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Postcards From Spain

© Kim Applegate

Welcome to a new feature at Travel Writing on Suite101.com - Postcards from Spain!

Our very own globe-trotting correspondent, Sara Miller, is spending six months in lovely Spain. Sara is a regular reader of Travel Writing Update (this site's ezine) and has agreed to try out on us what she has learned from the ezine and site.

A little background: Sara is a reporter for a Brooklyn newspaper with a hankering to be a travel writer. A few years ago, while completing her history degree at the University of Michigan, Sara was undecided on what she wanted to do. She took a number of journalism courses and even wrote for the school newspaper.

For two years, Sara has been honing her writing skills at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, covering everything from the arts and school scene to the cop beat. During this time, Sara also dipped her pen into the freelance inkwell and was successful in having articles published in Time Out New York, the Western Queens Gazette, the Glass Craftsman, and Inscriptions.

Looking for fresh experiences, and setting her sights on new horizons, Sara planned a trip to Spain. Sara is currently on a six-month leave of absence from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and has just arrived in Madrid. For the first three months she'll be living with a host family and then will head out to travel around the country.

"I eventually want to do international writing and feel Spanish fluency will be helpful." Sara explains. "It's also a dream of mine to live abroad."

Sara is a regular reader of Travel Writing Update ezine and enjoys frequent visits to Travel Writing at Suite101. Just prior to leaving for Spain, Sara emailed me a question about her travels. Through our notes back and forth, we came up with the idea of Postcards from Spain.

During the next six months she will send regular reports, sharing with us her experiences of living in a new country. This is Sara's first crack at travel writing, and although she has some trepidation, I can tell you she is a natural.

So without further ado, here is the first instalment of Postcards from Spain!

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First Impressions
by Sara Miller

Upon exiting the doors of Madrid's Barajas airport, I fell into a dizzying disorientation among the whizzing taxis and foreign banter. Failed attempts to communicate, and unfamiliar landmarks, only sucked me further into my mood. The last thing I wanted to do was take a spin through the Prado or the Palaio Real, with the hordes of other tourists. I wanted to regroup. So I put on a pair of sturdy shoes, secured a map in my bag, and took to the streets.