(Barcelona, Spain) - The Adventure Begins…

June 16, 2010

Yes, I was late off the blocks but my summer finally started. I flew to Chicago

on the 9th of June for the AMA national conference. But before the conference started I caught up with an old friend (Sam Dolbee). He took me to DEVON Ave in Chicago. If you've never been there you should go. Its like a mini Southeast Asia. I think they're trying to rename the street Gandhi.

The next morning I noticed that Sam's mom is a beekeeper and when she found out I was interested she opened up the boxes and showed me inside how the bees make honey and taught me a little about it. She has over 12,000 bees and told me that in a single bee's life time it makes only one teaspoon of honey. She harvests gallons of this stuff. But it made me appreciate the

honey we had for breakfast that morning a whole lot more.

The AMA convention was in the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. The people I went with (members of our class but I'll let them identify if they want to) and I spent most of the time exploring the city. I'd never been in Chicago before. It was MASSIVE! I found out it’s the 3rd largest city in the US behind NY and LA. There is a building there called the John Hancock building that has a bar with four walls of glass on the 96th floor. You can see the whole city and at night it looks like you're looking down at the stars. It's pretty cool. On a random day we were walking through millennium park and this lady hands us two tickets to go on the bus tour. We each pitched in for the third ticket and toured the city. Chicago reminded me of a much cleaner NY, but who knows…I didn't see all of it.

A few days later I flew from Chicago to NY where I spent the night and caught up with another old friend from UNC. Something that is worth noting although all to often taking for granted is how good my friends are. There are some really good people in my life! HOLLA!

So the day before yesterday I flew out of JFK to Brussels. We were delayed for an hour an a half after we boarded so we just sat on the tarmac waiting to move. I decided to try to unlock my iPhone so I could tether it to my laptop and get internet. As soon as I figured it out, literally the minute I figured it out in standard Mike Mallah fashion we were set for take off. If you've never flown JET Airways I'd recommend it. I didn't know it's an Indian airline. They served freakin Chicken Curry on the plane. How kick ass is that?

Anyway, I got to Brussels, Belgium and had a five hour lay over but I was really tired so I passed out in the airport. After I woke up I found out that Air Traffic control in France was on strike so my plane to Spain was delayed. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I decided to scope out some Belgian chocolates. I grabbed some on the fly and then boarded my plane. Sitting there eating my world famous Belgian chocolates, I thought about how awesome I was at the moment….until I looked down and read "Made in Japan"

on the box. DAMN. Next time Brussels, next time!

So now I'm in Barcelona! I got here yesterday and the person that was suppose to pick me up from the Airport never showed. So after navigating the bus and subways systems with my impressive collection of Spanish vocabulary which includes and IS limited to Por Favor's, Gracias's, and De Nada's I found my way to my apt. The student flat here is four bedrooms and 19 med students live here from all over the world (Mexico, Indonesia, Columbia, Spain, Holland, etc). Interesting. We'll see how it works.

I haven't seen much of the city yet…but its beautiful so far. We're going out tonight.