This week marked the start of another one of my classes and besides a day trip to Salamanca on Saturday, that's pretty much it. This update is really short compared to the other ones, I think its because I'm settling into everything here and Madrid is starting to feel more like home than like a city I'm only visiting for a few days.
1. Classes: Another update for you all, I started my third Reunidas course this week. This one is the Pintura del Prado, which I'm really excited about. We're starting with the mid-17th century and going up through all of Goya's works. This week, we just started with a brief history of Spain and then started to discuss the Borroco (baroque) period of art. The week after next, we start our practicas, which means every Wednesday, I'm going to have class in the Prado! So Mom, Dad, Ross--when you come to visit, you'll have your own personal tour guide! I'm very excited!
Next week I am starting my Complutense classes, wish me luck! I'm really nervous about it. Everyone I've talked to has told me pretty much the same thing: the profs speak really quickly and they change from topic to topic with pretty much zero transition. I'm really hoping that everything won't be too overwhelming!
2. Intercambios: I've signed up for two intercambios. An intercambio is a Spanish speaking student that's looking to improve their English while helping English speakers with their Spanish. Basically once or twice a week I meet with my intercambio and we spend part of the time speaking in English and the other part of the time speaking in Spanish. I had my first meeting with one of my intercambios, Patricia on Thursday. She's super nice! I was really nervous about it, but it went really well! We spoke mainly in Spanish and I could understand pretty much everything! I'm quite proud of myself! She was an Erasmus (european study abroad) student in London last year so she speaks with a bit of a British accent, but she knows English pretty well. She showed me around her facultad which is where my classes that start next week are!
3. Weekly Shenanigans: Like I said, this week was pretty calm, mainly just settling into the routine of classes and "real life" starting. Personally, I think that the study abroad office should really look into the whole "study" part of study abroad. There's so much that I want to do and see here that classes are kind of getting in the way!
I had my first huelga [strike] experience this week! Actually, I had a few. The first was last Friday when my friends and I went to El Tigre. We came out of the metro stop on Gran Via and there was a protest going on in the middle of the street. We were surprised by it because these people were literally just standing in the middle of Gran Via and blocking all of the traffic, it was definitely a sight to see.
Huelga #2 happened at UCM on Tuesday morning. I got the the facultad around 8:15 or so for my 8:30 class and there was a giant crowd of people hanging out outside of the building. Turns out that the administration of UCM decided to strike this week and didn't show up to unlock the building that morning. They got the door open around 8:45 and all the classrooms unlocked by 9:00 so we still had class (but, hey, we got out of a half-hour of it!). Also, since the administration was striking, profs didn't have to show up to classes if they didn't want to teach. The most interesting thing for me is that when huelgas happen it's no big deal here and most of them seem to be pretty peaceful (at least the 3 I've seen were).
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| Huelga outside the facultad |
And lastly, Huelga #3 was on Wednesday in Sol. My friends and I were meeting there for lunch and we came out of the metro and there was a big group of people protesting against the PP (the political party in power). I'm not quite sure what the protests/cuelga were about but I'm fairly certain they were about the budget cuts going on in Spain right now.
Also, this week, I took a class that taught me how to teach English. A lot of other WIPTitos [as the Spanish call us] took a course through Canterbury English which gave us tips on how to teach little kids and adults English. We will teach for an hour or two each week and make about 15 euro for each session! It'll be nice to have a little extra pocket money for hanging out around Madrid and traveling! Our instructor was a bit...quirky? On Thursday night (our last night of the course), he took us out to a bar where an intercambio was being held, bought us all drinks, and told us to go talk to people to help them with their English. I was so unprepared, but it went really well! I ended up talking to these two guys named Pablo and Olivier, we mainly talked in Spanish, which was great for me because I got to practice some more! But I found out that Pablo had worked in Dublin for a while and that Olivier was moving to London in a week. It was kind of funny because Olivier wouldn't speak with us in English, only Spanish. But, the whole experience was a lot of fun. They have intercambio nights every Wednesday and Thursday, so I'm definitely planning on going back!
Today, my friends and I went to the mall to go to Ikea so we could get sheets and such for our pisos [which we move into this week!]. The mall was massive, it looked and felt just like an American mall. The only problem is that its a solid 30-40 minute metro ride from Embajadores. I'm sad to be leaving the ease of my senoras, I'm going to miss having someone cook for me and do my laundry; but I'm excited to move into the students area of the city and have the chance to live in a piso and cook for myself!
4. Salamanca: On Saturday, my friends and I decided to go out of Madrid for the day to visit Salamanca. Salamanca is in the Castilla y Leon province of Spain and is about 2.5-3 hours away from Madrid. When I was a junior in high school, I had to do a project over a city in Spain and mine was over Salamanca. It was really cool to see the La Iglesia del Espiritu Santa (La Clerecia), Catedral Nueva, Plaza Mayor, and Casa de Conchas.
La Iglesia del Espiritu Santa or La Clerecia was built in 1617 by King Felipe III and Margarita of Austria. When we got there, we decided to climb to the tops of the towers to see the city. It was so much fun, it was basically training for going to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. La Clercia is the second tallest building in Salamanca [the tallest being Catedral Nueva]. Once we reached the top, we found out that there was a very small and narrow passage we could take that lead us to the other tower. Mom, you would've hated it, it was like 3 feet wide and only had an iron railing along the ledge--not to mention the ground was started to slope downwards! We were even able to climb all the way to the top of the tower where the bells were. I think overall, La Clercia, was my favorite part of Salamanca!
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| Ringing the bells at the top of the tower |
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| On the platform |
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| We climbed to the second window! |
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| Catedral Nueva |
Plaza Mayor was pretty cool, it's a typical plaza. There were these guys walking around with signs that said "Doy abrazos gratis" [I give free hugs] and "Doy besos gratis" [I give free kisses], two of my friends went and got free hugs from them.
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| Plaza Mayor |
Casa de Conchas was cool to see in person. I've seen tons of pictures of it in my classes but to actually see it in person was amazing. It was initially built as a noble's house, but now its one of the cities libraries.
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| Casa de Conchas |
La Universidad de Salamanca is one of the oldest universities in Spain. There are tons of old campus buildings in the middle of Salamanca, all of which have just as much detailing on the facades as the Catedral does. But, one building in particular is the most famous. On the facade of La Universidad Civil, there is a huge engraving and hidden within it is a rana [frog], according to legend if you can find the frog without help you will have good luck for a year! I'm happy to say that I found the frog, so hopefully I'll have good luck for the rest of my stay here!Now, it's your turn: try to find the frog in the picture I've posted!
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| Find the Rana! |
Overall, Salamanca was tons of fun! It was a very relaxing day trip and I really enjoyed being able to just travel and spend time with my friends. The big difference between Salamanca and Madrid is how quiet it was! I've gotten so used to there always being cars passing by or people walking down the street that the white noise of the city seems quiet to me. Although Salamanca has a huge student population, I'm really glad I chose to study abroad in Madrid simply because of how much there is to do here!
5. Carnaval in Spain: Saturday [Feb 9] marked the start of Carnaval in Spain, which basically means there are tons of people walking around in costumes and playing music and just generally enjoying themselves. Speaking of Carnaval, I just want to give y'all a heads up that my update next week could be a little late--I'm going to Carnaval in Cadiz [Spain's biggest Carnaval celebration] and I'm not quite sure when I'm going to be getting back!
That's all I've got for now! Miss you all!
Besos,
Kelsey
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