After ten hours of flying, we started our adventure in Madrid. Luckily, I was able to sleep on the plane, so I was pretty awake and ready for my first day in Spain. Upon arriving to the airport I met up with ten other people from ISA who were also on my plane, including Maddie, my roommate! Maddie is very nice and super fun, so I know we're going to have a great semester. Luckily, customs was a piece of cake and all of our bags made it to Madrid, but we got ourselves lost in the airport because we didn't realize that from one end of the airport to the other is a 15 minute bus ride away. Oops. But overall, a successful first 12 hours.
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| Maddie y yo en la Plaza Mayor, Madrid |
Monday and Tuesday in Madrid were awesome. We did some exploring the first day, as well as some orientation meetings. We did not pick the best restaurant for our first meal in Spain, so that threw us off for the first couple of days. I think Maddie was traumatized after her "House Salad" came with a bunch of raw fish. But I quickly learned that my go-to tapa would be croquettes, because for me you can't really go wrong with potatoes! The second day was a walking tour of Madrid. We saw the Palacio Real, the Catedral de the Almudena, the Plaza Mayor, toured the Museo del Prado, hung out in the Parque de Retiro, and wandered around Madrid for a while. It was a beautiful city, but very touristy.
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| Amigos en el Parque |
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| Explorando Madrid |
On Wednesday, we took an hour bus ride from the largest city in Spain to the smallest, Toledo. Toledo was the original capital of Spain and is known as "The City of the Three Cultures" because of its rich history of Jews, Muslims, and Christians coexisting in the city. We took another walking tour of the city and visited the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes (a Franciscan monastery), Santa María la Blanca (used to be a synagogue, but now owned by the Catholic Church), and the Catedral de Toledo. Then we went exploring and shopping on our own in the city and had our first actually good meal in Spain, which was quite exciting for us. The city was so much different than Madrid. Although Madrid was a beautiful place to visit, Toledo seemed to be a lot more authentic because it was a lot less touristy, which I enjoyed so much more.
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| Holy Toledo! |
Thursday was a long day with a six hour bus ride to Sevilla. I slept for most of it, of course, but the seats seemed to get smaller and smaller every minute. Until now, we hadn't had to use our Spanish very much, so I was excited to finally meet our host family and actually speak Spanish with them. We met our host mom, Carmen (coincidence?), her daughter, Carmen (another coincidence?), and her six-year-old son (our host mom's grandson), David. Jesús, Carmen's husband (our host mom's son-in-law) was at the apartment waiting for us too. The first hour or so was a little rough, but I started to get used to being in Spanish-mode. Everyone is very nice and accommodating. Carmen even had cereal and peanut butter just for us (Spaniards typically just have a piece of toast for breakfast). She also explained the crazy meal schedule to us: We make our own breakfast before class, we come home for a big lunch at 2:30, and dinner is at 9:00. So far, I've really liked every meal she's made for us, including Saturday's salmon, surprisingly enough. Maddie and I keep saying that our home stay situation is probably the best anyone could want. We all get along and have a lot of fun. The family has hosted a lot of girls before us, so they have lots of patience with helping us learn Spanish and just a lot of great advice in general.
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| Mi habitación |
Friday was language placement test day which I was actually pretty worried about. I needed an advanced level class for the last class before I finish my minor in Spanish, but I wasn't sure if Regis' definition of "advanced" would compare to ISA's. But I got the class I wanted, so I guess I did well enough. And because it was kind of like our first day of school and we have the best host family, both Carmens walked with us to show us the way and gave us a big hug and kiss at the front gate. After the test, we finally got to see more of the city and had a short tour of Sevilla and visited the Plaza de España and the Catedral de Sevilla. I fell in love with the city immediately. Sevilla is a large city, but small enough so everyone walks everywhere. And the city is so beautiful, so it makes walking everywhere so much better. I almost never want to leave...
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| Plaza de España |
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| Sevilla |
Saturday and Sunday were a lot less crazy. We got to sleep in and did some shopping in El Centro, and I finally unpacked my room. On Sunday evening, Carmen took Maddie and me to Mass at beautiful church in El Centro. After Mass, we went exploring and she snuck us into a hotel with the most amazing hidden pathways and showed us some awesome restaurants to go to in the future (again, best host family). And Sunday night I realized that I'm here to also go to school, so I started to prepare for my first day of classes the next day.
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| Explorando con Carmen |
Hasta la próxima semana!
~Erynn
Great start to your experience!
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