Allie in Spain (and Ireland): The first few weeks...

Ok so I have not been doing too well at the whole blogging thing...I'm going to try and work on that. The last time I wrote I hadn't even moved in with my host family yet. Ahh!!! So much has happened since then.

I know I sent out an email to many of you who are reading this, so some of this might be redundant, but I'm just going to catch everyone up to speed.

I've been living with my host family for 3 weeks now and they have been great! It's a husband, wife, and their 21 year old son. They also have a daughter, but she is studying in Oviedo, a town in northern Spain. We live in an apartment in central Madrid, right near the intercambio at Avenida de America, which is a HUGE metro station, so I'm very well connected. Speaking of the metro, it's AMAZING here. Honestly, it puts the Boston T to shame. It's really easy to navigate, it's clean, and it's fast. I finally got my monthly pass a few days ago so now I can ride as many times a day as I want.

Back to my family though, they are great. My host dad works in the justice department, my host mom is a nurse and my host brother, David, is in school for medicine. They have been really helpful and patient with my not so perfect Spanish skills, although they are improving. I'm literally starting to think in Spanglish, haha.

As far as classes go, I haven't actually started my classes at la Universidad Autonoma de Madrid yet. I have been taking a seminar on contemporary Spain, which has been interesting. I learned a lot about Spanish history and politics, and the last week has been a focus on Economics which I am loving! I've been learning all of my econ terms in Spanish and the inner-nerd in me is glowing. I actually wrote an essay about the Spanish economy in Spanish. It was great. I will be starting my classes at the University on Monday, which I'm a little nervous for. The UAM has a very long add-drop period, so I get to try out different courses for a while before I decide which ones to actually enroll in. I know it will be difficult at first, but I'm excited to get into a regular rhythm and schedule. I won't start my internship for a few more weeks though.

Daily life in Madrid is great. It has pretty much everything a city can offer - culture, good food, nightlife, shopping, and wonderful people. I am really enjoying Spanish food (paella, tapas, and lots and lots of cheese and ham). I have visited the Prado museum, where I saw Velasquez's Las Meninas (among other famous works) and pretty much every famous Goya painting known to man. It was awesome, and I will definitely be going again. I've also taken a walk around Retiro Park, which used to be Royal Gardens before the city grew to encompass it. It is 350 beautiful acres; eat your heart out Boston Commons (only 50 acres). I've also hit up Calle Serrano, which is basically the Madrid equivalent of Newbury Street (great shopping). El Corte Ingles is probably the coolest store ever; it's like Le Bon Marche - a department store with everything from clothes to groceries to electronics. It's actually the third largest department store in the world, behind Sear's and JC Penny's, but it's only in Spain and Portugal. That's how big of a deal it is. For class, we also took a visit to Palacio de los Cortes which is where the lower house of parliament holds its sessions. The building was constructed in the 1840s. I also joined a gym right near my apartment - yay for staying in shape!

The Madrid nightlife is insane. The people her keep such a weird schedule. They eat pretty much nothing for breakfast, don't have lunch until 2 or 3, dinner until 9 or 10, they go out at 1 and stay out until 6 in the morning. Seriously. If you go to a bar or club (some of which are 7 stories) before 1, it will be abandoned. So strange. And exhausting. And since I know that my family is probably reading this, I will spare you any more details on that front, haha.

All in all, everything has been great and I'm really enjoying myself. We took a group trip to Toledo last weekend (which I will write another blog about), and I'm heading to Granada tomorrow with a friend to see the Alhambra and other sites. I'm looking forward to traveling, and have already booked my Spring Break trip to Rome and Sicily which should be wonderful! I'm also anxious to spend more and more time in Madrid and Spain, start classes and keep improving my Spanish. I miss you all, and there's plenty more to come!