September 3, Madrid, first day of orientation

First day of school/orientation today! My host mother guessed that it would take about half an hour to get to the school from our house, so I decided to give myself an hour just to be safe because it was the first day, I still had to figure it out on my own, and I thought that it might be a little bit longer.

I actually only got out 50 minutes before class and then had to wait ten minutes for the first train just standing on the station. The metro pulled in to the stop and left just below me before I could get to it, then the one I got on had its final stop the stop before mine, but the next metro came only one minute later. I ended up getting to school five minutes late and then tripped up the very first stair to go to the class where everyone was sitting quietly as they were handing out folders. But it was okay because there were at least 8 people who came in later than me too.

They introduced the three directors then went over the things in our folders such as the language pledge, money for our host families, keys, health insurance cards and other paperwork type stuff. Then we did little icebreaker sheets in small groups then took turns introducing someone else from our group to the class. After that there were some small snacks and time to hang out and meet each other more.

People might or might not have come with friends, but I am one of the only people who came from a school who only has one person in the program. So far everyone seems really nice and inclusive so I don’t think that it will be a problem. We all signed a contract saying that we would speak only in Spanish unless it is an emergency or are talking to someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, and I’m impressed and very happy that we can all carry on conversations well in Spanish in pretty much the same way that we would be talking in English.

I explored the streets close to my house a little bit before lunch in search of a tobacco shop to get the form to fill out to get my monthly metro pass along to see if there are any gyms close by that would be in my price range. I found one but I think the “free” sauna and jacuzzi lead to its higher than I want price.

For lunch it was María, her mother, her son and I. She has five grown children, and I think the son coming there for lunch every day is a usual occurrence. He speaks very good English and is going to give me his number in case there is ever an emergency and I need to speak English to someone.

When I told my host mother that my parents are in Madrid, she invited them over for coffee around 4:30 to meet her and see where I would be living. I finally got a hold of my parents last night after leaving a message for them at the front desk of their hotel, and then they called back the house. I had to leave at 4:30 to get to the school by 5:30 for a walking orientation trip with a local Spanish student, and saw my parents in the lobby right before they got in the elevator.

María was worried when I had to leave because she doesn’t speak any English, and when I asked her about it later I guess it turned out really well because she would speak to my mom in French, who would then translate to my dad in English, who would then ask her questions in Spanish. Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Back at the school we broke into five smaller groups, there are 38 people in the program, we each had a student from the University of Madrid guide us around the area to get a little more oriented with the area. There isn’t really much close to the school, so we went one metro stop up and then walked around a little bit there.

I didn’t exactly feel that much more oriented or know what I was seeing, but at the end we stopped for drinks at a place where all the groups were stopping and they brought us, paid for by the program, pitchers of beer and sangria. With that they brought us some tapas that I think come free with rounds of drinks and some bars, and I found out after trying what I thought was just a piece of pork that I had actually had a bit of a pig ear. It was actually quite good.

Everyone from this program has come from good small liberal arts schools almost all on the east coast. From the west there is me from Reed and a few people from the Claremont McKenna schools in southern California. It is a lot of fun and two people mentioned people that they know who go to Reed, Hannah Brannon and Eli, and I know both of them. Still not as weird though as one of my best friends from home and one of the best friends of my friend Lauren being roommates during orientation at NYU and being on the same study abroad trip in London together.