For the last two months, I have been attending what we in the program like to call "fake school." Until... last Friday when our midterms started. The time had come to whip out the notes we had scratched down in grammatically-incorrect spanish and cram it into our brains until we all Eurotrip (or in my case, Afrotrip?) for Semana Santa next week. The last two days I have spent with my friends at this cute little cafe near my piso called Van Gogh Cafe. T...

Riding the bus along the coast from Valencia to Alicante reminded me of the Baja peninsula near Cabo. Rocky terrain with little white washed beach homes set along the hills and the bright blue sea alongside it all. We pulled into the train station and my dear friend Robbie used his Lets Go! book to navigate us to a recommended doner kebap place. The last one recommended in his book was the amazing Bocadilla Buraka in Granada. However, one hugely disappointing f...

Yes. That is the largest bonfire you have ever seen. Yes. It is in the middle of the city of Valencia. Yes. There were more... one at each intersection to be exact. When we landed at the Valencia airport the first thing we heard was the sound of those fireworks that are just a flash and a loud bang. Well actually, we heard a ridiculous trumpet recording an a man with a British accent say, "Congratulations! You've just landed on time with Ryan Air. The ai...

Ben and Chelsea visited over the past 10 days. They were the fasted 10 days of my life. Here's a recap of our time together in Madrid: Friday, March 13- My alarm sounds before the sun has risen. After riding the Metro out to Barajas Airport, I see their flight from Atlanta has landed early and walked to T1. After waiting behind a set of automatic doors for 20 minutes, I caught a glimpse of Chelsea. She rushed through the doors followed by Ben. Chels and I squeez...

More updates! I'm trying to catch up on blogging and fill you all in on what has been happening in my life. The last two months have been filled with excitement, frustration, friendship and now, comfort. I joke with people that I live my life through inside jokes, and thus far, Madrid has proven to uphold that fact. My friends here are great and we've had so many experiences together that keep us smiling and laughing through to the next. (see above photo) T...