Suffolk Madrid Orientation

Okay so today was my first day traveling on the Metro.
It was very exciting. It takes me a while to get to school but the lines are really easy to understand. My senora went with us to school to show us the way, and it was so cute. She was like our mom dropping us off on our first day of kindergarten!



However, I do despise orientations of any kind. Today the Suffolk University people gave us our class schedules and told us all the rules ect. It was all quite annoying, however we did get a tour of the area around campus, the told us where to get cheap food and school supplies so that was cool. There is this store called La Tiende Verde, which means The Green Store, and it is literally a hole in the wall, but it is super cheap. For 5 euro I got a HUGE sandwich (the American kind!) a Bueno bar (chocolate with hazelnut inside) and a Coke Zero.

I also got see my friend Sandy’s apartment right near school, and it is pretty nice/huge, however I think, even though my room is small, that I prefer living with Lidia. Because the apartment kids have to make their own food and wash their own clothes, which totally sucks especially because there is not a single dryer in this country, and me and clotheslines to not have a friendly history. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention I don’t have to do laundry!!! I am very excited.


I apologize for my lack of pictures at the moment. I promise to take my camera out with me tomorrow. I will also post my class schedule as soon as I confirm it all.

I feel like you all have questions about Madrid and where I am staying, ect. So PLEASE por favor, leave me a comment and ask and I will gladly answer you! <3 adios

Hot Tunes In Spain

Um... everyone in Spain is in love with Paulina Rubio...

I thought I would share the love

My favorite song is called Que Me Voy a Quedar.. but I couldn't find the video for it, so I posted two other popular ones... enjoy.

Pictures!

Okay, I just used Photobucket. However, the function to let me create an album wasnt working, so there are some random ones at the end that are not from Spain. I am sure you will be able to tell. Just ignore them.

<3 goce

Pictures from Spain: Truillo, Catares y Merida

Finally in Madrid

I finally am in Madrid, it is a big city but it really isn’t overwhelming. The thing that is overwhelming is the fact that I suck at Spanish. In fact, my roommate and I were met by our host mother today. Her name is Lidia and she is very sweet and reminds me of my grandma. However, she ONLY speaks Spanish. And I can only understand like 30% of what she says.

Also my room is beyond tiny, and I share it with Tara, who I have decided is cool. Seriously this whole house feels like the cabin of a sailboat… that is how small it is. However Lidia is super nice and she is a good cook. I am going to go to the flea market in the morning with some people and wander around for a while so that I can orient myself. My roomie is sleeping so I’m keeping this short. Goodnight all!!

Sorry about the pics, any ideas of a good website to have host them?! That is the only reason for their delay.

Weird things in Spain…

1. It is rude to stretch in public or to yawn
2. It is rude to eat while walking, or even just standing around. There are no to-go cups or bags. Eating is a very formal affair.
3. It is totally normal to stare, people are shameless about it.
4. If you leave the lights on you have committed a holy sin, and will be burned alive
5. You are never supposed to be on time, for parties an hour late is best
6. No one takes home doggy bags from restaurants
7. No one grinds (grinding is how most US kids dance, it gets pretty dirty)
8. No one understands the concept of a line… but somehow everyone knows who’s next
9. You always wear plastic gloves when picking out fruit
10. You always bag your own groceries, and you’ve got to be speedy about it.
11. It is rude to be loud in bars, especially if you are speaking English
12. Mullets are in.
13. Eggs and milk aren’t refrigerated. Once you open the milk then you refrigerate it. But milk here is super pasteurized—it can have a shelf life of several months.
14. Never smile at strangers, especially on the metro, they will think you are a freak
15. No one wears baseball hats—very American
16. And despite the greatest of attempts, you will always smell of smoke.

I'll post more as I figure them out...

I survived the cold!

Today we took a tour of Cateres, which is the third best medieval town in the world to tour. It is where we are staying and it is really pretty. It was about 34 degrees during our 3 hour walking tour through the city, and I don’t think I have ever been in such cold!! However, I was well prepared, I had so many layers it would have put an onion to shame. We bought sweets from a nunnery where the nuns never leave, so you put the € down and then this thing spins, you tell them what you want, and it spins back with the sweets on it. It was very quaint.

Right now I am in the internet café around the corner from the hotel and it is pretty chill place, I will try and post pictures today or tomorrow, I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me when I come here!

Anyway, last night was the best one so far. We went all over town and danced the night away. Our huge mob of people was funny because wherever we went people wanted to talk to us because we spoke English, and I had my first encounter with, “The very forward Spanish Man,” we have all been warned about. He was very excited that I was from California and wanted to dance with me but luckily my friend Sandy and I worked out a plan for this certain scenario in which we simply act like Spanish women. Which means that we completely ignore them and pretend like they don’t exist, then dance with one another. It works flawlessly.

It is quite funny because Spanish men are so forward only because Spanish women treat them like dirt. It takes a Spanish guy 5 hours just to get a number from a Spanish girl, so naturally they think American girls are super easy hahaha.

Anyway I’ve made some pretty cool friends so far, most are from Boston, which is resulting in me suddenly acquiring a Boston accent. Mostly because Sandy, the girl I hang out with the most has the best stereotypical accent ever!

Lastly, I found out that I am living near the Prado which is famous museum in Spain, and it is in the center of all the action, near the subway and all the good bus stops. Unfortunately I am living with this girl Tara, who I haven’t quite figured out yet. Hopefully she isn’t a sloo. Also I live with just one woman and we all share one bathroom. Which also sucks because there are defiantly people here who get their own room and bathroom!! Oh well, I’ll get over it.

Okay dinner is about to be served, so I have to head back.

Goodnight!

OH Dear. I am in Madrid…

Well, as of now I am not in Madrid, I am in Catares, which is a city to the west of Madrid, almost to Portugal. It is in the poorer area of Spain and although it is a big city with some very cool looking castle-things it is rarely visited by Americans so they are all very friendly and want to talk to us.

I arrived in Madrid yesterday at about 11am Madrid time, or 2am Pacific. It was pretty much awful. I waited for my luggage for about 30 minutes before I finally asked someone where it was and they told me I was in the wrong place. Then, once I finally found my way to the right area I found myself with one bag…. And I left LA with TWO bags! So at this point I pretty much burst into tears because I had been traveling for 24 hours, I was an emotional wreck, and now I had no clothes, because the one bag that did arrive only had shoes and random

So I filed a claim with the airline and they said they thought it might be in Frankfurt, which was in no way comforting. So, I poorly navigated my way through the airport where the people from the school were supposed to pick me up. However, they were nowhere to be found. I had been trying to call them since my flight had been delayed in Frankfurt and when I landed in Madrid, but their numbers weren’t working. Finally I bought some crackers so I could get some change to make a call and the woman found me and I was able to make it over to the hotel.

THANKFULLY, this morning I was informed that my luggage existed, and was being flown into Madrid, so it didn’t fall into the Atlantic and I should get it Thursday morning.

Okay this is going to be a long post because I haven’t had internet for a while, and I don’t know when I will get it again….

But Spain is awesome! I love it, it is cool, I am excited about it, I am happy to be here. But dear God, I miss the people I love so bad! There are times when I am like crazy happy/adrenaline pumped and times when I would come home in a heartbeat. I find it is much better when I don’t think of it as 4 months away from everyone, and more of a vacation, that just won’t be ending anytime soon.

In total there about 150ish people here, which is way more than I expected, and about 15 of the students were here last semester and they all say that the first month is hard because you have to adjust, move in with your family and start school. But after that the time flies! So yeah, I know I will be happy here, I like it a lot, it is a really chill place and it feels very safe.

I will keep posting as long at this internet keeps up! And I will start posting pictures. I saw the most amazing Roman ruins today, so those will be the first up!


<3 Sarah


ps. For those who dont know, I am 9 hours ahead of Pacific Standard time