Madrid

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes." --Jack Handey Deep Thoughts

It has been a while. Finals are over. I am now completely moved out of my apartment and am sitting in class in Spain drinking an orange fanta. Koki and Mia are staying with Fede and Frank (took over my lease) until I return a month from now. My truck is parked and waiting for me to take a 2-3 day road trip to Texas to work at the Edinburg court house. I have sent off a few transfer applications out, but all I can do is plan to be starting St. Thomas in the Fall.

I arrived at the airport in Miami and noticed my toothbrush was on, so now I can’t recharge it until I return. My flight was 9 hours long and I didn’t get much done. I saw the movie Ocean’s 12 again, but didn’t get much sleep. I arrived in Madrid early in the morning and there was a taxi driver holding a sign with my name. I love it when I get to an airport and there is a driver holding a sign for me. The first time this happened was when I was working in DC. So he drove me to Escorial 45 mins, and I practiced my broken Spanish. When I arrived, I was one of the first people at the hotel. I got a single, but the room was more like US motel standards. The bed is small, there is no internet, no cable tv, and other amenities I have so gotten used to.

I had lunch with my comparative law professor whom I randomly met outside. He is a priest, so I had a good conversation with him about his class about the separation of church and state. I then went to my room and slept. It wasn’t a good idea because I woke up at midnight all awake. I got dressed and decided to explore the town. I ran into a classmate and met like 6 new people. We drank, talked and then went to a disco. I lost at foosball to some Spanish girls. I finally went home and slept in.

On Sunday I walked around town getting a feel for where things were. I found the bus station, a supermarket and a sign for a burger king. Then in the afternoon we met up for a tour of the school and the city. I met a few more friends there who were students that didn’t go to my school. They were nice, but I don’t yet know who my friends will be, but everyone so far is really nice. I can’t believe how much people still smoke. You’d think that in this day and age it would be much less people, but so many people I have met smoke. At night I went to bed and didn’t go out.

Monday was my first day of class. I woke up at 6am, and read until 8am. then I showed up to class early so I could check out the computer lab. Computers are in Spanish and the keyboards are different, similar but different. I had my first class at 9am which was Cyberlaw. I find it somewhat interesting. Then at 11am I have Comparative Law. After class I went with Sarah to find the gym. We found it and it was really crappy. Some dumbbells and a broken treadmill. So I won’t be able to run. Then we went to the hotel for our one free meal a day. We get wine with each meal. The meals are not bad, but they are not very good either. After eating I went to town to find a new adaptor. Did I mention I bought a us European converter and plugged an extension cord to it. Well it popped and turned off all the lights and started to burn on the inside. My room smelled terrible. So I went to buy a converter and everything was closed. From 1-5 everything closes for siesta. On my walk back home I ran into Bianca and Sarah who were trying to find the gym you pay for. Later I find out it is 45 euros to sign up for the month and the girls signed up, but I’m not sure if I’m going to. I decided to walk with them and look for this place. Well guess what, the gym is closed too. I then just went home and went to bed. I had been feeling sick and noticed that my tonsils swelled up. I got some throat drops and then went back to bed. I didn’t sleep well but got up at like 7am missing my entire night. Another night of not going out and having fun, but right now I need to get healthy. I show up to my second day of class and am just hoping to get home so I can nap and try to feel better. I bought a Fanta to keep my throat. I haven’t had one since I was a child, so it brought memories back. Here they have Coke Light instead of Diet Coke. I had one yesterday. There is no wireless in the classroom, which means that I am going crazy of boredom, because I like to multitask and listen when I feel its important. I don’t have plans right now for what I’m going to do with my weekends, but I hope to get all that stuff sorted out soon.

So one thing I am noticing here is the pace of my life. Here I feel like time passes more slowly. This is going to be great for me, as I get to sit down away from the world, away from the ones I love and really start to look at myself and where I want to go. I don’t feel like I’ll have this reflection time again for some time because I have the next two years mapped out and that 3rd year somewhat mapped out as well.

far far away