Sight-Seeing and Moving-In

In front of El Museo del Prado

REAL MADRID

This week has been full of walking and exploring Madrid. Since we are living in Villaviciosa de Odón and we are about an hour from Madrid, Daniella and I tried to take advantage of being in the city for a week. We went to El Museo del Prado on Sunday, which is a museum full of art from the Renaissance. We also went to La Plaza Castilla and walked around and saw all of the statues and beautiful buildings on that side of the city. We are within like 5 minutes, walking distance, of The Real Madrid stadium so of course we went there and took pictures. I can’t wait to go to a game; I need to expand my soccer knowledge because the USA team isn’t all that great. But Daniella is a Barcelona fan so we might butt heads a few times, and if so oh well, I don’t have a huge allegiance to this team anyways. Haha. The metro is surprisingly easy to navigate so we went took advantage of having that right down the street and rode it everywhere. We went to the Gran Via, which is a part of the city that has a lot of shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs. While we were walking around people would come up to us and offer us free shots or free beers if we went to their bar so we of course we had to accept. J Haha. Daniella and I found a lot of different places that we will definitely be going back to once we get settled in school; we’ll be the ones who know all the great places to go to. All the other international students will be jealous and rely on us! Haha.

Our beautiful Campus

La Plaza Castilla

I finally go to Skype with my family while I was here, we found a little café that has Wi-Fi and we took complete advantage of it. (Oh, and btw everyone here says “wee-fee” for Wi-Fi. It’s hilarious and I’m definitely going to start using it in the US) I had been missing my family SO much and finally talking to my parents made me cry like a little baby! But after I talked to them I was so happy and pretty much walking on cloud 9 the rest of the day! It sucks because Daniella can call her Mom and talk to her but I can’t call mine. I get kind of sad sometimes when I haven’t talked to my Mom and she’s on the phone with hers. It sucks but talking to my parents always makes me feel better, I haven’t really talked my siblings much but I did get to Skype with some friends this week and it helped with the culture shock, aspect. 

Haha they miiiight kill me for this!

I’m nervous for classes to start because I know they are going to be hard because they’ll be all in Spanish but I think I can do it. I only have 4 classes because App only allows students to take 12 credit hours while we are abroad. I’m taking Spanish Culture, Spanish Literature, Teaching a Language, and Ethics. My ethics class isn’t going to transfer but I don’t really mind because it was a last minute decision just to have enough classes. And none of my classes start before 10am, WOHOO, I definitely lucked out there! Hopefully once we start classes we’ll meet more people and have more friends. I sound like a loser, haha. Everyone always asks me if I speak Spanish or not and if I can understand them, I’m like “Yesss, why else would I be here if I didn’t speak the language?!” One lady that worked for the museum event went as far as to say she wasn’t sure because of my blonde hair and blue eyes, wahhhhh I’m a Gringa! (For my English only people that means “white person” or “cracker”) Haha. 

Last night we went out in downtown Madrid and stayed out until 8 in the morning. Needless to say I was EXHAUSTED but it was so fun to literally dance the night away with Daniella! We met some other international students from Germany, they were so nice and surprisingly spoke Spanish really well. Now we are finally all moved into our flat and we are trying to get settled in. We have lots of roommates, some are from Mexico and some are from China. This will be interesting! I'll post pictures of our room once we get done put everything away! I'm ready to have a set schedule though and get into the swing of things, finally! Love and miss you guys! I'll keep the updates coming! <3