My first taste of Spain, and Europe in general for that matter, was in 2001 when I spent my spring semester of college studying abroad in Valencia. I immediately fell in love with the city, the culture, the language and the accessibility to the rest of Europe. My love for travel was officially born and I had quixotic notions of returning to Spain one day in a different capacity.

I first met my fiancé Raul in the fall of 2008. When I heard that there was a guy from Valencia working in my office in New York, I knew I just had to meet him. Our paths eventually crossed at the birthday party of a mutual friend and we traded Valencia stories and figured out that we went to many of the same places while I spent my semester there; we wondered if we were ever in the same place at the same time.  One year later, Raul’s contract in New York was up so we packed up our things and headed to Madrid to continue our romance overseas. I was lucky enough to be able to continue working at my firm’s Madrid office and we have been exploring and getting to know Madrid together ever since.

Thanks to my job, we had the good fortune of getting set up with an agency to help us find an apartment. We also had our friend Patricia, a real-life Madrileña, to give us the run-down on neighborhoods, transportation, nightlife and other Madrid essentials. Within two weeks of touching down in Madrid we were settled into a lovely apartment in the central and colorful neighborhood of Chueca.

The past 19 months have been the adventure of a lifetime, despite the inevitable series of growing pains along the way.  Learning to work in a foreign language and assimilate into the Spanish corporate culture has not been as seamless as the rest of my transition. That being said, Raul and I have loved getting to know our new city and are having a great time planning our upcoming fall wedding.

I am really looking forward to sharing what I have learned, and what I continue to learn on a daily basis in Madrid!