So I've been in Spain for a little over a week, and I must say, it's been an amazing experience, for better or worse. Just to update everyone on what's going on in my life:
On August 28, I flew to Madrid, Spain to start my new life as an English teaching intern and a master's student at Gredos San Diego El Escorial and the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (respectively).
Since then, I've spent more money than I could have ever imagined possible, walked more in one week than I have all year in Texas, missed the hell out of my boyfriend, met incredible people I'll never forget; visited World Heritage Sites; brushed up on my Spanish; found a place to live; used public transportation an inordinate amount of times, and eaten my weight and sugar.
I struggled at first, but I finally found a place near the bus station where I live. It's located right by the Museum of the Americas (El Museo de América) and la Universidad de Complutense (one of Madrid's most prestigious and well-known universities). It's the perfect location and although it's way more than I wanted to spend, I can afford it and I'm living with 3 native Spanish speakers (one from Madrid, one from the Canary Islands, and one from Asturias)! :)
My roomies are amazing. Marta is Polish by birth, but raised in Madrid. She's a medical student halfway done with her residency in hematology. She is one of the most welcoming, helpful, laid-back people I know (and a damn good cook!)!
Patri is from the Canary Islands. All I know is she works a stressful job in E-Commerce and knows a decent amount of English. The other roomie won't be moving in for a while.
This is going to seem kind of scatterbrained, but I wanted to make a list of things I love about Madrid, and things I wish I could have from back home. Here goes:
Things I love:
*You walk EVERYWHERE.
*Public transportation is existent (and super-efficient)
*Pastelerías and churros con chocolate
*The coffee.
*The culture.
*Madrileños (citizens of Madrid) are SO helpful if you ever need directions or anything.
*The fashion.
*The price of food (2 kilos of grapes for less than 2€ = amazing.)
*Practice with Spanish!!
*The town I teach in and the people with whom I teach.
*The awesome mix of people from my university and the cool people I met from my hostel.
Things I miss from back home:
*Affordable commodities and clothing.
*I'm sure I'll update with anything else I think of.
***
So I've gone to my cole (short for colegio, which means school) twice, and the most we've done is drink coffee, socialize with teachers, and post biographies on a bulletin board. It's pretty funny because we're constantly code-switching (going between Spanish and English), depending on who we're talking to.
It's also funny that we have to pretend like we don't know Spanish around the children. The funniest part was today when I asked a child, "What are you drawing?" and their answer was, "Un animal que no existe (An imaginary animal!)"! LMAO! I had to pretend like I didn't understand them, but inwardly I was cracking up.
I bought Cosmo in Spanish to try and improve my vocabulary since I can't bring myself to read El País (literally: The Country; it's Spain's most popular daily newspaper). I figure it's probably really superficial, but hey, it'll teach me useful slang (oxymoron?).
That's about it for now...once I get my camera going, I'll finally post some pictures with some stories to go along with them :)
<3 Raquel
No comments:
Post a Comment