Thursday, January 29, 2009

My New Place

For rent:

Fully furnished 3 bedroom apartment in Alcobendas (Madrid). Newly remodeled bathroom and kitchen with new stove and oven; recess lighting. Heating included. Breakfast nook, living room, 2 terraces and community pool. Located across a park.  Really nice landlord.

That is what an ad for my new "piso" would have looked like.

I am not allowed to whine about where I live and you shouldn't be envious. :)  


My Building- I'm in 2A -that on the third floor


My foyer- with my little shopping cart


My salon- the living room with an expandable dining room table, lots of chairs, and door to terrace 



Bedroom number one



Bedroom #2 and my office with view of the park



My Bedroom- I needed some color after all that wood



My Bathroom



My Kitchen and washing machine- the door goes to a terrace and looks out to the pool



My Breakfast Nook- I love this spot in the mornings



Monday, January 26, 2009

Backwards then Forward

I have been in Spain for a few days but this is the first time I'm online with my own computer.   While in Frankfurt on a 2 hour layover at 6 in the morning I was trying to stay awake and wrote a bit.  

Greetings from Gate 40 in Frankfurt.  I flew over Spain several hours ago and will hopefully soon be on the way again.  Like this post you have to go backwards before you can go forward.

My supervisor and others keep using the expression "hit the ground running" and I can't help but to wonder what exactly this means.  As I was flying over Spain I thought about parachuting down, cutting hours from my trip and perhaps hitting the ground running.  Or maybe I just wanted to get away from the loud three year old that didn't let me sleep or from the girl in the aisle seat that kept giving the mom behind us a foul German look.

I slept through most of Nights in Rodanthe and then gave up on sleep once they turned the cabin lights back on.  I then proceeded to browse through the music channels and started mentally choregraphing a Bollywood film.  I might have actually recognized the music from this channel but I decided I needed more Bollywood in my life.  I couldn't help but notice that the playlist on the Hits station was all about saying goodbye.

But its not time for goodbyes, its time for hellos.  Hello Europe.  Hello Spain.

Since I'm still here with nothing to do but wait this was my last week at home.

A spontaneous trip to the beach on a cool day with a friend:



A goodbye party and service on Sunday night.  My sister made sure I would never forget Hialeah and its beautiful potholes.  I also hold the record for most hugs in a single day.

I packed my stuff- amazingly enough only in 2 bags.  I keep thinking I forgot something but I don't actually need more books.

I bought a new camera that my sister was playing around with in the airport:


Next post: my new apartment.