hola, espana!

re: my life right now. juicy juicy news ~ i'm going to spain in january to visit mi natalia. madrid, to be exact. and i know you're all jealous. my flights are officially booked, leaving from chicago at 1030pm in order to get to madrid at 530 at night, instead of the morning/afternoon flights that i would have been my only options had i taken out of milwaukee.

is it bad that i'm pretty much just as excited to switch planes in heathrow airport in london as i am to be going to europe in general? i have a couple hours to spend there, and i just want to be surrounded by people with gorgeous accents that speak my language. i wish i could visit the actual city instead of just the airport; it's one of my life's goals. not to be out-shown by madrid, of course. but i speak almost no spanish, aside from a few key vocab words that have stuck in my mind from high school. some useful: "bano"~ bathroom... others not necessarily: "pez" ~ fish. and i don't really know a lot about the country of spain, aside from the terrorist attacks on it last year...

the only thing i'm really nervous about is traveling such an extreme distance by myself. i mean, i just figured out how to drive from new berlin to brookfield after four years. i'm not good with directions. or doing things on my own. i'd love to be one of those strong girls that can do, and insist on doing everything, or most things, on their own. those able people that can go it alone. maybe it has something to do with the fact that i'm an only child, and thus have pretty much always been alone and needing comfort in someone else. i just don't have the confidence to be "independent" somewhere. i don't know how people visit other countries, especially foreign-language countries, by themselves. it baffles my mind. what would you do? not only do you have no one to share your experiences with first hand, but you have to be competent!

not to say i'm a bumbling idiot, but i just prefer putting any responsibility on the shoulders of someone else. or, if i have someone with me, at least we'll go down together. i have a feeling i'll miss my plane out of london or lose my luggage or something b/c i can't figure out how it all works.

i'm sure it will be a lovely experience, though... i can't wait. i've only been out of the continental u.s. on the four cruises i have been on to the warm weather places... you know, bahama-ey islands and such.

at least my guide/hermana will be able to speak the language and give me a true vacation full of fabulous things i may never see again.

only a month and a half away...