Hola Madrid!

At 12.25 I made a firm touch down at Barajas Airport in Madrid. My dear Princess Carmen was waiting for me at the gate which gave the whole experience a Royal feeling. After telling everybody in Holland that I was going to tropical Madrid with its 26 degree sunshine it was no suprise that calls of ´booooooohh´rang through my TransAvia flight (HV5201) when our captain (De Vries) announced rather apologetically that it was raining in Madrid with a paltry temperature of 13 degrees!!! It hasnt stopped raining since my arrival three days ago. The photo below depicts me with Madrid´s city symbol (strangely a bear and a tree, neither of which are prominent in the city´s streets) and something which has been more familiar to me: wind and rain!


But you won´t hear me complaining! I have already had two full spanish conversations (admittedly one was just two sentences buying bread...the other ended in chaos) and have made some city walks discovering my new territory. These first days I have had appointments with my internship (JustLanded, I will start on monday, I had a good feeling about the company and the people after our first chat), the bank (I have returned three times now to the Banco Gallego and still they are sorting things out..biggest problem? my country of birth South Korea was no option in the bank´s computer as most of the people who enter the Bank of Galicia are Galician natives!! In the end we found two options: the democratic republic of Korea or just the republic of Korea...neither of us - or the rapidly growing crowd around our desk - knew which one to choose so we voted and went for the republic of South Korea which in the end turned out to be the right choice!), the keymaker (angry shouting man who doesnt perform his job very well) and my spanish classes.

My spanish classes start the second of November and I have done a test to see what my level was. I can proudly say that I have ´level 2´ which means I can start one level higher than I would have done without classes and Carmen! I will keep you all up to date on my progress!