My First Monday of Classes!

Sorry, I haven’t posted! My first 12 days in Madrid have been phenomenal. I can’t help but fall in love with this city more and more.

Today was my first monday of classes. To clarify, it is not my first day. I actually started classes last Tuesday. So far I love my spanish professors. They aren’t as serious as I anticipated them to be. In addition, they truly want my classmates and me to learn the language. It’s interesting how they engage us in class. Only Spanish is spoken. Most of the focus is grammar with no formal vocabulary lists. I’m really enjoying this go with the flow style of learning Espanol! I really hope I begin to retain and learn how to speak the language more fluently!

In class, we reviewed preterite indefinite, past perfect, and -ings in spanish. It was a good review because I forgot a lot of these grammar points.

Also, this past weekend I took two day trips to Segovia and Toledo. I went to Toledo with the entire ISA group. Toledo was the first capital of Spain. It is also a city where three religions meet: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The influence of these cultures can be seen all over the city from the paving to the architecture of the religious buildings. My favorite part was seeing El Greco’s work ALL over the city! As a group we completed a bus tour and then walked the city. For lunch, Luke, Connor, Sera, Alexandria, and I went to a spanish restaurant where I got a delicious vegetable stew with a fried egg on top! YUM!

On Sunday, I went on a day trip to Segovia, another small city outside of Madrid, with Luke and Alexandria. Segovia was very cute and rich in Architecture. We tour the main square, the roman aqueducts, the Alcazar, and the Tower of the Cathedral. The tour of the Tower was my favorite part because from the top you could see all of Segovia and miles of Spanish country side. In the city, we got tapas as a group with our coffee. For cafe con leche and 3 tapas my total was only 2.40 euros! That’s very cheap compared to other places I’ve been. We also met a lovely new friend named Sophie! I’m hoping to have many new adventures with my new friends!

Buenos Días from Madrid

Hello, Hello everyone~

I’m happy to say that I made it to Madrid, Spain safely. After a series of four different flights to get to my final location, I can officially say that my body is exhausted. However, at the moment, I am feeling very awake and ready to seek out an adventure in this wonderful city. This sensation must be due to the excitement of being in new environment.

From this trip I have learned some very important travel tips:

  • Book longer layover: It may seem boring to wait around an airport for 3-4 hours, but this will save your trip especially in the case that one’s flight is delayed. This actually happened to me leaving me with less than an hour to transfer to my international flight from a domestic one. Just imagine me sweaty and out of breath from running!
  • Exchange Money at Home or Get a Traveler’s Card: The exchange rates are very unfriendly here. Many times there are added fees. As a result, I highly recommend getting a traveling card with multiple currencies so you don’t lose money from bad exchanges

These are just two off the top of my head from my experience flying to this point! I’ll keep you all updated on my day to day adventures.