La semana pasada

(El Parque de Retiro in Madrid, Spain)

It's Thursday, and I can't believe I'm in Madrid!  The plane ride was terribly long, but I got to Madrid's airport at 10 am, Madrid time.  The other students and I picked up our luggage and I was relieved to find that they provided carts, because I could not carry all my luggage myself, despite having practiced in my dining room.

Cars took us (and our large amounts of luggage) to our homestays.  My señora's apartment is right off El Paseo Castellana - the main street in Madrid and is also in the financial district, a really high-end neighborhood.  The information I had received about my homestay was that it is on the 9th floor and that I would have my own bedroom and bathroom.  Turns out the apartment IS the 9th floor, and I nearly have my own wing!  Julia, my señora, is an interior designer, and her apartment is very traditionally decorated.  The silverware is displayed, the walls are filled in artwork and pictures of her family, and the floors are covered in Persian carpets.

Another aspect about Julia that might interest you is that she speaks ONLY Español!  Yes, that's right, not a word of English.  I was not aware of this upon my arrival, and I will honestly say that we both panicked upon meeting.  She was talking at me in Spanish, and I was responding in blank stares - and at one point I thought she was kicking me out (I literally stopped unpacking).  I don't think she was, and I'm still here. Our conversations are a little better now, and although my Spanish is far from perfect, I carry around my dictionary, and I can get my point across, (usually, anyway).

As far as my schedule goes, I have been at orientation all week - first a cultural orientation in Madrid, and then an academic orientation at Carlos III.  The first night here, we took a walking tour around Madrid - through El Parque de Retiro, La Plaza del Sol, and La Plaza Mayor.  We had tapas for dinner at a restaurant in La Plaza Mayor - the Mesón La Mazmorra, with potato tortillas, chorizo, calamari, mushrooms, fritas, and sangría (I had three sips and was done - sorry, Scott). 

The next day I explored El Retiro - the biggest park in Madrid. There are a lot of trees, winding paths, and statues, and it was nice to spend some time pretending to be one of the madrileños (not sure how convincing I was, though). I've noticed that madrileños can pick an American out of any crowd, and am actually going to write an article about the culture shock and differences between the Americans and madrileños for globalpost.com (a news organization that for some absurd reason allows me to write articles for them - this is my first one, we'll see if they actually publish it).

Since then, I've been back and forth to Carlos III - the commute is between 45 minutes and 1.25 hours - so I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out.  I take the metro then the train to Las Margaritas, and then walk for 5 minutes through the town of Getafe to the school.  But the school is very nice (even though I can't understand a single word anyone has been saying, literally).

The other night, some friends and I went out to Chueca (a neighborhood much like the Village in NYC).  They all ordered drinks - I tried a few sips to widen my horizons, but quickly went back to my aguas frescas (water and sugar syrup flavored with fruit).  We ended up at a mexican restaurant where we had guacamole and chips, so I was happy, but we had to head home before the metros stopped at 1:30 am.  Madrid has night buses - bohos, but that's a challenge we haven't quite figured out yet.