First 2 weeks

My room

So here we are, first 2 weeks in Madrid. After landing and sleeping for about an hour overnight it was 10am in Spain. We got our passports stamped and finally stepped outside onto Spanish soil. The 10 of us had done so many forms and gone to so many meetings and waited so long for just this. We got on a bus which took us to our host families houses and had lunch for the first time in the place where we'd live for the next 3 months.

El Plaza Mayor

My host mother, or señora, is a widow and is 72 years young. She loves to blast any kind of music and make up words as she goes along. She dances around while cooking dinner and has a fan in her hand at all times. She cooks extremely well and makes really god paella, sangria and home made rice pudding! We ate and talked about our families and she told me about her upcoming night of singing at a jazz club called Toniz. Two of my friends and I went along with her to a jazz bar where she sang along with a piano player. One thing about going out in Spain is that the bars/clubs usually don't open until about 1:30am and close at 6am. We went and had coffee in an open terrace at midnight and then it was on to Toniz where she made us go on stage with her and sing "When The Saints Go Marching In" (apparently a popular song to sing in English at a spanish bar) We didn't leave until 4am.

El Parque del Retiro
I thank god everyday for the coffee here...its not exactly coffee. Its espresso, all of it. But it works well in helping me stay awake. The first week we did a lot of tourist things such as paseos (walks) around the city, visits to places like Museo del Prado, El Parque Del Retiro, El Rastro (a huge outdoor market) Sol (city center) La Plaza Mayor (next to Sol) Gran Via (street similar to Broadway) una obra de Flamenco (popular spanish dance, tapas (meal of appetizers) and a tour of our university.

Mi universidad

un bailador de Flamenco

The university we are all attending is called Universidad de Carlos III. It is located in a part of Madrid called Getafe. Like New York City, Madrid has its different villages. I am taking 4 classes-- Spanish Literature, Advanced Language, History of Spain and Spanish Art. There is so much to do here, this Saturday night is Noche en Blanco (night of white) where all of the stores and museums and restaurants are open all night long. Its sort of like a city-wide black party. We all plan to stay out for that and next weekend we have a group trip to Castilla where Don Quijote de la Mancha was set.

My friends and I have discussed traveling on weekends and I am starting to get into the Spanish schedule of things. I am very excited to see where this semester takes me. I am learning so much just by walking around and my classes are very interesting so far. Keep reading for more updates and pictures!

Hasta mi próxima
(until my next)