New Conversations

Sunday, July 31

Have you ever had a one-day friend?

It’s kind of an odd concept to be friends with someone for only one day, but that’s pretty much what happened to me today.

I had met this sweet girl Kierra in Oviedo. She was in the same program with a group from Philadelphia, and was even in my class during the mornings. And while I did know her, I didn’t know her very well.

Nonetheless we ended up booking the same hostel in Madrid, so I invited her along to my only plans for Sunday - to go to church in the morning and then walk around the royal gardens.

Mass was beautiful and very ornate. The cathedral is huge and since it is the central church in Madrid, it is home to more than 20 priests, 3 bishops, 2 archbishops and a cardinal. The cardinal presided over mass but the rest all helped out with readings, incense, communion and every little detail. I’ve never been to a mass with that many people in the ceremony or in the crowd.

Kierra is not Catholic, so after mass I explained some of the traditions and a few of the beliefs and what had happened. We walked through the royal gardens and explored, and it was just really great to have someone there.

I was worried Madrid was going to be lonely for these four days, but having her around today made the whole thing seem quick and made the day speed by. And even though Kierra leaves early tomorrow, it is great to have known her.

We ended up getting dinner and then coming back to the lobby for the free Sangria. Everyone in the hostel was chatty, so we quickly got to talking with a few other girls, and it was wonderful to hear their stories and backgrounds and talk about random things from not tipping your waiter in Spain to Harry Potter and Disneyland, and more serious things like the difference between white woman hair and black hair.

That led us into a much deeper conversation about the stereotypes we are all expected to live up to, how much the media degrades normal people, and our own struggles with living up to and giving up on those expectations. It was eye-opening and enlightening, and certainly not a conversation I expected to have, let alone with three relatively random strangers from all different parts of the U.S. in the lobby of a hostel in Madrid.

They’re random, the things that bring us together, but often they’re beautiful.