First of all, happy birthday!!! I'm glad that things are going well for you!!!!!

Belated Happy Birthday, missmadrid...It's great to see someone enjoying life....Boy...I envy you, too!! What a life...

Pim, you'll have to let me know how being a PA is...sounds interesting...maybe something I can consider for a change of career, what do you think

Wyndy

so where o where has missmadrid98 been????????? well alot has happened.

1. i have fallen in love with a man.

2. i live in Guadalix de la Sierra

3. i am working in Miraflores de la Sierra

4. i am going on a month vacation in September

okay so now let´s break it down. Yes Missmadrid98 has found a very special someone. he´s a wonderful man that lives in Guadalix de la Sierra but works in alcobendas, you see i met him cause he was one of my students i used to teach in a company,,,,,, ya i know but hey, you never know where that special someone will come from. He´s Basque from San Sebastian and i we are absolutely disgustingly in love. We have moved into a fabulous apartment in Guadalix De la Sierra. i got a contracted job in Miraflores de la Sierra in an academy for children teaching there 4 days a week. Miraflores is just 10 minutes from guadalix. i never have to go into madrid unless i wnat to. i live and work in the sierra! i am sooooooooooooooooooo happy life is so perfect. perhaps on one of these madridman gatherings i´ll bring my very special someone along with me. all the best!!!!!!!!!!

here is an e-mail i sent out to my family and friends so you get more of an idea how i am!!!!! all the best!!!! ohya and for vacation we are going to andalucia and the Basque Country

hello all,

well so incredibly sorry i haven´t written in a long time i have been tied up but so incredibly happy. i finished working at the summer camp, it ended july 26th. I got a job offer starting in October working for an academy in a picturesque pueblo in the mountains of madrid called "Miraflores de la Sierra" i have just moved to a pueblo 10 minutes from that pueblo called "Guadalix de la Sierra" so i am like all in the sierra. they offered me a full time contract working monday thru thursday teaching children (i mean it just can´t get ANY better than this) i am sooo happy with my life i have created for myself. i have been living in Spain for a year and a half and i couldn´t be more happy with the life i carved out for little old me. i came with 2 suitcases and 900 dollars and now i am sitting on top of the world! As i am sure you all know i have met a very special someone that i told everyone about in my previous e-mail. well we are sooooo very happy and disgustigly in love. i neeeeeeeeeever thought this would happen but it did and here i am. we have moved in an absolutely FANTASTIC apartment with views of the mountains and surrouding villages. it´s a 2 story apartment fully furnished with wooden furniture and a tiled kitchen. the 2nd floor is the bedroom that is a loft bedroom. the whole 2nd floor is the bedroom, enormous with 3 skylight windows. well i am just so damn happy. i had breakfast this morning like at 9:30a.m. on my little terraza, my coffee and toast with cream cheese and i looked at the mountains and the old ladies watering their flowerpots. Me and Dani are so incredibly happy and are going on a month vacataion in september. we plan to go to the beaches of andalucia (the south of Spain), Portugal, then a week to San Sebatian (basque country) where he is from. we are going august 15-18 to San Sebatian and cruise around the north coast drinking cider and eating tapas! i have 26 envelopes with pictures to send out. teh thing is i have to write 26 letters to go along with all the envelopes and pictures so hang tight cause i have some pictures coming! well as you can see don´t worry about little old me cause i couldn´t be happier. i live in spain in the mountains, have exactly the job i want doing what i like to do, working only 20 hours a week, 4 days a week getting a full time salary with all the vacations and holidays (which are alot here in spain) and a kick ass apartment that only costs me $180 a month (my half) $360 total. I have tons of friends over here and have met a wonderful man that brings out the absolute best in me and loves me just the way i am. ( luckily he absolutly loves my taste and style and thinks that flouresant orange trashcans are really cool, we are looking into a huge multicolored rug for the bedroom) everytime we get something for the apartment he always wants to get the most colorful and weirdest one......isn´t he great. well i am teaching only 8 hours a week during the month of august cause there is hardly any work in madrid in august so i took all that there was. i am working 7-9pm in sol, the center of madrid. the hours and location kind of suck but it´s all i could find. well my people i am sooooo happy and all is perfect. i have been finding it very hard lately to accept that perhaps my life can go absolutely great and chaotic free, that it is possible that i have actually made all those cool and crazy dreams come true, accept the fact that everything is wonderful and enjoy it instead of analyzing it and figuring it out how it could be. could it be that a person can actually be totally happy. be where they want to be, do what they want to do, live the way they want to live, be with someone absolutely wonderful.........yes a person can!
love you and miss you all terribly much!
maria cristina barrero-espinosa!
p.s. apart from all this, there are many times where all of this can´t replace the love or a hug from a true friend or the laughter of your family!

WOW MissMadrid, CONGRATULATIOOOOONS!!!!! I'm so happy for you and I look forward to meet you in person one of these days.

Besos,

Paloma

That is so wonderful. It's is heartwarming to think of you over there, in love, waking up to views of the mountains, and having a job that you enjoy. Congratulations, and thanks for sharing with us.

We're ALL SO HAPPY for you and your successes. Enjoy it all for as long as you can. Living on a peak such as this though.....

We've missed you around here and at the last serveral MadridMan gatherings in Madrid. We'd hoped to see you during Version 4.0 in spring. Maybe NEXT spring! Enjoy happiness, missmadrid98. It's nice to know someone is living their dreams. Good for you. And thanks for keeping us posted on our "American in Madrid" story.

Saludos, MadridMan

MM98....simply amazing. You make me want to quit my corporate job, sell the house, and just pick up and move and make it happen. But how to do this with 3 small kids??? ... seems so easy for folks like tony torero who have ties in place and legalities taken care of. This is making me crazy reading your update entries here. Please keep them coming....

I got piel de gallina when I read your post...how did I miss it when you wrote it? Celoso doesn't even come close to describing my mind right now!!!

Watch out for relations with a Basque...you might just marry one! (like I did!!! )

Hola Missmadrid!

I only just recently caught up with your story. Your bio in your Spain Page and the theme about your name really captures what many children of Cuban parents/Spanish heritage feel ... going to Spain is nothing short of a complete spiritual overhaul ... and you can never get Spain out of your heart after that ... I can totally relate ... although Spain feels a little "closer" living in Miami ... but you had to cross a whole continent *and* an ocean! It's in your blood and now you're on the soil!

Miraflores is such a lovely place. Enjoy your blessings and keep us posted!

Churrito

PS

Where do you study flamenco?