I was eagerly looking forward to detailing Manolo's first days in America but unfortunately I forgot that when you're busy actually doing stuff in America it leaves little time to actually write about the events. Now things are slowing down and I can actually go back and write about the past 10 days.
I remember when I ended my last relationship (over a year ago) and I began dating right away, many of my college friends (many of whom are married) told me to be single and free for as long as possible. Single. Free. Don't even date. Just do what I want to do when I want to do it. This was a great idea but I was lonely and wanted to get back in a relationship as soon as possible. Well life had other ideas and while I dated (a lot) I never was in a real relationship again until Manolo.
When Manolo made the decision to move to the US I prepared for almost everything I could think of: ordering the Spanish soccer package on cable, downloading skype so he could call home often, finding out where we could buy certain Spanish foods, etc. The one thing I didn't prepare for was that for so long I have been alone and have enjoyed having the ability to do things the way I want when I want. (For those who do not know my previous relationship, he was very much a loner so even though we were together for 4 years we still did a lot of stuff apart). So for almost 5 years I have become accustomed to grocery shopping by myself, watching what I want to watch on tv, sleeping alone (for the past year only), opening my own doors, not having someone put their arm around me while we walk down the street, etc.
All of a sudden I had a insta-boyfriend and even walking down the street with his arm around me was suffocating. I began worrying that I would never be able to be in a relationship again. Here I had a caring, funny, relaxed, loving, smart, sexy, European boyfriend who moved 5,883 miles for ME and instead of enjoying my luck all I could think was "I want to watch TLC Baby Story and lie in bed in my pajamas by MYSELF! Go away". It wasn't Manolo, it was me. Luckily, this feeling only lasted a few days and the past week has been much easier.
Our first few days were spent in Washington DC. Manolo came open and willing to enjoy new experiences so fortunately there wasn't a lot of comparing Spain to America and "oh Spain is so superior for the following reasons". He ate macaroni and cheese for the first time (which I think he may be an addict now) and buffalo wings (which I am an addict). We saw National Memorials at night (which I highly recommend), Smithsonian Museum of American History (which was not as educational as I thought it would be because the displays change often and don't really give a good overview of important events in American History), and walked around Washington DC.
On our way home to San Diego we were delayed overnight in Atlanta due to bad weather. Helping to end my "independent streak" was this layover. Here was a really not fun situation and suddenly I had a travel companion who made it fun and not lonely. I had someone to hold my hand, help me find the bus to the hotel, eat room service with me in bed, and watch tv while we waited for the next available flight. Not such a bad situation to be in.
