Now, if you've been keeping up with my blog and you are someone's parent, eagerly sifting through all the available information in order to be assured that your baby will be safe abroad, I thank and commend you for choosing my humble blog.  If you've been consistently reading this blog, you likely have visions of your child coming home after a day of work, settling down with a laptop and planning out weekend trips to sites of cultural import as he or she settles into a comfortable, quiet night.  Please, read no further.  I'd hate to be the one to destroy your innocence. 

It's been a little over a week here in Madrid and my Spanish comprehension has dropped to absolute zero.  Well, maybe it hasn't dropped so much, but it's definitely not the effortless path to fluency I envisioned.  I used to think of myself as a Spanish whiz kid -- I got good grades without effort and really understood the grammar.  I could hold a fairly decent conversation.  Coming to Spain, I thought, was just the next step in a natural progression, one I'd take to with the same ease and nonchalance as learning how to read and write the language.  But no.  No

It's Friday, June 11, and only one day remains until I leave for Madrid to work as a financial analyst with Morningstar.  I was one of the first to have signed up with Intrax back in October, so it's been quite a long wait for this moment.  Throughout the past couple of months, going to Spain has been a bragging right, a distant bit of information that I could casually drop to get reactions when asked about my summer plans.  Now, that it's become a reality, I feel one thing: excitement!  I can't wait to arrive in Spain and to begin at Morningstar!  Althoug