Has it been three weeks already?

Before I got to Spain I toyed with the idea of starting a blog to keep my friends and family in touch with the trials and tribulations of my time here. Somewhere in the last month or so that idea got lost...probably somewhere between learning to navigate Madrid's public transport, finding a piso to rent, and my many (I'll look back on these someday and laugh?) frantic attempts to speak Spanish.

Well, now I've been in Madrid for just over 3 weeks and the time has come for me to turn my 'blog idea' into a...well a blog. My first blog problem (I'm convinced there's a savvy word for that, bloglem?) was choosing a title. Of course, I wanted something witty and smart, clever and chuckle worthy, but after toying with like...ohhh...3 ideas? I gave up. Hence, my decision to keep it straight forward and relevant. My blog's title is truly an ode to how I have spent my time in Spain thus far: trying to master the art of convincing people I understand Spanish, tricking them into thinking "oh yeah I use Euros to pay for things all the time and I totally know the difference between that small bronze coin and that other looks exactly the same but smaller bronze coin", or yeah...my train is totally this...no wait, I could have sworn it was...yeah it, I think it was that way. In an attempt to avoid the blank stares and awkward conversations, yes I accept the challenge, and it's kind of fun really: I'm pretending I am a Spaniard.

As many of us know, visiting a foreign country, especially one that does not speak English, is a memorable experience bound to "shock and inspire". There is the new language, culture, customs, mannerisms, food, holidays, schedule, people, and their obsession with cigarettes...cough. When we visit a foreign place, we experience the previous things briefly; we laugh, we drink, we take pictures, we spend money, we go home and, finally, we post said pictures on Facebook and live happily ever after. And whenever necessary we reflect on our time spent abroad, bragging about how culturally enriched and worldly we are because we've been to Italy, Morocco, France, Spain, etc.

Well, I guess I never really considered how different moving to a foreign place would be in comparison to visiting one. So the last few weeks have been...interesting. And, while now I am settled having successfully found a place to live, completed a week assisting in English classes at a Spanish school, acquired 5 weekly private teaching lessons for extra cash, opened a Spanish bank account, obtained a Spanish residency card, and managed to get myself a metro pass...all in semi-understandable Spanish...it certainly has felt nothing like a vacation...not yet.

I know the best is to come. I have many sights to see, side trips to take, and an insane amount of Spanish to perfect. While my time in Madrid so far has been more stressful than I imagined, I would not change a thing about it. It has been a series of experiences that I have learned and to grown from. While many people can brag about coming to Madrid to visit, I get to brag that I convinced Madrid to give me a checking account, to let me find a place to live, to employ me...I convinced Madrid to let me stay, and now the fun can begin.

Sometimes it seems that the going is just too rough
And things go wrong no matter what I do
Now and then it seems that life is just too much
But you've got the love I need to see me through

                             Florence and the Machine