my home away from home: MADRID

As most of you know, I have been living in Madrid, Spain for the past 2.5 years, but it feels like I've known this place for longer. In fact, the first time I stepped foot in Madrid was in 2002, when I took my spring semester of my junior year of college to study abroad. Almost as soon as I moved here, I fell in love with the city as well as my adopted country. After the initial homesickness and the language barrier, I felt integrated. When came time to leave my Spanish adventure, it was a reverse-culture shock to be back in Chicago.

It would be another five years before I returned to Madrid for an extended period of time, although I had returned to Spain on several occasions for work. After four years of working for Turespaña in Chicago, I had become restless and wanted to do something more than just a desk job. Fortunately for me I had found a scholarship to study at the Escuela Diplomática in Madrid, a Master in International Relations and Diplomacy. I returned to Madrid for the second time to study in the fall of 2007, and I have been here ever since.

There is something about this city that draws people back into it. Maybe it's the people, the marcha, the food, or the constant festive atmosphere. This is the only city I've been to in which you will find droves of people barhopping at 3am, even in the pouring rain. I've found meeting people to be relatively easy; you can easily start up a conversation with someone at a bus stop and end up having dinner with them sometime during the week. Whatever it is, it was a radical change from Chicago, where however as friendly and open as Chicagoans are, they can't hold a candle to the madrileños. People here, regardless of age or wherever they're from, know how to live.

I can go on and on, but that would be too much for one article. I love this town, and when comes the time I have to leave this place, it will be a sad day for me. ¡YO SOY MADRILEÑO Y TE AMO MADRID!

www.esmadrid.com