A Week of Firsts & Madrilenos Part I

Hello All,

This week has been a really busy one! A group of us realized tonight that our program has really only been going on for about a week now! Crazy. We all have become such great friends in such a little time. I really look forward to the rest of the semester!

So on with this week. I did end up dropping that lit class, though now I'm thinking commercial spanish might be worse. But hey, if I want to work in Buenos Aires some day, I better sure as heck get my act together before then! These classes are, without a doubt, much more work than the ones in Dallas. Earlier this week I was pretty stressed, but living with a family has definitely helped. Somehow Concha is able to read my mind a little bit. I guess as a mother of four grown children, she knows a little about how to read young people. I appreciate it a lot.

For an abrubt change in topic, here's a list of firsts for this week: changing money in a foreign bank (by the way, you need your real passport, no copies!), eating in a Spanish sandwich chain (Rodilla and Quartertime), going out in Madrid (we closed the restaurant down!), using the Metro (which is actually the safest transportation I've ever used! There are always people on it and even at 1:30, there aren't any sketchballs that I've seen), watching a dubbed American film (deja vu in Spanish), buying from a Spanish convenience store, walking to school in the city, giving Spanish besos without feeling completely awkward (Concha's daughter Silvia and another sen~ora, Pilar, expected them!). I think that's a pretty good run down.

Also, I just hopped out of the shower. I went to celebrate the birthdays of a few friends and came back smelling like an ashtray. Granted, I really don't mind people smoking, but in Madrid, you just have to accept that whatever restaurant you go in or street you walk down, you're going to be smokey. I was working on a post about the differences between Madrileños and Americans. I think I'll start with this one: people here smoke like chimneys. However, I have to admit, they do it in style. I can see why smoking here is a big issue, because the common society seems to support it. Whenever I see Madrileños smoking, they seem to do it in such a devil-may-care way that they all look good doing it! I know, it's crazy, but they do! It also helps when all of the middle age-plus women have beautiful fur coats. PETA doesn't exist here and thank God. That's another difference, people just look dang good here. Americans stick out when we wear jeans and a sweater. Everyone here is wearing something either fashionable or at least well put together. Even the painter I saw walking down the street looked good. Concha and others have told me that brands don't really matter here, there are so many different places to get your clothes that people truly go for quality and price. The only "brand" that is truly popular are the sweatshirts that have "GAP" plastered on the front. Weird, I know.

Well, that's a quick update, I have to go to bed so I can wake up in 5.5 hours and head off to Segovia to take lots more beautiful photos for y'all to enjoy!

Ciao!