Grand Prix Alcobendas

... PD: Recuerdo que los primeros días apenas se me ocurrieron adjetivos positivos en inglés. Bueno, sólo good, funny y algo así... Después de nuestra sensacional estancia, unido al optimismo que tienen por aquí (y que el irlandés clavaba en su caricatura), la cantidad de adjetivos que afloran en nuestra conversación son numerosos: awesome, wonderful, brilliant, excellent, great, unbelievable, amazing, gorgeous, fantastic, exciting...

... beautiful Madrid Barajas Airport - or at least the International Terminal I was in was gorgeous - apparently it was brand new! (I learned this from a girl I met on the flight from Panama). Got my bags and off to meet Lindsey. Lindsey and I met on facebook (thank you for the internet) so that we would have a travel buddy for our trip. Such a great idea! She's type-A, too! We took a taxi to the hotel ...

... neat, friendly, well-stocked shop that would have any true wine aficionado drooling at first glance. And so he did. Isn't it fun to explore when in other cultures? It was back to the hotel to face the music, leaving for our last night to be spent at the airport. The bags are packed (and full). Sue has done a great job of keeping the Spanish economy chugging right along, including some wonderful pottery found ...

... month we havent understood anything. It is amazing to see that most people over here speak 2, 3, 4 languages, we´ll have to work on that one. The first night at our hostel here was interesting to say the least. When we got back from going out with some people from our hostel there was a random kid in my bed! First time for everything I guess, so I moved rooms after a little bit and it was fine. Apparently there is an equivelent to 4th of ...

... there were special fights on for Domingo de Resureccion (Easter Sunday). Returning to the ticket ques we nought the cheapest tickets we could find ($8Au each) and headed to the Metro and Madrid´s Sunday markets. They were very crowded and given that we had no euros to spend, not that interesting. We watched the crowds wander around (locals and tourists) as well as some photographers perched up on a balcony taking people shots. It was cold and loked ...

After a brief stay in Madrid (try finding a pub with rugby on a Sunday here - thank you Ireland - rugby fans owe you big time), we caught a train up to Barcelona. After everything we had heard on our travels we were prepared for a big few days. That night my bonus had come through so I was cashed up and ready to celebrate. We decided to heed all the warnings and knowing getting smashed was on the cards decided to only go ...

... Fab could manage was that the training this time had been "a littel beet betteur" than in December. But most importantly, we KNEW we had done a very good job. I'm very proud of our team -- we "did awesome" under pressure. Around 4-4:30pm, the trainees started streaming out, saying good-bye quickly as they left for the airport. By 5:30-6pm, we made our way to the nearby hotel, dragging The Beast behind us, and grabbed a taxi to get back to our hotel. Where did we ...

... view of the Italy-Germany game in a Turkish restaurant with plastic desk chairs. Chad broke a glass, and the night was complete. She said: We arrived in Madrid from Ronda via overnight train. We got on the train around 11 p.m. and discovered that we were sharing a "room" with another girl (there is the capacity for 6 so all things considered we were lucky). The seats were reclinable, so the guy who sold us the tickets put Chad and I opposite each other, in the window, so our seats ...

... by myself. We sipped coffee and made the most of our last visit which included me showing her exactly where I lived in her atlas. I finished packing up then we headed out in the rain. It was only sprinkling so there was no need for an umbrella. I hugged Elena adios at the top of the escalator then decended down to my train. I changed a few times before finally arriving at the airport, familiar and beginning the excitement. I am going ...

... with public urination or getting into shoving matches with the old people that try to push you around. It is crazy that you actually have to take a defensive stance when you are in line for anything because these tiny little old ladies that are really rude will try to push you out of the way. The other exchange students are great -- we have fun traveling, studying, and swapping stories of the old ladies that we had to ...