Buenas Tardes!
First, I must say – Spain is the most beautiful country ever! We arrived in Madrid on the 28th and it didn’t look like anything too different from a big city you would find in the U.S, though it was surprisingly clean. Spoken Spanish sounds pretty different here and it has taken a couple of days to adjust to. After we checked into our hotel (which was very nice) we went to get our money exchanged. People here are pretty nice - most of them are very kind and willing to help but once in a while you run into someone who doesn’t like tourists or just isn’t very friendly in general. We spent the day walking around Madrid and ate in a cute little café, went to the Real Madrid stadium, took the metro, and bought some delicious gelato on the way back. One of the students in our group was “tricked” into pulling out his wallet (not a very good move) and had 60 euros stolen from him. That’s a lot of money! But if anything, it was a good reminder for the rest of us to be extra careful. We took a panoramic tour of the city on the bus in the evening and then met some new members of our group. We all get along so well! Our director is awesome and ISA is the BEST program provider I could have asked for – ¡Qué suerte! To end our first night in Madrid we went and got a couple drinks at an outside restaurant and watched the sun go down (which is shockingly around 10pm).
We met in the morning the next day and had a tour of the Museo del Prado. This museum has one of the finest collections of European art and is based on the former Spanish Royal Collection. It’s one of the most visited sites in the world. We saw the most famous paintings in the Museum – those by Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and El Greco. After the museum we had free time for lunch and then had another tour, this time of the Palacio Real de Madrid which is the official residence of King Philip V (the King of Spain) though it is only used for important ceremonies and the family does not live there. The palace has 2800 rooms and is the largest palace in all of Europe. It was beautiful and magnificent both inside and out. After the tour we had free time for dinner again so we rode the metro back and I took a nice two hour siesta. We’ve been told many times that “¡Una siesta no es dos horas… sino que es veinte minutos!” I love Spanish culture and am happy to adjust the way I do many things but I’m not sure that twenty minute naps will suffice. But our family is used to having Americans here so they don’t seem to mind. And my two hour nap was much needed – because at night we went out Spanish style! We left the hotel around 1am and returned around 5am. When I was going up to my room I ran into my roommate, Andrea, who was in a previous program in Granada and had just arrived in Madrid. She told me she was proud of me for “Doin’ it up the Spanish way” the second night here!
Then, two hours after I fell asleep, we got our wakeup call – which is when I realized then how important those afternoon siestas are! We got on the bus and it took about 2 hours to get to Toledo. The scenery was pretty but quite similar to what we had seen…until we got into the city. Toledo absolutely took my breath away. We were given a tour of the city by the best tour guide ever (of course all tours are given mostly in Spanish). We got to see the Synagogue of El Transito, the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, and the Museo Sefardí that displays Spanish and Jewish art. For lunch we went to a little restaurant right next to the downtown area. There are a lot of differences in the style of eating here – they don’t use butter or salt, everything has olive oil and tuna in it (you’d be surprised all that you can do with tuna) and if you get water it is always bottled. The tap water is fine to drink but it’s rude to ask for it and no one does. We got back on the bus after a little shopping (not much was open though because everything shuts down during the hottest part of the day, usually between 2 and 6, when people go home to eat lunch and take their siestas) and then we went to our incredible hotel which was called hotel Beatriz. We had an excellent view of the entire city from our room and they had a giant sparkling blue pool and great food! The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed and I had time to catch up with my family and friends, which was much needed.
We arrived in Salamanca the next day and met our host family after a short stop in Avila and a tour around the city. Our family is SO NICE! We were shown the house (which has no air conditioning or internet, similar to most Spanish homes) and we had some time to unpack before they took us for a tour around the Plaza Mayor, something like to a downtown square back home (but much more grand and beautiful and there is always music playing and tons of people out). Our Senora is an excellent cook and takes great care of us. She speak very quickly and uses big words so she talks more to Andrea, who has been here for three months already and is much better at speaking than I am. Her husband is a little more soft spoken and doesn’t talk as much or as fast, so he talks to me. It works out very well :)
Our placement tests were the next day. While waiting for our results we had a walking tour of Salamanca, went back and took a nap, got some lunch, and met again at the ISA office to talk about our classes. We went out until about 2am…which is kind of considered going out but not really “going out.” They hand out lots of coupons for free drinks so it’s easy to bar hop and end up not spending more than 1 euro for the night. Such a good system! Yesterday and today were the first two days of classes, and I LOVE my classes. The teachers are excellent and do such a great job. Class is from 9 am to 2 pm and there are many international students in all of my classes – in fact, I’m one of like two students from the States in each class. Many of the students don’t speak English, so in Spanish is the only way we can communicate. It’s actually very, very cool! I love hearing Spanish around me at all times of the day, and I think I’m picking it up surprisingly fast. I can’t wait to see where I am at the end of this month!
A couple little cultural differences to note before I end:
- There are co-ed bathrooms in a lot of the clubs and, as I have read, people in Spain seem to be quite open about issues like homosexuality and self expression.
- Greetings in Spain consist of “dos besos” or two kisses on each cheek. If you extend your hand as most do in the States it is seen as an insult because you are forcing separation between yourself and the person you are meeting.
- It’s not necessary to travel with your passport on you at all times in Spain, but if you are in a touristy location and try to buy something with a credit card they won’t let you buy it without showing your passport or some form of ID.
- They clean the streets, scrub the walls and power wash the sidewalks every day, but they do nothing about the rampant and un-artistic graffiti that is scattered throughout the city.
- They have the cutest shoes ever!
- Those international students that have been to the states primarily have been either to Florida, California or Texas - and they all want to live there. Which is crazy to me because I want to live HERE! The grass is always greener I suppose.
- Breakfast consists of coffee and a piece of toast or a pastry around 8am, lunch is a huge three course meal around 2pm, and they have medium sized dinners around 9 or 10pm. The fruit is incredible!
- People here are huge on conservation of things like water and electricity. They are very careful to turn everything off as soon as they are finished using it and don’t seem to waste much.
I am thinking about changing my fall program from Barcelona to a program in Sevilla. If I am able, I think I will have a much better experience. Sevilla is in the south of Spain and has beautiful scenery, culture and history. After meeting people that have traveled through Spain, I think the Catalan they speak in Barcelona will be difficult for me and I won’t learn as much. There are also a lot of tourists in Barcelona so it would be too easy to get around speaking English, and there is quite a bit of anti-government sentiment because people in Catalunya want to have a separate country with Barcelona as their capital. We’ll see how it works out but if I am able to change, my fall program won’t start until three weeks after this program ends – so I’ll be able to travel around Europe for two weeks before AND after school! I’m PUMPED!
I loved everyone’s comments – thank you for reading!! :)
Ciao!
