September 5, Madrid Orientation

The same three classes again today. The teachers are all really great, entertaining, and I feel like I'm going to learn a lot this semester if all of the teachers are like this. My favorite was the civilization class probably because it was learning about Spain rather than just reviewing grammar.

I returned to the house for lunch today that I shared with María and her mother. Her mother doesn't actually live there, she is just staying there for a while while she recovers from I think being in the hospital. At the end and after lunch I watched the news with them and it is really interesting how much other countries talk about international news a lot more than we do in the United States.

I went for a run after lunch to and around the park next to the old royal palace near my house, but didn't actually go in the park because I have to run all the way around it to get to the entrance. I will next time though when I have more time. Something really different here is that pretty much everywhere is closed on Sundays and the streets didn't have many people on them at all.

After that I took the metro up 3 stops to meet up with my small tour group and get a tour of the old area of Madrid which has a lot more going on than near my house and the school and is the central area for people to go out for the night or just during the day. Lucia was our guide this time and awesome! She showed us to the more tourists areas and views along with through the popular streets. She also explained a lot more just about Madrid and what we were seeing all around us.

We ended our little tour after getting drinks at a bar in a smaller plaza, and then she led us to El Tigre which is a bar where we met up with other groups and I hung out there with people until about 11 pm when I headed back to mi casa. It was standing room only and extremely crowded, but a very popular spot for locals. It was cheap, good, and they gave everyone a plate of free tapas with every drink they ordered. Or if people ordered together they would just stack the plate really high with food. Here people don't drink to get drunk, but drinking is done as a social pastime almost always with food. It was really fun to hang out and get to know the people from my program a lot better and we all spoke Spanish the whole time except when a few people were talking to some other Americans!