Madrid

Since I lived in Madrid, I should have the most pictures of Madrid, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Given that I lived in and experienced the city for nearly 9 months, it seems that I was never remembering to take pictures. Perhaps a little too much of the Spanish motto to life, why do it today when you have tomorrow? Luckily, in my last few weeks I decided to take more photos. But if my photos don't do Madrid justice, I suppose you'll just have to visit the city yourself. Included in here are my photos with my digital camera and my cell phone.

Phone Pictures

My Madrid

Home

Hello all,

As some of you might know, I had to cut my adventure short. As of now I am back in the States and doing well. Still trying to get my health issues sorted out, but I feel better being back home. Below is a post I made to Facebook a few days before leaving that kind of sums up what was going on. Now that I have better internet access, I'll post a link to some more pictures. 

-Jeremy (aka Yeremi)

Dear friends,

For those who have not yet heard, I am leaving Spain this Sunday (27 May) to return home to the States. I know this is quite sudden (I only finalized my decision this morning) and could come as a surprise, but I feel this decision is in my best interest.

The past month or so, I have been going to different doctors, clinics, and hospitals with stomach problems. Each medical professional made suggestions on what it might be but I have never received a definitive answer. Along with these stomach problems, my anxiety, something that plagued me in the past, has been increasing. For the last few weeks I have been suffering from bouts of anxiety, stomach pains, and the associated physical symptoms. After much consideration of my health, I think that it is best that I return home to hopefully improve my anxiety problems and therefore allowing my doctor to better treat my stomach problems.

That said, I can safely say that I will not have any regrets returning home now. With all certainty, I have accomplished everything that I set out to do, and then some. I remember my biggest fear coming to Spain was my Spanish abilities. Not to say that 4 years in high school and two in college didn't prepare me, but I vividly remember my first day in Madrid trying to tell my hostel's address to the taxi driver. In comparison, one of my proudest language moments in Spain occurred less than a month ago when I was able to successful talk to someone in Spanish on the telephone. While this might sound silly, I assure you this is not a feat to be laughed at. At this point, I definitely do not consider myself fluent, but I am extremely pleased with the progress I've made over the past 8 months.

Besides increasing my knowledge of Spanish, I was also nervous about how my work would proceed. Thankfully this went well. I have loved nearly every minute of working with my students and teachers in my schools. Thinking back to the first days and hearing my students speak now, I know that my work helped to improve their English skills. If nothing else, my students can now respond to my habitual question of "how are you guys?" without a puzzled look and some Spanish side discussion as to what I said. I've also enjoyed working with my other auxiliars. Kyle, Tremaine, Afeefa, Aaron, and Nat are some of the most patient and passionate people I have ever encountered.

Of course, I was also nervous about meeting new people in such a foreign environment (pun intended). Thus, I also want to acknowledge all the friends I have made in this experience. With all honesty, I would not have made it past the first week of Spain without all of you. I would name you all, but there are so many of you and I would hate to leave someone out. I consider you all very good friends of my mine and I hope that no border will keep us from keeping in touch.

Thank you also to all my friends, family, and loved ones back home for your support. I'm sure I've talked to many, or all, of you sometime in the past 8 months with some sort of gripe and I want to thank you for listening, or at least pretending to listen.

In addition, my time in Spain wouldn't have been as pleasant without my flatmates Tiffany and Felipe. Everyday you guys helped me to see the world a little different and I was constantly learning from you both. Plus, you're both awesome.

As for my last few days in Spain. Tomorrow I bid farewell to my school, students, and teachers. Followed by a lot of packing and meeting up with some friends throughout the day. On Saturday I am going on my final day trip, to a city called El Escorial. Then finally on Sunday, I catch a 9am flight that arrives 9.5 hours later around 1pm in Charlotte, N.C.. Finally, I have just a two hour flight from Charlotte, after a three hour layover, which should get me to Detroit around 6pm.

I just wanted to share with you all this short, disjointed, farewell to Spain and collection of my thoughts. I'll post some more thoughts at a later date in my blog, most likely when I'm in the States.

These past 8 months have been a time of my life that I will never forget. Absolutely no regrets.

Final Two Months

 

Everyone said it, “before you know it, you’ll be done”, and I didn’t believe them. But, here I am, with but two months left wondering where the time has gone. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to heading back to the States and continuing with “real” life, but I just can’t believe my days are numbered. It seems like just yesterday I was planning my trip to Spain, celebrating Thanksgiving at my apartment, cooking pizzas on Christmas morning, ringing in the New Year in Budapest, admiring the Lisbon coast, and eating pasta in Italy. While I feel like my time is short, I do have TWO months left, and I intend to make the most of them.

The other day I made a Madrid “Bucket List” which I’ll share with you all. In no particular order, here are some things that I will do before my time is up.

• Go to Cuenca
• Cuenca is a city in the south of Madrid famous for its hanging houses
• Go to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen
• El Escorial is a palace and a city in the northwest of the Madrid community. The palace is supposedly beautiful, but I also want to go to see the Valley of the Fallen. The Valley is a monument made during the Spanish civil war that is still controversial.
• Go to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
• One of the famous art museums in Madrid
• Return to the Prado
• The most famous museum in Madrid
• Museum of America
• A lesser known museum but I want to see how the Spaniards look at the discovery of the New World
• See a bullfight
• While I don’t think I will enjoy it, given the history and the cultural impact bullfighting has had on Spain, I feel like it’s something I must do
• See the San Antonio de la Florida
• The San Antonio is a lesser known church that contains many works of Goya and it was recommended by NYTimes as something you must do
• Eat churros and chocolate at San Gines
• San Gines is a Madrid institution, especially popular at 5/6am when people start to return from a night out
• Visit the Royal Palace
• Something extremely tourist that I have not gotten around to.

I don’t have a bucket list for my time in Spain/Europe but one is forthcoming. Looking ahead I have a trip to Marrakech, Morocco May 18-20th which I am very much excited for. After that, I don’t have any trips planned but I can promise at least one more trip before I return home.

Speaking of returning home, my flight home is July 3rd; just in time for Independence Day.

Hasta Luego

First Post from Madrid

At the moment, I'm sitting in the basement of my hostel in Madrid, searching for apartments all the while avoiding falling asleep. I've spent 12 of the last 15 hours flying, and this jet lag is sure taking a toll on me. Well here's a little bit about my trip, and my first impression of this country known as Spain.

Detroit -> Newark
I avoided the full body scanner again at Detroit! Thankfully someone needed to take a coffee break so just a quick scan through the magnetometer, and I was on my way. I ended up being 2 hours early for my flight, but I love Detroit Metro airport, so I was fine with this. The flight was relatively uneventful other than I, for the first time, didn't have someone sitting next to me. So that was amazing to stretch out; which, came in handy when we hit some of the worst turbulence I ever experienced.

Newark -> Madrid
Alright, I don't like Newark airport. The bathrooms are far flung and quite dirty, not to mention how crowded and loud the whole place is. My flight ended up being delayed an hour, while we were on the plane, due to electrical issues (ahh!!!) and a near fight about three rows in front of me. The fight was over two family members who purchased middle row seats directly in front of each other, but being in the middle, they blocked a family from sitting with their children. Why anyone would want a middle seat, I don't know, but it ended with a police officer coming on the plane to calm them down, and the family with children sitting together (after the others realized the kids wouldn't stop crying). Other than that the flight was uneventful, and I even managed to fall asleep for a few minutes. I sat next to two Spanish citizens, that have lived all over the world. They gave me their email addresses before we parted ways, so perhaps I'll contact them if/when I visit Barcelona (where they live). It also turns out the girl directly in front of me on the flight is also part of the program, but we didn't realize this until the last two minutes of an 8+hour trip.

First Impressions
So far, all the madrileños (people of Madrid) I have encountered have been super friendly and helpful. The taxi driver gave me some sage advice on what to do/what not to do at night. The hostel check-in person made a point to learn my name and has remembered it since. Even the maids in the hostel have been super helpful. On the negative side, what is it with Madrid's lack of proper elevators. Why do you put an elevator on the 1st floor, and not start it on the ground floor?! I encountered this both at the airport and the hostel. Also, air conditioning...if you have it, use it. It is hot.

Alright time for a quick siesta before my first Skype date con mi madre. Adios.