Another day in Madrid

Today was fun and very relaxing. I woke up around 11:30..I wanted to wake up earlier but my room has no windows...so at any point in time (if my door is shut and my lights are out) it looks like it's the middle of the night...so that didn't happen! I'm going to start setting my alarm every night! I went to the gym for a while and it felt great. Gym memberships are so expensive here! The one I joined is not expensive for a gym in Madrid and it is still 50 euros a months! Which translates to about 65 dollars or so a month...it's crazy!...but unfortunately necessary...After my gym excursion I ate some lunch and showered before I met some of my friends near our school to go...SHOPPING! (You probably would never have guess that one, huh?) There are sooo many sales going on right know...known as "rebajas"...they said there won't be sales like this again until summer...and since I'll already be gone by then, I need to take advantage of them now! ;) My shopping trip was very successful, to say the least. After shopping I came home and enjoyed a quiet evening at home with the Cristinas. We had salad for dinner and little Cristina and I watched Twilight in Spanish...que bueno! And then I've just been chatting online with my friends and mother for the past couple of hours. I'm tired, so I'm off to bed. Buenas noches!

Just went to the gym!! Finally! I needed it after all the food I've been eating! 

Wrapping up the first week in Spain

I havn't been doing a great job blogging so far...so I'm going to compile the past 4-5 days events all in this one post...I'm going to try to be a little more consistent from now on!

Alright, so this past Tuesday started off great! I went back to the bank where I lost my check card in the ATM and luckily I was able to get it back! What a relief...I proceeded to go to school for another day of orientation...and another HUGE lunch. We walked about an hour to get to the restaurant but it wasn't bad...no wonder people in Madrid live so much longer than us Americans...they walk EVERYWHERE! We got done with lunch around 4...and then we took the metro to the Intercontinental Hotel for the Obama Inauguration party! It was insane...there were sooo many people. A lot of them were American students who were studying abroad, but there were also a lot of Spaniards as well.  A couple of my friends and I sat in the very front of the crowd, so we had a great view of the giant TV screen. There were tons of reporters and camera men there from different TV stations in Madrid. This was very exciting for me considering I want to be a reporter. I introduced myself to a couple of the reporters because I wanted to see if I could possibly get an internship while I am abroad. I got an email address from one, but have yet to hear back. The Inauguration Party was very emotional...I almost shed a tear hahaha...After the event, a couple of us went to a bar for some pitchers of beer and sangria and some tapas....after that we continued at an Irish Pub. There was a live band playing..but we were the ONLY ones in the whole place (except for one of the band member's mom and girlfriend haha)...but we had a BLAST!! We were all dancing and jumping around the whole night! I got home around 1 and went straight to bed..

The next day I went to school to meet one of my professors...who, by the way, didn't even show up! But I did get some exciting news...a picture of me from the Obama party was in one of the l of the local papers!! Que gracias! Anyways, my friend and I walked around trying to find a copy but we were unsuccessful...however...the same pic is on MSNBC.com too!! Check out the link to see it! After we found out our teacher was a no-show...a few of us walked across the street for tea and pastries...I went home afterwards and decided to do a little shopping. I bought one shirt and some notebooks for school...I just relaxed the rest of the evening because I was pretty tired from the night before.

On Thursday, our group went on a field trip to the Prado Art Museum...we saw some famous painting by Goya and some others whose names I can't remember? After the museum about 4 of us went shopping in the city center. I bought a black peacoat and a scarf...both of which were on sale!! The clothing here is less costly than in the US for the most part I think....After shopping we went to a cafe for some gelato...which was DELICIOUS! I went home so I could rest up before going out again. That night we all met up at a bar in La Puerta de Sol (city center) where we drank fruity cocktails out of these huge volcano glasses that had dry ice in it! Pretty cool...afterwards we got free shots at some of the bars in the area...Most of the bars and clubs give away free shots to get you in...our strategy is get the free shot and then leave hahaha...easy way to save money on drinks!! We had a lot of fun and I stayed at the bar until about 3...then my friend Katie and I went to go catch one of the latenight buses (the metro closes at 1:30)...we asked this man for help and for whatever reason he blew up at us and was screaming things at us hahah...such as "Go back to America...we don't want you here!" hhaha whatever i thought it was halarious.  

On Friday, our group met at the bus station because we were taking a bus to Salamanca..which is about 3 hours north of Madrid. Salamanca has gorgeous architecture and we took a walking tour of the city when we got there...unfortunately it was raining and really cold outside. We got to see the University of Salmanca and a couple churches....That night we all went out to dinner and then to bar. The rain kinda killed the mood for a couple of us...so we went back to the hotel earlier than the rest of the group. We watched Knocked Up in Spanish and ate cookies....not a bad way to end the night!

The next morning in Salamanca we went on a walking tour of a 14th century church. it was beautiful and veryyyy big. We went up to the roof and took pictures because you could see the whole city from up there. We spent a few hours walking around after the tour before we had to leave to take the bus back to Madrid. All in all, I enjoyed Salamanca...despite the fact that the locals didn't really like Americans!? Hahaha...Saturday night a big group of us met up at a bar in Puerta de Sol called El Tigre. It was packed but a lot of fun! For every drink you bought, you got a plate of tapas...amazing! After drinking at El Tigre and another bar for a while, we headed to Joy...a massive discoteca. We danced the night away there and didn't end up leaving until 6 am!! Then of course, I had to go get ice cream! After our eating session, Amanda and I took the metro back to our respective houses. The metro is actually very safe in Madrid...(Don't worry Mom!)

Today (Sunday), I layed around in bed all day. I caught up on the Gossip Girl episodes and chatted online...and that's it! Now, I'm going to bed! Good night xoxo

Arriving in Madrid

my first post! As everyone knows, I'm beginning my semester studying abroad in Spain. It's my my second full day here and I love it so far! Let me update you as to what has happened so far...

The flight over was not too bad...despite the fact that I had the center seat for the first leg of the flight. Coincidentally, the man sitting on my right was a Hoosier! (I flew out of Dulles, keep in mind) He told me that he lived in Marion, Indiana until attending IU for undergrad...now he works in DC as a lawyer. Anyways, I watched the movie "How to Alienate People and Lose Friends" on the plane and I highly recommend it! When I landed in London for my layover, I was lucky enough to run into five girls who are studying abroad in Madrid with me! We all were on the same plane flying into Madrid.

It was absurd how tired we all were when we finally arrived in Spain...all we wanted to do was sleep and eat...unfortunately for my roomates and I, our hotel bathroom had a leak in the ceiling so we had to handle that before anything else.  At night, our whole group went on a walking tour of downtown Madrid. It reminds me a lot of NYC.  The one thing that really stuck out to me on my first night was how much the people in Spain LOVE to eat!! I think I'm going to come back 50 pounds heavier from this trip from all the carbs they eat here...they served us bread 3 times during dinner our first night! Haha

On Sunday morning, it was time to meet our host families. I completely had forgotten that I requested a woman to be my host senora...and as it turned out, I got her! Her name is Cristina Lopez and she is the sweetest woman. She lives with her 14 year old daughter who is also named Cristina. Her "piso"(apartment in Spain) is gorgeous and she keeps it very neat. It encourages me to keep my own room neat while I am here...I don't want them to write me off as a messy American! She cooked lunch and dinner for me and I struggled to finish most of it because I did not want to look rude...finally I had to tell her that her portions were a bit too large and i couldn't eat it all! Later that night, Cristina, myself, my classmate Jessica and her host mom took a walk around the block together...it was a lot of fun! We were also walking with Alex, Cristina's dog! Oh, the other thing about food in Spain...or everything for that matter...is it happens much later than in the US. Lunch is not eaten until around 2 pm and dinner not until 9 or 9:30 pm!

Today, I woke up around 8 am and got ready to go to school! I took the metro with Jessica. The metro system here is very advanced and very convenient...much more so than that of DC. We don't start classes until next week, so today was just the beginning of orientation. We took a LONG lunch around 2 pm...it was quite the event...3 courses and everything! (I have a feeling this blog is going to focus a lot on food haha)...anyways it was a great day....until the ATM ate my debit card...oh well I guess worse things could happen....I got a great opportunity to bond with little Cristina tonight..she is a doll...and we are both reading the Twilight books which I thought was funny! Alright, I'm gonna get to sleep...I have to be up early in the morning to go to the bank whose ATM swallowed my card...good night!!