Siesta and Classes

Today was the first day of classes. I only had one today though. Español Track 2 at 9:20 a.m. I showed up a little late because the metro ride took longer than I thought, but I wasn't the only one. Obviously my professor didn't care. Her name is Sara and she seems fun. Sometimes she can't understand what we are trying to say because certain phrases in English don't have a Spanish equivalent, such as "I'm bad with time" doesn't make sense to Spaniards. (That wasn't me using that phrase though haha) But we all help each other in explaining the meaning.

After class three of my classmates and I went to buy our books and fix our cellphones. Both successes! We found a really cool shopping area in Bilboa metro stop area. There are so many sales right now it's insane! Everything is really really cheap. According to Gabriela (USAC adviser) this continues until the end of January. I bought a taller bag for school so I could fit my books in. It only cost 15E and it's really cute! It used to be 30E!!!


Mi bolsa bella! And the map of Madrid that I actually never need to use!

I can't wait for Monday's classes (yes I just said I was excited for class...) because I have Music and Society: Flamenco and then a dance class at the D'Angus Dance studio in the center of Madrid. Apparently we have it with some of our intercambios (language exchange partners) and Spaniards from the school, but I keep hearing different things, so who knows yet.



The Bilboa barrio (neighborhood) where we shopped and bought our books (10% off with USAC!)

Carmen has a cleaning woman come every Thursday, Miranda, so today she made me a quick dinner because Carmen had a long work day. She still feeds me early, like 8:30, but eventually I will be eating at the regular time. I have no problem with that, I could probably start now. For cena (dinner) I had a salad with tuna and olive oil along with a ham pizza. Yummo for the pizza! But the tuna salad was a weird compliment to a ham pizza so I ate around most of the tuna.

Tomorrow I only have one class in the morning again (Español Track 2 is Mon. through Fri.) and then we are exploring more of Madrid. I want a chance to get to know my neighborhood better but I have been so busy during the days that I don't get home until close to dark.

When I look out my window I can see the city lights through the buildings. It reminds me of our view from home. I am also on a hill...that I walk up everyday! Reminiscent of high school! Also like high school, my cell phone is from the stone age and similar to the first phone I ever got. The only problem is I can't find the option to turn the keypad sound off so every time I use it it goes BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEP as I press buttons. Muy molesto (very annoying) !!!!!!

I took my first siesta today at 7:30. It was very, very nice! I will probably need one per day! And I'm sore from walking and climbing so many stairs, but it feels good!

One more observation that I'm very happy about is that the Spaniards don't try to speak English to us unless we get stuck. Then they will continue in Spanish after they told us the word in English. I'm glad that when we talk to people they don't just switch to English to make the conversation go easier/faster. It helps a lot having to speak Spanish to every single person other than each other! I'm already learning so much!!

First Day and already moved in!

I made it to Madrid in one piece and with all my luggage! It's so pretty, but sooooo cold, especially today.

Yesterday, (our first day) we were bused to our hotel (which was four stars!) where we met our USAC advisers and got introduced to everyone. Our USAC advisers are really nice and easy to talk to. Dinner at the hotel started with a yummy soup with some cut up ham in it for starters and then these hash brown type things (delicioso) and steak! I actually ate some of the steak which was an improvement for me. Then we got crepes with ice cream for dessert. It was yummers! I roomed with two girls, one named Michaela and one named Katie. I really like everyone in my program so far! It's been fun getting to know everyone. It's pretty evenly split between East Coast and West Coast people. We went out to a tapas bar to celebrate one of the student's birthdays. It was only 10:30 so no one was there, but we wanted it to be a relaxed night anyways because we had to get up at 7:30 today for all the orientations we had.

Which brings me to today! We got the basics on school and living situations, but more will come about school and life in Madrid tomorrow. But we did learn dos besas (the proper way to greet people, aka kiss on each cheek). Then we hung out, explored, bought cell phones and exchanged numbers, etc.


La Plaza Santa Ana with some of the girls. Look, snow!

Eventually 5 pm came around, which meant time for Carmen (homestay) to pick me up! She is very nice and we can communicate fairly well despite her not speaking English. Luckily I can pull out words and get the jist of it! I was already understanding Spanish better as the day went on! Now I just need to speak it without fumbling my pronunciation. I live in a great area near the Retiro Park. Everyone lives pretty close to each other. Just a metro stop here or there. One girl, who is year-round and I have yet to meet, lives around the corner from me. She's from Japan apparently. My room is very tiny, but has a huge armoire and a big shelf to put everything on!





I just had dinner (8:30) because Carmen knew that I had been up all day and I'm still not used to dinner being later. I had chicken with green bell peppers in this really yummy sauce and broth soup and bread to start. I ate most of the meal, but my appetite isn't huge because of the adjustments to everything. She sat with me while I ate dinner and we talked about random things. Her niece is named Alejandra, so she calls me Alejandra instead of Alex like everyone else does. I told her about my Spanish background and she was wondering why no one spoke Spanish haha.

But now I'm going to bed soon because I'm tired and we have to get up and meet at the school's metro stop by 9. I think some people are going out, but my SIM card takes 24 hours to activate so they can't call me anyways. Totally fine, considering I wasn't going to go out anyways! So that was my first two days!

Te amo!