¡Hola! Another Madrid week in the books!
This was my first full week of work, uninterrupted by sickness. Between spending hours at my desk and the brutal Madrid heat, I was exhausted by the end of the week.
The biggest challenge at my internship this week is that my supervisor was gone for a couple of days on vacation, leaving me with little direction or training. This left me to navigate a whole lot of uncertainty on my own. I did my best those few days, working up the confidence to ask my new coworkers questions, thinking of new tasks to start when I had extra time in the day, and piecing together the puzzles of each client’s invoice with clues from their files.
When she came back to work, she had a lot of feedback, some of it critical, because as I was learning, I made a few mistakes. It’s in my nature to want to be perfect my first try at something, so being so far out of my comfort zone and making mistakes in my new office in a foreign country was a huge learning experience. So, while the uncertainty and imperfections that have characterized this week have been frustrating and exhausting, they have helped me to learn, grow, and become even more determined.
Now for the fun stuff! The highlight of my week was a hike in Sierra Guadarrama Park. It is about an hour north of Madrid and accessible by the public transportation system…which meant a completely free day of fun! As soon as we stepped foot off the bus, we were greeted by cows casually crossing the path, to which I unironically exclaimed—holy cow (thus the blog title)! We hiked 6 miles in total, most of which was up an incredibly rocky mountain, and saw some of the prettiest scenery of my life. Plus, there were plenty of wild animals, cows, frogs, and horses (a long-time fear of mine). Even though my legs are still sore, it was an amazing day and a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Some other highlights of this week were strolling around the Retiro rose garden, knowing my metro route well enough to read on my commute, and going to a flower shop/book club/speakeasy!!
Talk next week!
Rachel 💌