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!