I'm officially living in Madrid and absolutely loving it! Although the jet lag was a little rough at first after landing in Madrid at 8am which is 2am in the states we basically skipped our entire night and went straight to the day and doing things! We were able to get about a two hour nap in before our mandatory lunch though thank god! While basically being a walking zombie the IES:Madrid students (120 in the program) all gathered in our hotel (Hotel Princesa) for a great 4 course meal lunch. Although the lunch was great my steak was basically bleeding which made it a bit hard for me to eat. We received our schedules shortly after lunch which I'm very excited about! I'm taking the history of spanish architecture including site visits around Madrid, the history of Madrid, contemporary spanish film which includes watching movies, and El Greco, Valezquez, and Goya in el Prado Museum which takes place IN the prado museum every tuesday and wednesday! No classes on fridays and mondays means lots of traveling for this girl! Besides the language I think the thing I have to get used to most transitioning from a smartphone to a flip phone the size of a nugget!
We had our first spanish meal which I don't think any of us knew what we were ordering however we were able to get a meal, share a bottle of wine between 2, and get an appetizer for only 10 euro! That's what I call a deal! One thing I will also have to get used to is the nightlife here. Spaniards do not go out before 2am in Spain! We went to our first spanish club last night called "Chapandaz" it is literally decorated just like a cave and is supposed to have the vibe that you are partying inside of one! Pictures are soon to come but it was a very interesting experience! However, we arrived at the bar at 12:30 which is apparently so early for Spain that not only did we get in free with some free drinks but NO ONE was inside of the bar! Thank god we went in a group of about 12 people in order to actually get the party started! It was not until about 2am that other people finally started to arrive! Today we had an early morning which did not help our lack of sleep and jet lag from the night before. However, we were finally able to meet our host families! Me and my roommate Becca will be living with Carmen, her adorable husband Miguel, and their 15-year old daughter Celia. They are great group and do not speak a bit of english! It was hard to adjust not only to the lisp of their accent at first but the speed in which they talk. I have high hopes of becoming if not bilingual by the team here then definitely WELL spoken with my use of the spanish language! They cooked us a great first meal of chicken with potatoes and salad which by the way you must eat ALL of because it is rude to leave food left on your plate in Spain. Not only will I be speaking spanish everyday inside of the homestay, all of my classes will be solely taught in spanish, and none of the professors or employees at IES speak very much english as well. Understanding is the easy part but actually putting all the grammar from the many years of spanish together and speaking it is a whole other story! Es muy dificil! However, I'm surrounded by it at all times and feel like I'm improving every minute!
After a super busy day of meetings, introductions to the host family, a spanish assessment and tours of the city we went out for dinner to a great restaurant called "Cerveceria Montaditos" which was basically a restaurant of mini sandwiches. They had a selection of over 100 mini sandwiches all under 2 euro! We tried a variety of different sandwiches and the chorizo is absolutely amazing in Spain. Spain is known to have the best chorizo in the world and they are living up to my every expectation! I now know what to order when I can't decide because you seriously can never go wrong with ordering it!
Pictures are soon to come!
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