vale.
we are finishing up our first week in madrid and it has been amazing. you all may have noticed that i keep saying 'we' instead of 'i'...this is because my roommate lauren and i are basically married and eat, sleep, and breathe every moment together...she even has to listen when my dad is rambling on ichat about how he lived on $10 a day in europe (in 1980). she has even asked me if she can write some of these posts (meanwhile, i offered to do a duo blog with her months ago but she was too cool for it...her loss).
ANYWAY, this week, we had orientation at our school, universidad carlos iii de madrid. while the name of the school says it is located in the city, do not be fooled - it is actually in getafe, a suburb area about 35 minutes away from our apartment. every day, we take a train and a bus to get there and back home. the school itself is fairly new and has nice facilities. while i am here, i will take 3 classes in the cursos de estudios hispánicos, which are classes in spanish for international students, and one class in grados, with other spaniards. tomorrow is my first day of real class and i am excited as well as nervous to see how i do speaking in and listening to spanish at school all day.
while we weren't at school, we spent a lot of time trying to get to know the neighborhoods around us in madrid. we have discovered sol, a cool area with bars, shops, and discotecas in the center of madrid; calle gran via and calle serrano, two of madrid's most renowned shopping districts; and la latina - every sunday there is a giant flea market here called el rastro. today lauren and i went here and felt like real madrileños. on my own, i have been exploring (running) up and down the paseo del prado, a path that runs between all of madrid's biggest and most famous museums and monuments.
this week we have also been getting to know our host family. our mom, maruja, will literally not stop feeding us, and no matter what it is, whether a chocolate "bombón" or a pear, she tells us that we MUST eat it because "es rica" (it's rich). last night, maruja told us that she weighs twice as much as she did at her wedding, and we're guessing it is because if something es rica, she has to eat it. on the other end of the spectrum are both her husband, pedro, and her daughter, gloria. pedro is a skinny man who eats a bowl of fruit for dinner while maruja stuffs us full of delicious tortilla española (an omelet filled with potatoes) or tostas de jamón (crispy toasted white bread and serrano ham). he and maruja have been married for 40 years and are still so in love. gloria is their beautiful daughter who used to be a model and was miss spain (nbd). she eats with us and tells us how she hates dessert and churros (of course she does, thus, the fact that she is 28 years old and still has her rockin' model bod). in summary, we have truly come to love them and are excited to keep learning about their family.
at night, we have been trying out different bars and clubs in various areas throughout madrid. the good news: there are plenty. the bad news: people don't start going out here until 2 in the morning! we are certainly adjusting to the different lifestyle. we have also learned that everyone we know at home has at least one friend here in madrid, so we've been meeting lots of great, nice people who are studying here this semester as well.
overall, we had a great first week here and are beyond thrilled to be back in madrid from granada. we hope to spend the next couple of weeks exploring everything and really getting to know this city that we're living in for the next 4 and a half months!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
granada: a summary
chicos queridos,
we are FINALLY back in madrid after a grueling 10 days in granada. while we made the most of our time there, it feels great to be back in our beds in our yellow room and to have maruja overfeeding us.
as i wrote earlier, shortly after arriving in madrid, we took a train to granada. during the mornings, we went on cultural excursions to places like the alhambra and la casa de garcia lorca. granada is one of the smaller cities in spain but has a rich cultural background, as it was the last muslim city to be taken over by the spanish inquisition. this became very clear when we visited the beautiful and intricate fortress of the alhambra, as well as our tours to the granada countryside, where we went to an ancient olive oil factory and a winery.
during the afternoons during our week in granada, we spent time at a local school taking spanish language intensive courses. we learned a lot of useful things, like colloquial phrases (es pan comido = easy as pie), as well as words that the "young people" here use to describe their nights out on the town (echar de papas = to vomit).
the stay in granada was difficult at first mainly because we were having trouble figuring out what to eat. while everyone at home talks about spanish tapas, in reality, they are the spanish version of fast food (or at least in granada...we have heard other, better things about tapas elsewhere) and it was hard to find something that was fresh and not totally greasy. we ended up making friends with the receptionist at our hotel who directed us to some amazing restaurants in granada, so we ventured out and were much more satisfied.
although the trip was incredibly interesting and informative, we were frustrated because we had barely spent any time in madrid and really just wanted to get back, so when we arrived yesterday morning, we were so happy to be back to what is now our home. last night, we went to the center of madrid and met some other americans that are going to our school, universidad de carlos iii. today we went to visit the campus for the first time, which is about 20 minutes outside the city. orientation starts tomorrow!
we are FINALLY back in madrid after a grueling 10 days in granada. while we made the most of our time there, it feels great to be back in our beds in our yellow room and to have maruja overfeeding us.
as i wrote earlier, shortly after arriving in madrid, we took a train to granada. during the mornings, we went on cultural excursions to places like the alhambra and la casa de garcia lorca. granada is one of the smaller cities in spain but has a rich cultural background, as it was the last muslim city to be taken over by the spanish inquisition. this became very clear when we visited the beautiful and intricate fortress of the alhambra, as well as our tours to the granada countryside, where we went to an ancient olive oil factory and a winery.
during the afternoons during our week in granada, we spent time at a local school taking spanish language intensive courses. we learned a lot of useful things, like colloquial phrases (es pan comido = easy as pie), as well as words that the "young people" here use to describe their nights out on the town (echar de papas = to vomit).
the stay in granada was difficult at first mainly because we were having trouble figuring out what to eat. while everyone at home talks about spanish tapas, in reality, they are the spanish version of fast food (or at least in granada...we have heard other, better things about tapas elsewhere) and it was hard to find something that was fresh and not totally greasy. we ended up making friends with the receptionist at our hotel who directed us to some amazing restaurants in granada, so we ventured out and were much more satisfied.
although the trip was incredibly interesting and informative, we were frustrated because we had barely spent any time in madrid and really just wanted to get back, so when we arrived yesterday morning, we were so happy to be back to what is now our home. last night, we went to the center of madrid and met some other americans that are going to our school, universidad de carlos iii. today we went to visit the campus for the first time, which is about 20 minutes outside the city. orientation starts tomorrow!
Monday, January 11, 2010
travel, trials, tribulations, and tapas
hola!
i am currently in granada, spain where we are taking a language intensive course to prepare us for our life here in madrid. i am writing from a spanish computer without english spell check so please excuse any errors. i can already tell there are going to be a few. i arrived in europe on the 7th, madrid the 8th, and granada the 9th, so it has been quite a hectic transition.
lauren and i left the states on the night of january 6th and arrived in london for our connecting flight exactly on time. the little tv screen in front of each of our chairs showed the path from new york to london complete, yet we flew around in circles for another 20 minutes after arrival only to find out from our pilot that all of the london area airports were closed due to weather and that instead we would be landing in edinburgh, scotland! lauren and i talked to the spanish man sitting next to us on the plane and asked him if flights flew out of this airport to madrid; he seemed to think so while our flight attendant thought otherwise. while we tried to extrapolate the rest of our travel plans for the day, the captain came on and said that the edinburgh airport was not able to take us for landing, so instead we would be landing in east midlands, uk (don´t worry - i had no idea where the hell this was, either). when we finally landed in east midlands, the captain told us to sit tight while they figured out what the plan of action was. we did as he asked and sat tight - for four hours - until finally they told us that we were going to be taken in buses to london heathrow. we got our bags, went through customs, and got on the bus, where, being the resourceful american students that we are, called my parents to book us on the next flight out to madrid so that we could avoid the chaos when we arrived in london (thanks dad!). we arrived at heathrow (in the wrong terminal of course) and took a cab with all of our massive luggage to the right terminal, only to find out that our flight to madrid had been cancelled. british airways so kindly put us up in a hotel in central london. we stored our big bags at the airport and took the tube into the city. we rebooked our flights, saw a few friends from wash u studying in london, and went to bed. the next day, all of our travels went smoothly and we finally arrived in MADRID.
from the airport, we were taken to the home of our host family. our señora, maruja, is the sweetest woman and doesn´t understand why we don´t eat more (she is used to hosting boys). we took a walking tour of madrid with our grupo and came home and crashed after our long journey. the next day, we took a train to granada, where we are now. we have seen a lot of the islamic culture that still exists here today, and we ate a big middle-eastern feast (it felt good to eat something besides ham, because that seems to be the only thing people eat here. our teacher, ramiro, told us in spain there are two religions that people practice: 1. catholicism, and 2. ham). there is a really cool street right by our hotel that is lined with tapas restaurants where we have been going to eat dinner, but we still haven´t exactly figured out what everything on the menu is. we have found that it is best to ask a waiter what he recommends and order that instead of relying on our rusty translation skills. and of course, every meal starts with a plate of complementary ham.
in a few hours we are going to the alhambra, the old muslim fortress just outside of granada. we return to madrid next monday, so look for pictures after that!
hasta luego y les echo mucho!
i am currently in granada, spain where we are taking a language intensive course to prepare us for our life here in madrid. i am writing from a spanish computer without english spell check so please excuse any errors. i can already tell there are going to be a few. i arrived in europe on the 7th, madrid the 8th, and granada the 9th, so it has been quite a hectic transition.
lauren and i left the states on the night of january 6th and arrived in london for our connecting flight exactly on time. the little tv screen in front of each of our chairs showed the path from new york to london complete, yet we flew around in circles for another 20 minutes after arrival only to find out from our pilot that all of the london area airports were closed due to weather and that instead we would be landing in edinburgh, scotland! lauren and i talked to the spanish man sitting next to us on the plane and asked him if flights flew out of this airport to madrid; he seemed to think so while our flight attendant thought otherwise. while we tried to extrapolate the rest of our travel plans for the day, the captain came on and said that the edinburgh airport was not able to take us for landing, so instead we would be landing in east midlands, uk (don´t worry - i had no idea where the hell this was, either). when we finally landed in east midlands, the captain told us to sit tight while they figured out what the plan of action was. we did as he asked and sat tight - for four hours - until finally they told us that we were going to be taken in buses to london heathrow. we got our bags, went through customs, and got on the bus, where, being the resourceful american students that we are, called my parents to book us on the next flight out to madrid so that we could avoid the chaos when we arrived in london (thanks dad!). we arrived at heathrow (in the wrong terminal of course) and took a cab with all of our massive luggage to the right terminal, only to find out that our flight to madrid had been cancelled. british airways so kindly put us up in a hotel in central london. we stored our big bags at the airport and took the tube into the city. we rebooked our flights, saw a few friends from wash u studying in london, and went to bed. the next day, all of our travels went smoothly and we finally arrived in MADRID.
from the airport, we were taken to the home of our host family. our señora, maruja, is the sweetest woman and doesn´t understand why we don´t eat more (she is used to hosting boys). we took a walking tour of madrid with our grupo and came home and crashed after our long journey. the next day, we took a train to granada, where we are now. we have seen a lot of the islamic culture that still exists here today, and we ate a big middle-eastern feast (it felt good to eat something besides ham, because that seems to be the only thing people eat here. our teacher, ramiro, told us in spain there are two religions that people practice: 1. catholicism, and 2. ham). there is a really cool street right by our hotel that is lined with tapas restaurants where we have been going to eat dinner, but we still haven´t exactly figured out what everything on the menu is. we have found that it is best to ask a waiter what he recommends and order that instead of relying on our rusty translation skills. and of course, every meal starts with a plate of complementary ham.
in a few hours we are going to the alhambra, the old muslim fortress just outside of granada. we return to madrid next monday, so look for pictures after that!
hasta luego y les echo mucho!
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