Countdown

Starting Monday will be the last 2 weeks of what has felt like an unusually long internship. The workload's still a lot, but then at least I don't work weekends like the Investment Banking guys, so it's always good to spend the weekend in Barcelona where the weather rocks and the beach awaits, right?

Wrong. For starters, my flight back to Barça on Thursday night was possibly the most disturbing ever. Right behind me was a child (I could swear he had a mark of the devil on him somewhere) who screamed at the top of his lungs at the airport in Madrid, during the entire hour of the flight, and after landing, as his parents even stood next to me as I was picking up my luggage at the conveyer belt, seemingly oblivious of the nervous breakdown their child was causing their fellow passengers.

Now let's get this in perspective - I have a nephew who, if let loose, leaves the house looking like Katrina has struck - not to mention he does have his fits of yelling and screaming and crying. So I'm pretty immune to what I consider "normal" child behaviour. The kid that was in the plane, on the other hand, took "normal" to a whole new level. I think 2 more hours of yelling like that and they would have had to make an emergency landing because the screaming would've loosened the screws from the wings or something. It was that bad.

Plus after I finally got into the taxi, hoping finally for some peace and quiet, I have to meet the only cabbie in all of Barcelona who would not stop talking about the advantages of putting on a seat-belt, because its mandatory since 1991, and because the sky would fall apart if I didn't. And I was on the back seat, on a ride that takes 15 minutes to reach my apartment. It was the longest 15 minutes ever. (And before you branch off into the advantages of using a seat-belt : I know.)

Not to mention the weather this weekend *sucks*, despite my sun-dance, which according to some people, was not the right sun-dance. So no beach.

However, all's not bad. I had a satisfying week at work, met friends for dinner, and intend to get some beauty sleep, now that the weather's prompting me to.

All's well that ends well.

I'm more than halfway through my internship now, and apart from the incessant flying which I still have to get used to, everything else is sinking in well. Let me qualify that - of course not everything I get to do is awesome, there are dull moments like in any other job, of course there are times when I don't like what I'm asked to do or the way a particular thing is done, but overall I'm very satisfied with what I'm doing.

I still travel to Madrid each Monday morning and fly back Thursday nights and work from the client location. Over the last week, we (i.e. my team) have been working from the offices of one of our strategic partners, and it's been interesting, to say the least. Although the official language of my project is english, not everyone in the office of our associate speaks english, so it can be challenging for all of us - me with limited spanish vocab and them with limited english vocab!

Enough talk. Time for some well-overdue pictures. First some from my weekend at Victor's in Madrid -

The thing that Madrid is most well-known for!


The big black bear, somewhere in La Latina.


The royal residence -


Alright enough about Madrid - can't post any more pics here, ask me if you want to see them! Next up are pics from the Summer Day trip to Vigo / Playa de Rodas / Santiago de Compostela.

That's where it all happened:


Spreading the wings -


Lunch..


.. And then the beach.


Alright I'm outta time. ¡Hasta Pronto!