Spain, in List Form

Since I'm sick, thinking about 1 billion things at once, and borrowing my friend's laptop (muchas gracias!), I will make this post short 'n sweet. Perhaps a list or two will help me organize my initial thoughts on Spain and will give you, dear reader, a glimpse of my life in Madrid so far. I promise more details later! As for now...

10 Cosas Buenas
1. A new group of friends, most of them fellow teaching assistants
2. A dependable, clean, and fairly simple Metro system
3. An apartment with sunshine-yellow walls, space to unroll my yoga mat and a room with a view
4. Walks around the barrio
5. Cereal on the kitchen shelf and fresh fruit and veggies from the corner mart in the fridge
6. TV in Spanish
7. A hot mug of green tea with mint for when I start to cough
8. Skyping with my family
9. Menus del dia (The Day's Special) that includes 2 courses, drink (wine, beer, soda) and dessert/coffee for just a few euros
10. Autumn's 1st cool, rainy day

10 Cosas Malas
1. Having the worst cold of your life for a week...and that week including your 1st day of school and moving in
2. A landlord who gets confused and expects too much money the day you move in
3. Teeny washer machines
4. Graffiti everywhere
5. No customer service, especially in restaurants
6. TV only in Spanish when all you want is some easy-to-understand, trashy, American shows
7. Couples on every corner, park bench and against every wall, doing things that make you disgusted/curious
8. Very little green to be seen
9. The dollar against the euro
10. A rainy day

Do not be fooled. There are certainly more positives than negatives in my life right now for I have been truly blessed. I could have gone on and on with my "good" list, and list things like how I always have wifi in my apartment, how I have too many clothes with me and how my family can afford to buy me a new laptop and ship it to me the moment my old one dies. I could count my blessings all day and into the night! I'm so very thankful for this opportunity. My friends and I frequently jump and squeal while walking around Madrid and shout, "We're in SPAIN!" A new friend of mine, Matt, recently spent all day grinning from ear-to-ear and announcing, "I'm so excited!" That's how I feel each and everyday, cold or no cold. Rain or shine.