work life: paid time off

For two weeks in June, I took my first real paid vacation. I told my director I had to find a way to utilize my fluency in Spanish, and since my job wasn't necessarily giving me that outlet, I had to find it outside of work - through my vacation days. I was lucky enough to have a manager willing to give me two solid weeks off of work to go on holiday.

I started in Madrid to see some of my dear friends from college. What I loved most about travelling alone, and without a strict agenda, was that I was able to be spontaneous with my decisions and travel plans. In the two full weeks of vacation time, I was able to explore Madrid and stay with my friend June, also took a day trip with my friend Samantha to a city city 1.5 hours away called Segovia, 3 nights and 4 days in Barcelona, down to the south of Spain, Andalucia, to base myself in Sevilla, a day trip to Cádiz, a separate trip to Córdoba, and then back to Madrid.

As I planned my trip, I was unsure of all the "alone time" I would have but quickly realized the first few days in Spain that sometimes it's harder to be alone when you want to be - and that quite honestly as much as I initially thought I wanted to be alone... I actually really wanted to be around interesting people and hear their story.

Will be sharing more soon...