Vale!

Hola todos!


I last left off with me arriving safely to Madrid, and so much has happened since then it feels like it's been one really long day.


A few quirks about Madrid so far:

• in the hotel room that we were at for orientation, you have no idea how long it took us to simply figure out how to turn on the lights. Apparently you need to insert your hotel card into a slot, and then they work. It's supposed to save energy...But y'all know me, I turn off the lights when I leave the room regardless.
• I've heard of "tapas" forever, always assuming it was fancy hors d'oeuvres. So on my first night out naturally I was excited when I heard you could get a beer for 2 euro that comes with tapas. It's actually just a plate full of greasy food, like fried potatoes, breads with various types of meat on it. Some of it was pretty good but just not what I expected!
• They have Big Brother here! This is my favorite reality show in the US and it's called "Gran Hermano" and it's on 24 hours a day on one channel. I can't wait to watch!
• On our first Friday night, a group of us wanted to make a reservation for 9pm (extremely early-we were the only ones in the restaurant for a while) and they said "9pm isn't available. Only 9 o'clock on the DOT" because for Spaniards, I'm assuming a 9pm reservation means 9:30-10pm.

So we landed on Thursday morning and checked into our hotel which was beautiful and centrally located. As tired as I was, I was determined to do something on my first night in Madrid. So me and a group of girls went to a bar in the area. It looked like a dive bar to me, but yet again this was pretty much my first bar experience! There were boar and deer heads on the wall (that made feel at home) and meat hanging up everywhere behind the bar. There wasn't anywhere to sit, but just a cubby hole basically in the back where we all stood up. I ordered sangria, which was not exactly traditional, but it was a HUGE glass and it had about a half an inch of sugar just sitting on the bottom. This came with the free tapas that I mentioned above, and I liked some of it like pepperoni on bread.


The following day we just went to the Instituto where our classes are and had orientation for several hour on classes, host families, etc. Great thing about my program: they give us a travel stipend (I think 30 euro a month), 24 euros every weekend so we can get dinner on Friday and Saturday night, AND they have cultural reimbursement: if we go to a museum, Spanish movie, theater, opera, you name it-they give us up to 7 euros toward that--and there's no limit on how many times!


Foolishly I thought that 12 euro would be more than enough to cover one dinner in Madrid, but that wasn't the case at El Inca, where we ate Friday night. I got a dinner, a pina colada, and we all split some desert, but I walked out paying 21 euro, and others who got more expensive dishes paid closer to 30 euro for ONE NIGHT. To economize, me and some girls just split a bottle of wine back at the hotel and had a pretty relaxing evening because the next morning I moved into my casa! By the way, up until this point, I didn't take a single photo since my camera battery was dead.


I knew nothing about my host mom (senora), so I wasn't sure what to expect. Her name is actually Casi, not Luisa like it said online, and her oldest son is older than my parents, so she must be at least my grandparent's age. I am her 46th student! So she knows what she's doing. She kept saying "You're so tall, and beautiful and such beautiful blond hair and blue eyes! And how well you speak Spanish!" She was very kind and made me feel at home right away. She was telling me how awful some of her past students have been, and when we found out we're both Libras, I knew we'd get along great. She's also an excellent cook! And most families are strict as to the number of meals you get, etc. but she told me this is my house now and I'm free to make myself at home. She's a great cook as well! I just tried paella for the first time, and it is wonderful! Hopefully I'm not still allergic to shellfish, but I'll know in a couple hours...

My room

Paella!

I live right along a river in Spain, and I love sitting on the terrace and enjoying breakfast and seeing the river.

You can see the river on the right. This is a path where people walk, ride bikes, rollerblade-you name it. At night the green bridge is lit up with beautiful colors. 

Since dinner was so expensive on Friday, for Saturday night I consulted my guide books (thanks Alex and Debbie!) and found this awesome place Fresc Co that's an all you can eat buffet for 10.95 euros: great food, cappuccinos, dessert, wine. It was a great bargain. After taking our time there, me and a smaller group went to a bar which was pretty reasonably priced. 

Now, the metro in Madrid is great: it tells you when the next train is coming (usually 3 minutes) and is very clean. However, it stops running from 1:30-6 AM and during that time they have the Buho, which is a bus that runs instead of the subway. Upon leaving the bar, everyone took a cab to their different locations except me: I was prepared to take the Buho. I just had to ask where to get the bus, and as soon as I found it it was so easy and dropped me off even closer than the metro stop that I live at. This is great because it'll save me tons of money on cab rides I won't need! There are really old people riding the Buho at night, which is why I love Madrid: everyone here knows how to have a good time!

Sunday our whole group met up and went to Retiro park, which I suppose would be comparable to Central Park or the Public Gardens, but much more beautiful. They have boats you can rent out (I'll be doing that soon!) and it was packed with people as it was a gorgeous day out.

Retiro Park

Sunday we wanted to go exploring or shopping but pretty much everything is closed! So instead I took the time to book my flights to Prague, Barcelona, and London. (Stay tuned to hear about those adventures!)

Today I had my first day of class and I'm on my 4+ hour break where I come home for lunch. My second class the lady was talking so fast it was hurting my head! But I understood most everything. Classes I'm taking:

• Advanced Language and Composition: Mon/Wed 9:00-10:20
• Migrations and Cultural Diversity in Spain. Un analysis from the anthropological perspective: Mon/Wed 10:30-11:50
• Translation through film and theater: Mon/Wed 5:40-7:00
• Spanish Film: Tuesday 5:30-8:30

I only have class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which is amazing!

That's all for now! xoxoxo