Arrived in Spain

After months of talking about it, I'm finally here!! It still feels surreal to me even though it's been emotionally taxing on me.

This morning, I arrived in Madrid via train. I took an overnight train from Paris to Madrid. I slept very, very well. As I walked through the Chamartín station to find my way to the Metro, a sudden stream of emotions flared through me. I stopped, looked around, and realized that Madrid is home for at least the next three months. I was overwhelmed and stopped myself from bursting into tears of enjoyment, or would it have been tears of homesickness? Either way, I was at a point of no return. Right here, right now, Madrid is where I belong.

My apartment is awesome! I have my own room, and at some point, I will have up to 3 other roommates. One is here already, her name is Sylvia, and she's Italian. She speaks great Spanish, German, and English. I've asked her not to speak to me in English unless she needs help with it. She said No Problem! She's here to work on her Spanish, too. It's just the two of us for now. I'm in a great "barrio" that is very centrally located. It would be like Logan Circle to DC and Hayes Valley to San Francisco.

Here are a couple pictures:

Here is my room, all decked out and furnished:



Here's my view - Yes, I get a balcony!!!!



This city, the way it looks and the way the people dress, reminds me a lot of Buenos Aires. Of course, there are several differences, but the spoken language especially sounds similar, unless I haven't heard enough of it yet. Looks wise, everyone is very fashionable, and very WHITE. You really don't think you're in a Latin country. Best of all, the weather here is MUCH better than in Paris. It's about 12 degrees Celcius here (about 50F). It's damp and wet, but I didn't need a scarf today when I was running around.

There was a point I became really frustrated though. I began to second guess why I'm doing what I'm doing. I got angry at myself for actually thinking, again, that I wanted to just go home and say Fuck It! I was waiting for a crosswalk sign to turn while I just stood there in frustration and sadness. A lady approached me and asked in English "are you lost??! do you need help?!"

No, I said in a delayed response. What makes you think I'm not from here?

"You're in your 'silent period'- it shows, and besides, you answered me in perfect English", she said with a 'gotcha' grin.

She walked away into the crowd as I smiled, giggled lightly, and looked up. Here's what I saw:



This is more than a "No Left Turn" signal. At this very moment, it was the universe's way of telling me to not turn back. I stared at this sign for about 30 seconds, and then grabbed my camera to capture the significance of it forever.

In the end, it's not about following through with what you put your mind to. It's about feeling pride in how far you've come, and having confidence in where you are going.