Buckle In...

...Cause this is gonna be a long one.

It's been well over two weeks since I've updated. Which normally isn't all that bad, but considering the mountain of things I've done over the past couple of weeks, this could be a difficult task. But in the interest of keeping things as brief and non-boring as possible, I'll try and keep from being too over-expressive.

First of all, as I'm pretty sure I mentioned before, Kayla and I left Madrid on Wednesday the 12th to go meet up with our friends Gloria and Jorge in Jávea, which is a little beach town about an hour south of Valencia. While we expected to get plenty of beach time and to get a little more tan, I couldn't have even begun to imagine just how amazing the next couple of weeks would be. (Unfortunately, since it's been so long since I've updated, most of the stuff is running together in my mind, so it probably won't be in perfect chronological order. But I'll try.)

So anyway, we get to Jávea and meet up with our friends who we've been waiting to see for months now and it was awesome. It's so good to see some familiar faces. Also it was awesome because Jávea is an incredibly beautiful Mediterranean town. The sea was beautifully blue, the weather was fantastic, and the people were friendly. Anyway, in true Spanish style, the first night they took us out and we stayed out until around 7 in the morning. Which I suppose was a good way to start our vacation time.

Over the next week, Kayla stayed with Gloria and I stayed with Jorge, so we each had slightly different experiences, so I'm sure our stories would differ a bit. But all I know is that my week in Jávea was AMAZING. Rather than giving a day by day account, I'll give a quick list of the things I did:

• Went motorbiking around the city on Jorge's motorbike. Which was surprisingly awesome.
• Went cliff-diving several times, with the most memorable (and terrifying) being a cliff that was over 4 stories tall. Needless to say, it took us about 30 minutes of psyching ourselves into actually jumping off and not just climbing back down. haha In fact, thinking about it now is making my palms sweat. And if you don't think 4 stories is very tall, just walk to the roof of a 4 story building and look off the side. See how brave you are.
• Fought bulls at a Spanish capea. A capea is a small, private bullfight where everyone gets to take part. Rather than one full-grown bull, there are many smaller, younger bulls, so there is much less danger of getting hurt. And basically, it's a bunch of young guys eager to jump in the ring and show off how manly they are. So naturally, I had to jump in there and prove that Americans are just as good as Spanish. Not sure how good I did, but I do know that I did a pretty good job of not getting hit by any bulls. Mission accomplished.
• Went snorkeling with Jorge's family and watched a guy dive down and pick sea urchins right from the sea, and then proceeded to watch him cut those sea urchins open on our yacht, and then proceeded to eat raw sea urchin. Which was quite possibly the fishiest tasting thing I've ever had in my mouth. Still good, just different.
• Stayed out until 7 am more than once. I'm not sure how the Spanish do it, but I know that this guy's body will not be able to put up with that too often. I enjoy sleep WAY too much.

There were a few other experiences here and there, but those were the main ones that make for the best stories. And if I was to account for the entire week in Jávea, I'm sure no one would ever read it.

So then I rode to Valencia with Gloria and Jorge where I met up with my friend Dini, who I was going to stay with during my time there. Glo and Jorge both live in VLC, but they needed a bit of a break after hosting us for so long. (And just as a side note, it's so odd being the one everyone is having to take care of. I'm so used to being the host and the driver.)

Anyway, Valencia was amazing because two more of our good friends, William from France and Jacek from Germany, flew in to meet us and have a big OU reunion. And it ended up being so incredibly fun. Again, I'm not going to go too much into detail about what all went on, because it consisted of a lot of going out, a lot of sightseeing, and a lot of beach time. But I promise it was fun. All these guys are some of my best friends and we've been planning this reunion for what seems like forever, so for it all to finally take place was great. And of course, it was over all too soon. But, no worries, we already have plans to meet in Madrid sometime this month, Paris in October, and Berlin in November for the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not too bad, right?

And I feel like I should mention that I've adopted a new Spanish family as my own (no worries, Mom and Dad, it's only a family while I'm in Spain. You're not being replaced). Dini's family was absolutely incredible. I've never been in more of a welcoming, accommodating environment in my entire life (aside from my own home, of course). They were so fun and I really felt like I became a part of the family over my week with them. I know that anytime I get homesick or need a good home-cooked meal, it's only a short train ride away.

But now vacation time is over and I'm back in boring, old Madrid in my apartment. JK JK. There really are no "life as usual" feelings for me now as even the mundane is exciting. I finally have gotten around to doing some decorating for my room. Kayla and I went to the famous Rastro, Madrid's huge open-air market on Sunday mornings, and both of us got some things to make our rooms feel a bit more homey. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Speaking of pictures, throughout my entire vacation time, I took about 5 pictures. I know, TOTAL failure. But plenty of other people took pictures, so I'll steal some of theirs soon and post them and take full credit for them.

Anyway, I LOVE my room now. I bought a HUGE tapestry thing for my wall, a poster, a lamp, and some other odds and ends. It no longer feels like I'm living in a dorm room! Hooray!

And I feel like I should end this now. It's getting to the point where even I'm bored from it. I promise I'll get more pictures soon and that I'll update a little more regularly so that it won't be a novel to read for each post.

Until next time....

Slowly But Surely

Man, I need to get on the ball with this blog! Although time here definitely feels much much slower than in the US, it's amazing how time really flies. For example, I can't believe it's already been a week since I was at home. So on that note, if I don't get going soon, it's going to be impossible to update this thing without writing a novel. So here goes nothing....

First of all, I suppose I could talk about the flight, although it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world. Fairly simple, no problems. However, I have found a new favorite airline. Oh, British Airways, how I love you. Seriously folks, I had my own individual TV screen where I could choose from an entire library of movies, tv shows, and radio stations. Amazing, really. Especially compared to the nightmare that was Continental Airlines last year. But that's neither here nor there....

Anyway, got into Madrid on Tuesday afternoon and Kayla and I promptly went to lock our luggage up in the airport. Or so we thought. It actually ended up being around an hour wait to get our luggage and then another hour to get into the locker area. But despite the wait, we felt secure in knowing our belongings were in good hands. And then we proceeded to our hostel, which was also fairly simple. Although I will say that a nice, cool shower felt amazing after a day of travel and sweating with our stuff in the Madrid heat.

Thus began our search for a place to live. Of course we had been doing a bit of looking beforehand on various websites to try and get a headstart, but for anyone who has done any kind of apartment/house hunting, you'll likely agree that it's nearly impossible to do it before actually getting to the location. So once we got an internet connection, we looked for every possible appealing apartment listing. And the next day, we made a ton of phone calls to set up appointments to view the different places.

Luckily, Kayla and I didn't have to do too much searching to find our perfect place. After only viewing one other apartment (that definitely didn't strike our fancy, on any level, but most importantly factoring into our decision was the incredibly weird Canadian that lived there) we made our way to an apartment right by Gran Vía and Plaza del Sol, which, for anyone who has been to Madrid knows, is an AMAZING part of the city. It's right by absolutely everything, including all the shopping areas, the nightlife, the important sites of the city like the Royal Palace, and so much more. Basically, we never thought we would be able to find a place like this that we could afford. And then, almost magically, it appeared. Upon viewing it, Kayla and I decided right then and there that this was the place that we wanted to spend our year. And even better, after meeting a couple of our roommates, we realized even how much luckier we are.

Our apartment has 6 bedrooms, 5 of which are currently occupied. Of course Kayla and I both have one apiece. We also have a 22 year old Spanish guy named Guillermo, who seems to be really cool. He's very artsy and trendy and loves to go out. Our first night after meeting him he took us out with all of his friends and gave us our first taste of the Madrileño nightlife (including staying out until almost 7 a.m). Also there is Maite (pronounce MY-teh), a 24 year old girl who is also from Spain and who is full of information for us. While she is a bit more reserved than Guille (GEE-yay, short for Guillermo), she is still really cool and friendly. And last but not least we have Gabriel, a 17 year old guy from France. We have yet to meet him as he has been on vacation since we got here, but according to Guille and Maite, he's nice enough. And then we'll just have to wait and see who else ends up living with our little international apartment family.

Probably the only things that a person might have as a complaint for our apartment are the stairs (We live on the 5th floor with no elevator. Imagine carrying a year's worth of luggage up 5 flights of stairs. Not pretty.), the air conditioning (Or lack thereof. But really nowhere in Spain has air conditioning, so there wasn't much we could do about this one.), and the Internet situation (We don't currently have it. No skype, no facebook, no nada. However, at times we are able to steal internet from a local hotel, much like I am doing now. So it works out I guess.)

But Kayla and I both feel incredibly lucky that we found such a great apartment. Quirks and all (it's a really oooooold building) it's a great place and an even better location. I've been really blessed with both the place I'm living and the people I'm living with. I know it's going to be an absolutely amazing year.

Other than all of that, we've just been doing a lot of sightseeing. And just as I remember, everything in Madrid is photo-worthy and beautiful. This city has so many incredible things to see and I am completely and totally in love with it. I dare anyone to come to this place and not get swept away by it. And the more things we see, the more people we see hanging out, the more times I wake up to a great Madrid morning (or afternoon, in some cases), I know more and more that this is where I'm meant to be at this moment in time and that this is a defining moment of my life.

Whoa, that just got deep.

Anyway, I'll try and keep things a little more updated and hopefully get some pictures up on here soon. Although, with my stolen wifi internet, I doubt the pictures happen soon.

As for now, love you and miss you all!

Besos y abrazos muuuuuuy fuertes! (Kisses and reeeeeeeally strong hugs)

I'm in Spain!

Well, I'm here and I'm happy and all is well. I actually don't have any time to really type anything or get into any details. I was actually just looking through some pictures on my computer (before going out for drinks and tapas, naturally) and noticed that I was picking up some stray wireless internet and got really excited (because my new, awesome apartment doesn't have internet yet).

Anyway, now that I know I can get on this blog, I'll post some more later. I don't know if I have strong enough internet to post pictures, but if so, I'll do that too. Woo Hoo!

Abrazos mis amores,

Jordan