair and the reason I almost wasn't able to go. The kids are devastated and trying to deal with those emotions. It is a hard and difficult process. It is something that takes time. But, the fact that the mom stated that my coming to Spain is making these kids happy makes me incredibly happy. They are always so excited to skype with me, and I can't wait to be able to hang out with them.

I really hope I can help these kids smile. I know there will be bad days. Days where they will be upset, but I want there to be days where they can laugh. Days that don't seem so dark. I will do my best to make sure these kids can be kids for a little bit longer.

Overwhelming

First, let me say that I love my family and friends dearly. I truly do! I will miss them while I am gone, but missing them doesn't quite compare to the thought of missing my boyfriend. I know that sounds like a terrible thing. It's not that I love my family and friends less. It is just...different.

Just a bit ago, I discovered that my boyfriend couldn't take me to the airport on Sunday. I immediately started crying. I realized that tonight is my last time to spend time with him for quite a while. I was set on him taking me and being able to spend Saturday and Sunday together that it just blindsided me.

I know the time will go by in the blink of an eye, and we will be communicating in so many ways made possible by technology. I've already told him I am going to facetime him (he doesn't like skype) twice a day everyday. His response? "No." Men... But, we have email, facetime, and lovely international stamps. Plus, with handy apps on our phones I can even text him over wifi. So, there will be plenty of communication.

Not to mention that I have already made some friends who are au pairs in Madrid that I will spend some of my free time with. They seem like an awesome group of girls! I am excited to build friendships with these individuals who come from different parts of the world. How amazing is that?

Lots of couples do long distance for both short and long periods. Ours will be a short time apart. I just need to concentrate on that. It is a few months out of the hundreds that we will have together. It helps I think to look at it like that. It also helps that he is being incredibly supportive of me. I truly appreciate that.  And, as some of the girls were saying: distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Sorry for this emotional little post dear reader. I feel better now though. Writing, it is very therapeutic.

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.