Our First 24 Horas in Madrid

Ok. Day one in Madrid. [I choose not to count yesterday, as all I did was take a taxi from the airport to my host house, and proceed to sleep for the next several (read: six) hours.] Today we had to travel to our school for a pseudo-orientation as well as a guided tour of the city. The city itself is amazing. I went on a metro for the very first time, which was quite an experience. I think I like public transportation. OH! On the way into the metro, there was this big poop on one of the steps down to the boarding area. I'm guessing some homeless person couldn’t wait anymore, but anyways... I got a chuckle out of it. The city has a mix of elements I have never experienced together before. There were many beautiful trees mixed with amazing architecture. It has the feeling of a bustling city similar to that of New York. The only thing I didn’t like was the constant fear (although that term implies a graveness to the expression I don't intend) about getting my things pick-pocketed. Our tour was not so interesting. Well, let me clarify, the sites that we saw were breathtaking. However, I find myself enjoying the sites themselves (the sheer immensity of the architectural as well as the inherent elegance), and not the historical significance that they represent. Laila digs that stuff though, so I am glad that we got to do the guided tour of Madrid. Toward the end of the tour we decided to excuse ourselves and made our way back to Laila's house where I got to meet her host mom who is a very nice lady. I guess I should tell you about my living situation, seeing as Laila will very likely describe hers.

Laila and me in the Plaza Mayor -->

I live in a house with three generations of women. I have an abuela (grandmother) named Concha, and my host mother, Rosa, and her daughter who is six years old named Sofia. Sofia turns 7 on the 12th and if I understood correctly, we are having a birthday party for her on Monday. She is a cute little girl, and out of everyone in the house, I enjoy talking to her the most (probably because she doesn't intimidate me with speaking Spanish). Me and my roommates were lucky enough to each get our own rooms, with internet to boot! For breakfast it looks like we will be making ourselves toast for the next six weeks (a small breakfast is traditional in Spain), which I am fine with, seeing as I usually am not up in time to eat breakfast anyways.

I don't really know what else to write... I have only been experiencing Madrid for a couple hours, and so far those are my impressions. I love walking around the city with Laila (and not having to follow a tour). We are going to go out to get lunch soon, and Laila is trying to get a hold of one of her friends that she wants to meet up with. If I don't write another post, our next big journey is tomorrow to Toledo, and I am both excited and nervous about it at the same time. One mistake I wont make again that I made today was not bringing my camera with me. No worries though, Laila brought hers, and took pictures of everything. Although I forgot my camera (actually chose not to bring it), Laila forgot her cell phone and keys in the house!). Luckily, her Señora was just getting back from grocery shopping, and was able to let us into her place. Ok. That’s it. I’m done talking.

-Matt

<-- Gloria, my host mom, with Blanquito her gatito (kitten)

First, I’ll start by explaining my housing situation (it’s the best part of being here). My señora (host mom) is the sweetest lady! Her name is Gloria and she works during the week driving to clinics and picking up biopsies to be tested for cancer. She has a daughter, Lucía, that is seventeen and a bit shy. Gloria and Lucía live on the first floor of our apartment building with their 2 adorable one-month old gatitos (kittens), Rubita (Blondie) and Blanquito (Whitey). I’m not a fan of cats and I’m allergic as well, but who doesn’t find kittens cute? They all live on the first floor and the five of us USD girls live on the fifth floor of the apartment building. We have the entire floor to ourselves. Four double bedrooms, two single bedrooms, a fully-stocked kitchen, two full bathrooms (one covered floor to ceiling with 70s brown and orange flower power tiles), and a dining room (with a somewhat frightening portrait of an older woman that stares at us as while we eat).

This weekend there are three other foreign students staying on our floor that will be leaving by Monday. One is a boy from Germany named Axel and two girls from North Carolina. There are two USD girls in each of two double rooms and I have a double room to myself. There are two beds, a closet, a desk, and a chair (as shown in the picture to the right). As you can probably tell, we really lucked out with this setup. Most host families host one to three students in their home. This house reminds me more of a dorm or hostel in regards to the setup.

My bed and closet -->

Gloria comes up to make us dinner every night and sits and talks with us (well, mostly to me because the other girls don’t speak Spanish). Gloria is always calling out “¡Laila! ¡Ayuda!” (Laila, help!) so that I can translate for her because she doesn’t speak English. We all love her. She’s a very happy person and whenever she is on our floor she is singing. I have really enjoyed the meals so far. The first night we had Paella, a traditional Spanish dish consisting of seasoned yellow rice with green beans and chicken. Tonight we had a type of chicken noodle soup, mashed potatoes, and grilled chicken. She cooks everything very simply which we all appreciate.

So that was the setup of the housing situation. Now I’m going to briefly add on to what Matt previously said about our day today. After orientation and the city tour, Matt and I met my friend from high school, Andrea, who has been studying at a university here in Madrid since January. We ate some lunch at Cervecería 100 Montaditos. It was a really cool setup. When you grab a paper menu when you walk in you write your order on it. You write the number of “montaditos” you want of each kind. Montaditos are little baguette-like sandwiches filled with cheese, sausage, ham, tuna, salmon, meat, shrimp, chicken, bacon, eggs etc. measuring only a little more two inches each. This chain restaurant is really popular because each of the 100 different types of mini-sandwiches only cost 1 Euro each and so do the drinks including soda, beer, and wine. Everyone orders a bunch and they come on one big platter. Today I also tried Tinto de Verano from a tap. It’s a mixture of red wine and Sprite. I enjoyed it. It was nice having lunch with Andrea because she gave us tips on Madrid since she has already been here a few months.

Well, it’s almost 3 AM here and we have to be at the bus by 8:45 AM to go on a 12 hour day trip to Toledo tomorrow. I’m really excited to take some great pictures, but at the same time I know I’ll be exhausted. I’ll be posting pictures soon, but I need to get some rest first ☺

-Laila