So, my dad says that since I am home I need to let all of you faithful readers know, otherwise it's like writing a story without an ending. I got a little busy in my last few weeks in Madrid that I didn't keep this blog very well updated. But I will say that this experience has been well worth it, although it feels great to be home and back with family and friends. At least the jet lag was A LOT better this time around than on the way to Madrid. I am busy packing up my things, and I am heading out to Nashville early Monday morning. Thanks for reading!

Cutest thing ever...Maria just told me that Eloisa said she was going to miss me a lot when I leave because she likes my voice when I speak in English! Ha so adorable :)

This past Thursday, I went into Weber to speak with the Director of Consumer Practice. We discussed a Powerpoint outlining the agencies credentials in both English and in Spanish. It was amazing to see the American influence in this presentation – a presentation that is used to convince clients that they should choose Weber for their PR needs. He told me that the style of speech used comes directly from that used by the U.S., and is designed to make an impact in the Spanish market. There was quite a bit of Spanglish intermixed such as “2000s”, “Do-ers”, “ranking”. For example, it might say that “Tenemos lo mejor ranking del mundo”. At this point, I wanted to find out what do those who know little to no English think about these types of presentations. He called these “Anglocismos”, and then described to me how there are different groups of Spaniards according to their understanding of English. He said that for many of the people, the words just become something they just associate with a particular brand or meaning, even if they don´t know English. He told me a funny story about the airline company, Vueling, who uses a lot of Spanglish in their marketing. He says that when people start using Spanglish, the Spanish say “Estás haciendo Vueling”, basically that they are acting like Vueling! Kind of funny to me. It was a great experience and I am excited for our five remaining sessions. He also invited me to join the online community, Internations.org, a group for internationally minded people. You can join a network within the community (for me, Madrid) and learn about activities coming up that are open to people of all nationalities. He invited me to go with him that night to one at Santiago Bernabeau, the futbol stadium, but I was babysitting and unable to make it.

Other than that, I went to a few clubs this weekend and really can see why they call Madrid the city that never sleeps! Today, I went to the pool with my host family. Maria´s dad is a retired corporal of the Spanish army and belongs to a military club that has a pool. It was a great time just laying out and relaxing in the sun! And it just continues to blow my mind how smart Eloisa is. She speaks Spanish so well for only being three years old, and the things she thinks to say can be so funny! Also – I forgot to mention before – Francisco has learned how to walk in my time here! When I first came, he crawled everywhere and you could sometimes get him to take a step if you held his hand. I got to see him take some of his first steps and now he walks absolutely everywhere. The kids are precious! So weird that I will be leaving everyone and everything in 18 days. I miss everyone back home, though, and am ready to see you all!

I made it to the Running of the Bulls! We found a good deal on bus tickets to Pamplona so a group of us took the 5 hour trip on Saturday. The bus ride wouldn´t have been too bad but about halfway through there was literally no air circulating and we were all roasting! It was absolutely miserable to say the least because yesterday was really hot in Spain. We met some other Americans on the bus and went together to cool off with some Sangria once we finally got to Pamplona. Of course, the FIRST thing we actually did was buy these red scarves that they were selling on the streets. I couldn´t believe how many people were in Pamplona for the festival of San Fermin, all dressed in red and white. We had some friends who ran with the bulls that morning so we were planning to meet up with them later to see how it went. Someone died the other day (the fifteenth person in the history of the run) so I definitely knew I would rather watch than participate!

We decided the best use of our time and money would be to buy stuff to make sandwiches and drinks at Corte Inglés. This place was an absolute MADHOUSE and I would say we probably spent a good hour at minimum trying to decide what we wanted to get. It was actually pretty funny to watch 7 people decide on things like how many packages of ham we would need for sandwiches. After spending about 60 euros at Corte Inglés, we picked an open spot in a grassy area to sit and eat. We made Calimocho, a signature drink that is half red wine and half Coca-Cola. The atmosphere in Pamplona was unreal. There was live music and parades, but really it was just a lot of drunk people roaming the streets! Pamplona is a really small city so there aren´t enough rooms to support the festival. It´s either pretty pricey or there aren´t any available, so everyone just goes down there without a place to sleep. It was pretty funny to see people asleep in every area of the city, but mostly the parks. We decided we were just going to stay up the whole night until the run the next morning so that we didn´t have to worry about finding a safe place to sleep. The actual run was scheduled at 8am (we only had 45 minutes from there to make it to our bus back), and my friend actually saw a man get gored a few times! I would say that this was one of my favorite experiences so far in Madrid. I felt like I got to see a really important part of Spanish culture and it is something that I doubt I will ever have the chance to do again! If you are ever in Spain over this time, you can´t miss it.

Nothing much new has happened here in Madrid. I have met friends for dinner a few times this week. We found a place called 100 Montaditos that was super cheap (although the food wasn´t incredible). They served 100 different kinds of mini sandwiches of Spanish flavors all for between 1 and 1.50 euros a piece. Three of us shared a sampler platter of 12 montaditos and then we each got a jarro (mug, basically) of beer for only 15 euros! What a steal, seriously.

This week is San Fermines aka the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. I have watched a little of it on TV, and know a few people making the trip this weekend. I think that would be so fun to go down there! Of course, I wouldn´t run or anything (most of the people who get hurt seem to be tourists) but it would be an experience.

Maria has been working from home most of this week so we have had the chance to eat lunch together and chat as usually I am by myself all day until I pick up Eloisa at 3:30. She went to the library and got me a book called La Tesis de Nancy (the thesis of Nancy). It is well known in Spain, and is a collection of letters written by an American girl about her time living in Spain. It is translated into Spanish so I have been referencing my dictionary quite a bit, but it is a good read. It is over 50 years old, but it is so funny to see how many of the things she noticed I have also noticed as an American living in Spain. Some things never change, I guess!

The other day, a commercial was on for Disneyworld and Eloisa told me that when she learns English she wants to go there. I told her that she has to learn it very well so she can talk to all of the Princesses. She seemed to like that! And yesterday, she informed me that she wants to go to Japan (Japón in Spanish, which somehow made it even cuter) because that´s where Hello Kitty lives. I said she would have to be a lot older, and she thought 10 years old sounded pretty good. Looks like I have a world traveler on my hands!

Happy (late) 4th of July! This was my first time being in another country to celebrate the birth of America. On Thursday, I went to the 4th of July party at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. As I walked up, I was amazed at how many policemen were standing guard around the building and adjoining house. One person on the street even stopped to ask me what was going on, so I felt kind of important that I was able to go in! At the party, they had traditional American food (perpetuating the stereotype I suppose!) of hamburgers, hot dogs, donuts, ice cream, and even Starbucks. It was fun to be able to celebrate there and enjoy some food I would have back home. I also got to meet the other Embassy interns that I had not met yet, and we all went out for a little bit afterwards.

On Friday, I had to wake up early because I had to leave the house at 8am and had still not packed my suitcase for Valencia. I was pretty tired but knew I had a 4 hour bus ride ahead of me to catch up on sleep. The bus station was pretty big, and it was interesting to see just how much this form of public transportation is used to get around the country. I REALLY wish that we had better public transportation that was clean and safe to use so that traveling around the states would be a little easier. We arrived at the Purple Nest hostel around 130pm after an interesting (local) bus ride. We followed the directions to get on the right bus but it made SO many stops that we really had no idea if we were ever going to get there. Stops were not announced so we had to watch very closely to make sure we got off in the right place. To make it even harder, many of the signs are printed in the native Valencian which looked a lot more like French than Spanish. Once unpacked at the hostel, we went over to the RED Nest hostel for free sangria and paella (the traditional dish that originated in Valencia). It was unbearably hot, and a lot more humid than Madrid, so it didn´t take long for us to decide to go to the beach. We spent a few hours at the beach and waited for our French friends to get there. We all went to dinner together at a trendy beachside lounge. It was a running joke that we kept asking our waiter how much stuff cost that he ended up giving us most of it for free because it was easier than looking it up! He also gave us coupons for free paella which we went back to eat the next day.

We noticed a lot of differences between Valencia and Madrid. Although Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, it seemed like there were never any people in the streets! In Madrid, you are never alone on the streets but we felt like we were a lot in Valencia. It was actually pretty funny, and we kept joking about how we were the only ones in the whole city and that no one actually LIVED in Valencia. It seemed like everyone we stopped to ask questions to were tourists as well! The Metro system is very simple in Valencia, but there are so many corners of the city that it doesn´t reach. We found this to be a challenge in planning our activities because in Madrid you can get literally anywhere by train. The four of us had our own room in the hostel and the whole place was actually quite nice. I had never stayed in a hostel before but it had a bar and a guest kitchen, and we even had a balcony that overlooked a beautiful church where, in our short stay we saw probably three weddings take place. The hostel boasted about its air conditioning, which is a luxury for hostels, but they only turned it on at night and it was FREEZING!!!! I could hardly sleep because I only had a sheet to cover myself.

Saturday was another beach day. The Purple and Red hostels had organized everyone to meet in one central location, they paid for our bus ride to the beach, and then we could pay 3 Euros if we wanted beer which was a good deal since there was no limit. It was fun to hang out with everyone from the hostel because there were people from Ireland, Sweden, Australia, England, etc. and you got to meet a lot of people with diverse backgrounds. The hostel staff was also fun to hang out with, and overall we had a great day at the beach. That night, we decided it would be a good idea to try out one of the clubs which Valencia is also famous for. We kept seeing one called Luna Rossa so that was our ultimate goal. We also wanted to find El Carmen, which is another place with clubs and bars but our map definitely did not take us there. We finally gave up on searching for the neighborhood and a place to eat, and hopped on a metro towards the beach clubs. When we got to the beach, there were fireworks! That was actually pretty cool considering it was the Saturday of the 4th so I felt at home. It was almost midnight and we were starving so we grabbed a slice of pizza from a corner store before we decided to go to a Middle Eastern themed bar. We kept wanting to go to Luna Rossa which was right across the street, but knew it wouldn´t be busy until after 2:00. When it finally became late enough to leave we decided that we should stay where we were because we were all running out of money. After paying cover at Luna Rossa, some of us wouldn´t be able to buy anything else! Saturday was another fun and late night, check out at 11am came way too early.

The hostel let us keep our bags there since our bus didn´t leave until 7 at night. We planned to spend the day exploring the city. The map we had been given was completely wrong and we ended up going in the wrong direction multiple times as well as spending a lot of time looking for Metro stations since we had purchased a pass earlier in the weekend. We needed to get our money´s worth! It was kind of a funny day because we felt like we were never actually seeing anything, just wandering around in the city (alone of course). It was sweltering hot so I am assuming everyone was at the beach! We did get to see the former location of the river, which is now a park because they manually moved the river, as well as La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias which is an area where the Aquarium, etc. are and the buildings have unique architecture. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted with the little sleep that we had so we did a little shopping and just sat around until it was time to get on the bus. All in all, it was a really fun weekend. Viva Valencia!

I have some fun news to share!

I had an appointment at 9:15 this morning with the Director of Consumer Practice in the Madrid office of the public relations company I had an internship with last summer in Chicago. Just my luck that the Madrid office also has a large food and nutrition practice. The director and I had exchanged e-mails a few times, but so far had been unable to figure out a way I could get some experience in a Spanish company without a work permit (legal, health issues, etc.). We decided to meet today just so that I could hear about what the company is working on and learn about their clients.

I was a little nervous at first because I have only been in more informal settings so far in Madrid, and didn´t want to make a bad impression. I arrived at the reception area and stated that I had a meeting at 9:15 (all in Spanish, very proud!). The Director had not yet arrived, so the receptionist took me to a conference room so that I could wait. She gave me a newspaper and some water while I waited, and was so courteous to me and even offered to speak to me in English if I wanted. But I told her Spanish was just fine! When the Director came in, he had a spiral bound packet of information to give me about the office. It was so interesting to see how the companies they work with here differ from those in the States. He said that the Consumer Practice team was very excited to learn that I wanted to come there because they wanted to also be able to collaborate with someone from another country that would have different views.

The office is a lot smaller than the one in Chicago, but that is also because the Chicago office is the North American hub for consumer accounts. For example, in Madrid they only have 7 people on the consumer team with about that many accounts. There are three other practice areas with about the same amount of people in each. In Chicago, the company occupied three floors of a building! The Director and I spoke in a little English and a little Spanish so that we could fully understand each other. I can not emphasize enough how nice he was, and I didn´t feel in the least bit intimidated when I was talking to him. It really made me feel better because I was pretty nervous this morning! He introduced me to the Consumer practice group and they (like in Chicago) were all pretty young. Some of the girls looked at me with an "oh isn´t the little American girl so cute" look haha, they all seemed super friendly. And of course they all said HI instead of HOLA to practice English!

Apparently during the year, an English teacher comes into the company and offers lessons, but it stops in the summer. Since I want to improve my Spanish and the Director and others in the practice group want to improve their English, we decided that it would be best for me to come in a few hours a week to help out. I will be able to observe what they are doing on the accounts and talk with the employees in Spanish and then help them with their English. We will talk mostly about work and industry-related things, but I´m sure we will discuss other stuff too! I think this will be a really neat experience for me to be inside a Spanish company and also a way to meet more people here in Spain.

Well, I´m out to meet a friend for tapas. Hasta luego!