One month in

Whoops. When you wait 10 days to post again, the day-by-day commentary becomes increasingly difficult, as I really just can't remember what I've been up to. But here's an effort:

The last time I posted was Sept. 15, the Wednesday before I went to Amsterdam. I suppose that's no so long ago. Amsterdam. I had a wonderful weekend with my sister and mom. What a gift that they were both in Europe. Having had Bri around for such a long time definitely eased the transition to European living so it was hard to believe when leaving Amsterdam that I wasn't going to see her again until Christmas (if she can come) or February. I had definitely gotten used to seeing her every couple days. I feel like there are always little things that make living in Europe or being away from home seem really real. I am blanking on the handful of other times that I have this sensation (I'm telling a good story here, right?) but what I'm getting at is that traveling from Spain to Amsterdam and coming "home" to Madrid. I've been living here for a month now, but it was leaving Madrid that made it feel like home.

Back to the trip. Got to Amsterdam at like 5 or so on Friday after my flight was delayed. Took the train into central Amsterdam and walked over to the hotel. After I found out that my phone doesn't work in the Netherlands like I had expected and that the hotel was going to charge me 12 euros to use their wi-fi (which I wasn't going to pay), I decided to hit the streets in search of a café so that I could connect to the internet and touch in with mom and Bri who were supposed to land later that night. Everywhere I looked there were "coffeehouses," but the cafés with wifi were no where to be found. Ha. Eventually I just plopped myself down in the lobby with Hamlet (my class reading en español) and waited until the arrived. Had a nice dinner and crashed in our 3-stars-would-be-generous hotel (later Brianna would revisit the travel sites and see commentary about a former mouse infestation). Saturday was not our day. We started off with a canal tour which was nice. Then we excitedly headed over to the Anne Frank house only to find out that it was closed for Yom Kippur, then stopped by a church to go up in their tower. They only had 1 spot left that day, which the lady offered to us in case we wanted to pick one of us to experience it while the others waited below. Grabbed a quick late afternoon lunch and headed over to the shopping street around 5... and the stores closed at 6. We essentially did nothing, but hey, we were there to spend time with each other (at that we succeeded) so we were still content. Sunday we succeeded in taking a tour of Anne Frank's house. It was emotional, especially connecting it with Dachau from a few weeks ago, and I couldn't help but think that all the millions of people that were sent to the concentration camps would have had a story equally moving. There was a quote on the back of the guide pamphlet that says (translating from Spanish): "Anne Frank alone moves us more than the innumerable people that suffered as much as her, but their images remain in shade. And maybe that's how it has to be: if we could share the suffering of all, we couldn't keep living." It was quite apt. I about lost it as we were walking through the house and reading the quotes that they have posted about her diary. There was one where she said (again I have to translate from my Spanish pamphlet): "For a long time I've known that my biggest dream is to be a journalist and later a famous writer. No matter what, when the war ends, I would like to publish a book called 'The Annex.'" For me, just conflicting emotions of being so happy that amidst all the tragedy that at least her dream was realized and the sadness that she never got to experience her fame because I'm sure that if she had survived she would have achieved her goal.

After waiting in the long, Anne-Frank-house line, we didn't really have time to get over to the art museums (next time), so we just wandered a bit through the shops again, got an early dinner and I headed home, finishing my Hamlet reading on the way back.

Last week was a lot of just getting into the groove of life here. I'm getting used to cooking regularly for myself (made a nice Thai-style curry tonight and feeling super culinary), getting into my classes, and the like. I had my interview for my internship on Friday. It was funny: the first guy I talked to (the director of volunteering and what-not) was saying that after the process, he and the director would discuss my qualifications and such and let me know. After I talked with him, I talked with the director, who then introduced me to the group as their new intern. Overruled. Ha. So I'll be working at Funeso which is an international economic development NGO based out of Spain. They do work in Latin America, Africa and Asia. I'll do a lot of the regular intern things, but hopefully it will be good. I have my first day tomorrow, so we'll see how it is.

The weekend was a blast. Really enjoying the group of Midd kids that we have here and incorporating some wonderful Spaniards. We had a big dinner party on Friday to celebrate my friend's birthday and I helped my friend Darryl, at whose house we had the dinner, cook and prepare for it all. That was a blast. We always seem to find places that want to give us free shots/drinks for coming to their bar, so we headed out and did that. Very nice. Saturday I slept in, hung out (should have done work, I'm now wishing) and then we celebrated the b-day again (gotta make a weekend out of it) with a great Italian dinner, more free drinks (don't know how this is profitable for them but I won't complain), and I ended up with some sangria with Darryl in the plaza in Chueca. Today I had a brunch filled with great conversation, did a bit of my 16th century Spanish reading, made the dinner, talked with some friends and family on Skype, and here I am.

Madrid has been good to me. Loving it so far and looking forward to getting to know it better in the next few months. I'll try to do a better job of updating regularly so that I don't have to do a sweeping overview of things that happened long ago and can dive into more of the fun anecdotes, but for now, I should read a few more poems and hit the hay (ha, I also am loving saying idioms in English because I know so few in Spanish. I can say a lot of things in Spanish, but not with the character that I can do in English).

So that's that. Pues nada.

Buenas noches (although it's 5 pm for most of you, it's midnight for me).

Besotes desde España