Allie in Spain (and Ireland): Reminder: I do actually live in Madrid

So going through all of these blogs, I realized that it would be really easy to totally forget that I live in Madrid and have classes, and a job, and a life (sort of). SO, here are just some general life updates.

Classes:
Are still rubbish. I'm sure you all have heard enough of my groaning on this front, but it really hasn't gotten any better. Not to justify the absurd system of college finances in the U.S., but college is free here for a reason. The classes are really unstructured, and confusing. I feel it would be an insult to educators to call what my professors do "teaching." I mean I am learning, but most of it is self-motivated, because I actually do the reading and come to class, which is more than I can say for most people. Last week, my econ professor recommended that we do this review problem set, so I actually did it (what a concept), just to come to class to find out I was the only one. What?
Next week, I have 2 big projects, one for each of my classes, which are worth 30% of my grade. They are group projects, so we've been working on them, which has been an incredibly confusing process. The way things are done is just so different here and I don't really know what the expectations are, so I am just doing my best to let the Spaniards show me the way. Having to speak in front of large groups in Spanish should certainly be interesting.
That's definitely the one thing that the Autonoma has done for me, which I don't think the other program would have - my Spanish is improving a lot. I've learned a lot of vocabulary that I never otherwise would have, and it's been nice to get to interact with actual Spanish college students and not just other BU people. There are definitely pros and cons to the experience and I am trying my hardest not to let my frustrations get the best of me.

Internship:
Has started off very slowly. I was already frustrated enough with the fact that I started so late, and thus far I haven't been doing a lot. It's a lot of busy work. They are in the middle of getting audited so it's been lots of filing and organizing and making sure finances are all in order. I can't really make it sound interesting. I'm hoping that this is sort of just a phase because of the audit and now that's it over I can start doing some stuff that's more interesting. It's just different here because there's not much of an internship cultures. I feel like they just don't really know what to do with me. Hopefully, once I've been there a little longer and show them that I'm competent I will get a little more responsibility. Either way, I'm happy to at least be working and busy. Once again, this is definitely helping my Spanish get a lot better.

Host family:
All is pretty well on that front. My host parents continue to be very helpful and supportive and we get along well. I showed them the video from Julie's wedding and now they think that American weddings are crazy (I tried to explain to them, no it's really just her wedding - just kidding, but not really). Although I sometimes get annoyed feeling like I'm being watched all the time or like I'm in high school again living with parents, I've learned a lot about the culture that I never would have living with other students or on my own.

Segovia:
Oh yeah. The program took a day trip to Segovia last Friday and it was very interesting. Segovia is a little town, about 90 miles northwest of Madrid in Castile and Leon. The city is CRAZY OLD (we're talking like, BC times) and has a lot of historical significance for Spain. Queen Isabel was crowned there, for example. It was also once a Roman territory, and thus houses one of the famous Roman aqueducts. This aqueduct was constructed in the 1st or 2nd century, approximately, and was once over 10 miles long. It's pretty amazing how well preserved it is. There is also another beautiful Spanish Cathedral (the LAST Gothic one bulit in Spain, 1525-1577) and an Alcazar (originally built in 1122, but mostly reconstructed after a fire in 1862). It was a very nice little trip and the weather was amazing (spring has finally sprung!). I'll put some pictures below.

General life:
In general, life is good. I've been crazy busy traveling and am starting to get a little disappointed that I haven't spent enough time in Madrid. Fortunately, I still have 2 months. There's still a lot that I want to do, and now that the weather is nice I can force myself out of hibernation. After I have my presentations next week, I should have a good amount of free time until finals get closer. A few activities that are still on my must do list are the Reina Sofia museum, a bull fight, checking out the Tapas restaurant owned by Javier Bardem's sister, do a boat ride in Retiro Park, and actually go inside the Royal Palace. Those are mostly touristy things, which I'm actually kind of glad I haven't finished yet because I've been busy doing other non-typical tourist activities. There's a handful of other neighborhoods/restaurants/sights that I want to check out. You really never can run out of stuff to do here. My trips have all been so great though - no regrets there.

I went to Italy this past weekend with Katie and we had a GREAT time. That warrants it's own separate blog, which I will post soon. In other news, I have decided that I will be spending this summer in Dublin with another BU study abroad program. It took a lot for me to arrive at that decision, but due to how late I have finals here, my options for things to do back in the states were limited and in all honesty, I wanted to stay in Europe. I've always wanted to go to Ireland and I'm really looking forward to it, and you can look forward to another 4 months of travel blogs!

ALSO, I just remembered that I never posted about my trip to El Escorial. I guess I sort of blocked it out of my memory. NOT that it was bad - it was just SNOWING. We went a few weeks ago as a program trip and although El Escorial is actually awesome, the fact that I was frostbitten definitely put a damper on the trip. Just to give you a little run down, El Escorial is a historical residence of Spanish royalty about 45 km northwest of Spain. Construction began in 1563, as it was one of the constructions of Philip II as part of his propaganda campaign in the counter-reformation. It also serves a monastery and a school. Just like all the royal palaces (they really don't have enough), it was pretty incredible. It also currently serves as a pantheon for all of Spanish royalty from the Hapsburg and Bourbon dynasties since Charles I, with the exception of Philip V and Ferdinand IV. I didn't take too many pictures because my hands were frozen, but I'll post a couple below.