El principio

Estoy aquí en Madrid!

FINALLY! One week ago, I started my European adventure in Madrid, Spain!
This past week has been one of the busiest of my life! Not even sure where to begin here, but a brief look back at my orientation...

First day we went and saw el Palacio Real! Kind of forgot to take a picture (literally no idea what I was thinking...maybe still thought it was uncool to act like a tourist..?) But oh well, google images has it covered.

After, we walked around Madrid and explored a little! The whole group went out for tapas and sangria (aka the best drink ever invented. period.) to celebrate our first night! 

I got settled in to my homestay and started to get to know my host mom Isabel better! She's this chatty retired nurse who's 71 and still walks and swims every day and loves having two 20 year olds around to keep her young. :) So basically she's the bomb.

The next few days we had a lot of orientation-type things to do at my university, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. (one of these things involved registering for classes... A mix of taking the wrong train and having the system crash before I could pick classes led to a very stressed out crazy calm, cool, and collected Emily who absolutely panicked knew it would all work out.)

Besides that, we've been shopping, sight seeing, dancing at discotecas, and getting to know the city!

I could go on for ages about all we did, but here I'll just start with the basic most stereotypical spanish things I've done thus far!

First, PAELLA!!!!!! MI AMORRRR

Nothing beats paella, especially when you eat it with tinto de verano (red wine, orange pop, and fruit. couldn't have made a drink more perfect for me.) Isabel made us paella for our welcome dinner and I still just want to eat the leftovers every single day. Obsessed.

Next, las discotecas. It's crazy how quick it took to get used to it, but Spanish night life doesn't start until around 2am (and that's the early side of things.) There's a spanish verb called empalmer and it's what they use when they stay out all night and then go straight to class afterwards.  I would be lying if I said it wasn't on my bucket list. Anyways, me encantan las discotecas! We tried out a few, and the best definitely are the ones that play more authentic spanish music.  Nothing beats going out and dancing away the crapload of paella that you ate for dinner.

We also got to go to el Chocolatería San Ginés. Basically, they bring out a bunch of churros and you dip them in melted chocolate. Heaven. I haven't stopped craving them since we left the restaurant.
Still craving them right now as I write this. I will DEFINITELY be back there for more!


...like I'll probably go back tomororw.






Finally, we ended our welcome week by going to La Plaza de los Toros, aka a real live Spanish bullfight.  The plaza itself was incredibly beautiful.  I had some idea what to expect because over the summer I read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, but watching bulls get slaughtered was something I could not have prepared myself for. However, it was more interesting than shocking.  Yes, there was a lot of blood and watching the animal finally die was horrible, but I wish I had known more about why the bull fighters were doing what they were doing and the history behind everything going on.  Overall, I'm glad I went because of the cultural experience, but leaving early was definitely fine with me.

All right, I'm sure I've done enough rambling so I'll stop here! Classes start this week so the vacation is over and back to reality.. :( (although a trip to Porto, Portugal is in the works so I have something to look forward to during school...!)

Hasta luego!