So I'm afraid my updates are going to be a bit boring from here on out as real life is settling in. I've officially moved into my piso and that's about it, nothing too terribly exciting.
1. Move in: I really like my piso, it's a bit small but it's homey. I live with a girl from the Dominican Republic, a British guy and an Italian guy. They're all really nice and friendly! I've been looking for decorations for my room because right now it looks a bit like a hospital room--its very very white! I realized that the one thing I completely forgot to pack were pictures, silly me [Hint, hint]!
Moving into my piso also means having to be a responsible adult which means that I have to actually feed myself and do my laundry. I have to admit, I was getting quite used to having my senora doing everything for me. Seriously, she would pretty much wait on us [which was super awkward at first, but I tried to help out every night and my senora always said no]. I miss the fantastic food--my first cena [dinner] in my piso was the dinner of champions [a Nutella sandwich with some frosted flakes]. Fortunately, I've got the Mercado de Argüelles [Argüelles Market] is like right down the street from me. Something I have to get used to is bringing my own bags with me to shop for groceries because the markets here make you pay for bags; which is actually a really smart way to encourage people to reuse bags!
Another great thing about my piso is that I'm really close to a lot of my friends. Two of them live just down the street from me and the others live in the Arguelles neighborhood with me. A few of my friends are in Cuatro Caminos, which is about 20 minutes by metro.
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| My bed |
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| My desk |
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| My closet |
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| My kitchen |
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| More kitchen |
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| Little sitting area in kitchen |
2. Classes: Classes are classes, haha I've figured out that college in Spain is pretty much college back home. Except to for the fact that profs don't really explain what they want you to do. It's kind of a trial-and-error basis for me right now, but I'm planning on going and talking to my profs about what books they recommend for me to read as background info for their class. Unlike in the States, classes here do not have a specific texts we have to read; they just give us a general bibliography [I have one that's five pages long of reference books to read]. Another thing I've had to get used to is that there really is no homework, which makes procrastinating extremely easy to do. Its week 2 of classes, but after this week I really need to buckle down and figure out what I need to do and get into a routine.
3. Weekly Shennanigans: Tuesday night, I went to my friend Victoria's piso to cook dinner with some of our other friends.We went shopping and decided to make a stir-fry and tortilla espanola. Our tortilla ended up being more like patatas braves with scrambled eggs mixed in, but it was still delicious! We also attempted to make our own tinto de verano which is basically red wine or sangria with lemon Fanta [yes, Fanta, Spaniards love the stuff! It's everywhere!]. We also picked up a really yummy cake from a bakery in Arguelles, it was delicious! We had a lot of fun cooking and just hanging out!
On Wednesday, two of my friends and I went for a run in Parque del Oeste. I can't remember if I've told everyone about this yet, but its a park near my piso with ruins of an old Egyptian temple (Templo de Debod) and it has a fantastic view of Palacio Real. I also went swimming with another one of my friends at the piscina at UCM. It was fantastic! I'm glad that I've found somewhere were I can swim because I definitely prefer that to running! One thing I have to say is that I probably should have waited for a day before going swimming because my legs were killing me on Thursday, I haven't worked out for a while so I might have gone a bit overboard for my first day back!
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| View from Parque del Oeste |
On Thursday, I met with my intercambio again. We went to a really cute area of the city called Malasaña, there were tons of bars, boutiques, and little cafes! We went to a french cafe where they serve smoothies and crepes. It was really small and the smoothies were delicious [it was a little odd though because the smoothies weren't cold]. I'm definitely planning on going back to explore that area of the city some more!
Over the weekend, I mainly just hung out with friends in their new pisos and that's about it! Nothing too terribly exciting happened this week. A few friends and I decided to get a hotel in Valencia so we can go to Las Fallas, which is a huge festival where they burn floats, in about mid-March. It'll be my first trip on the Ave [the high speed train] and I'm really excited about it!
Until next time!
<3 Kelsey
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