Cumple y visitas!

After a tumultuous week I finally got a day off, cuz of the Spanish 'All Saints Day'. Got to love all the Spanish saints they have here...

Well, last week was the week of my first birthday abroad, in Madrid Spain to be exact! And to top things off I also had friends/family coming over from Holland to celebrate it with me. That way I could show them the beautiful Madrid, catch up on everything we experienced and at the same time getting to celebrate with a big group from back home!

It was quite weird at first to see them in the Madrilenian setting, but everything else was like before I left. It was all very natural, even though it has been a while since I've seen them in person. You guys can reckon this is definitely a thing you think about when deciding to go study abroad. Well guys, I can assure you...if they are good friends of yours, the connection remains and it will be like it was just a day or two you haven't seen eachother. Don't worry about this! Also it's very nice to get to share your home for a semester with the people from back home, getting them to know what makes it so fun here.

We've been sightseeing, partying with the friends I got to make in Madrid and it was all a blast (and tireing hehe...). Aaall worth it, it's funny to see how the friends you make here get along so well with the friends from back home. Guess even though it's all international, in the essence you still get along with the people you normally would hang out with back home.
Another great aspect of this exchange abroad, I know I've made friends for life and this all got really through to me when they surprised me with a birthday cake and all started singing for me in class...it was great!

I could not have had a better week and this has probably been my most special birthday ever. When my visitors went back home, I did miss them of course. But there were several things I thought about immediately.
First off, I am halfway now and it is even going a bit too fast for my taste haha..
Second of all, the fact it still went so natural when my friends were here, makes me feel I have the people I love and care about still waiting at home:d
Third of all, and maybe the most important...I've got my friends, flatmates here who have become very good friends of mine in a very short period. They are experiencing the same thing and we know we'll be there for eachother to make it that much more fun for eachother and so we don't think too much about home hehe...

Well guys, I hope this post has made you a bit more confident about being able to make that step to go abroad. I assure, it'll be best experience ever and everybody back home will still be there waiting for you:D

Good luck with the preparations for your applications as I've seen the deadline is approaching fast now. For any questions or remark you can post a message of course and I'll get back to you.

Much love,

Fouad