It is been 12 years since i moved to spain?

It is been 12 years since i moved to spain. I firts came on vacation with my dad, in august 2004. We were in france for a week and spain for a week. At the end of august, we were in granada and i met a girl. She was not spainish, but she lived in Madrid. She was an erasmus student and i was very young. I went back to arizona, but suddenly my life was not working out. Soon i found my self wint no job, no house and no giri friend. And all i could think about was that girl back in Madrid. So i calle hey. A And affeyed to come and visit. She said it sounded like a good idea, so i come. I arrived on an overnight flight from philadelphia, on october 21st, 2004, and called her from the airport. She told me to meet her in a plaza in alto de extremadura (not the most exciting part of Madrid). It was a cold and rainy morning in october, just like this one, when i gut off the metro and started my new life. I sat in the plaza waiting, in the rain, with the distinct feeling i was making a huge mistake. What happened alfer that? Well i found a room to rent in lucero (near alto de extremadura, and even less glamorous). I studied to be a teacher. I got a job. The girl went back to her country. I made some other friends. And for some reason i stayed. I got another girl friend (actually a series of girl friends) and had a series of teaching jobs, too. Some of them were bad, some of them were better. But i (almost) always enjoyed teaching. And i had always liked writing. During my firts year in Madrid, i wrote a novel. It was never published. Thank god.