So for the weekend November 8-10 I went to Valladolid with Irene and two of her friends for her 18th birthday HOLLA! Valladolid is about 2 hours (by super packed but relatively comfortable bus) north westish of Madrid. I took a bus with Irene on Friday and we got there and did pretty much nothing but lay around and chit chat with her parents who I hadn't seen for three years! They're still super adorable and were encantados (super happy of course) to have me there! Me, Irene and Juanjo did go for a nice little walk around the city and it's so gorgeous that I was like "OMG I can't believe I left my camera at home!!" And Juanjo told me not to worry, "you'll be here all weekend and be able to take pictures of the whole town later." Little did he know that once Irene's friends arrived no sightseeing whatsoever would be done. Actually not really much was done at all other than eating, sleeping, and celebrating Irene's birthday. But who can complain about that?!

Saturday morning her friends got there and we walked around Valladolid a little bit, had some suuuper delicious tapas--CROQUETAS!!--for lunch, picked up Irene's birthday cakes, etc. Then a bunch of her friends from high school came over to her place and Cruzi set up like a HUGE spread of food that no one was eating (except for me, awkward) and we hung out and drank and then went out on the town later since the birthday girl is now LEGAL IN SPAIN WOOO!

Then on Sunday we slept in way too late, woke up and ate breakfast, slugged around for a while, and then Cruzi made the most delicious paella ever for lunch. Of course she insisted that I eat like a 34 plates full and when I couldn't stand to eat any more and told her no she pulled the "oh okay. you don't like it" card so I ate more out of pity. And then we had cake...

All in all it was a fun relaxing weekend and I was very glad to see Irene's parents and spend some time with her since she is the most adorable and fun spaniard to ever exist! <3 ya!

Mom visits!!!!!!

So the weekend after Sam and I went to Paris, my mom and her friend Jackie came to visit! The got here early Saturday morning (the 27th of October) and I went to pick them up from the airport and we came back in the metro to my apartment where Argentina was waiting with some treats for us! They got to meet each other and chat a little, Jackie and mom got freshened up, and then we headed out and I took them around to see the center of the city. We did the typical walk through Sol, to Plaza Mayor, and the Mercado de San Miguel (to try some croquetas of course) and even stopped for some Sangria in Tirso de Molina. Then we headed for the train station to leave for Toledo!

So we get to Toledo and stepped off the train only for me to realize that I'd already been there! Don't ask me how I didn't know... but when I was in Spain the first time with my high school we went and spent a day there. Anyway, it was fun to go and see it again. Toledo is a beautiful old medieval city with tons to see. We got there in the afternoon and had some time to stop for a nice lunch and then walk around and to get some nice views of the city and see some of the sights from the streets. Since mom and Jackie were pretty exhausted from traveling, we came back to the hotel early (like 7:30) and mom and Jackie crashed right away while I stayed up reading for a while.

Then we got up pretty early the next morning so we could set out and see as much as possible! We stopped for some churros and coffee for breakfast in a cute little hostel restaurant and mom got hit on by the Spanish guy working there :) Then we headed down the the El Greco museum and saw a couple monasteries and the big famous church that's there. Then we sat down to have some wine and snack on some fresh baked mazapanes while we waited for our train to head back to the city.

I had class all day Monday and wasn't able to hang out with them at all, but they went on a long walk to see the Retiro Park, Puerta de Alcalá, Gran Vía, stopped for lunch at an Italian place (ha!), Plaza de España, Templo de Debod, Palacio Real, y la catedral de Almudena.

Then on Tuesday since I only had one class at night we went with Irene to Aranjuez to see the royal palace there. Unfortunately, it was POURING rain so it ended up being kind of a disaster. The palace was pretty cool and we had a nice lunch in Aranjuez but we got soaked waiting to get a taxi to take to the train station. Then I went to class and mom, Jackie and Irene waited in one of the cafeterias to use the wifi while I was in class.

On Wednesday I had class all day again it it was HALLOWEEN! So at night me and the girls got all dressed up like zombies and were planning on going to the Steve Aoki concert. Well it ended up being a disaster. I got separated from the rest of the group and one of them had my ticket, wallet, and keys so I had to take a cab home with no money and ask the guy to wait outside while I went up and woke up Argentina and she spared me some money. It was like 2:30 am so I felt absolutely terrible. Although it was probably for the best because four girls ended up getting literally trampled to death at the concert and there was a huge outrage. Thankfully everyone in our program ended up getting home safe and sound.

Also on that day mom and Jackie got to hang out with Irene. They went and did some serious shopping at Corte Inglés and Tous and got some really authentic lunch at a nice Spanish restaurant. I was glad Irene was there to entertain while I had class :) Although I'm pretty sure she was supposed to be in class too... haha

On Thursday I had one class in the morning and then in the afternoon we took the Ave to BARCELONAAAA! We got there in the evening and headed to Las Ramblas and got some tapas and had Sangria (sitting outside cuz the weather was so great!!) and relaxed a bit and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning we got up early and got breakfast and then got on the tourism bus and did a tour of the city. We stopped in Park Guell and walked around there a bit, and then got back on until the Gothic neighborhood. We walked around there for a while and found a really great restaurant where we had some more delicious tapas for lunch, including (of course) croquetas and some really delicious mushrooms. From there we headed back towards Las Ramblas and I did a little shopping while Jackie and mom had a glass of wine (or seven) and then we stopped for another drink together and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up early to go see the Sagrada Familia and had some breakfast. The Sagrada Familia is definitely a must see but let me just say it is SO WEIRD. I couldn't get over it haha. Anyway then we went to go to the Teleferic which took us up to the top of the city where an old military fortress is and there are some gorgeous views of the city. I absolutely loved Barcelona and would really like to go back and spend more time there (especially by the beach!) but was glad I decided to study in Madrid the whole year because it really does feel like you're in another country since everyone speaks Catalán instead of Castellano.


Unfortunately then we had to head back to the train station to go back to the city. I stayed with mom in the Tryp hotel since it was her last night and was very sad to see her go in the morning :(

It was a great week and was really fabulous to have my mom here but it got me used to being with family again so from then on for the rest of the semester it was a little downhill for me. I ended up getting super homesick! But regardless it was amazing to have her here and show her what my life here is like :)

Oops!!

So it's been a very long time since I've put anything on here... oops! It's been so easy for me to just get caught up in life and not end up writing any of it down. But I do want to have it all here so that I can have the memories written down and so that everyone knows what I've been up to. I've done quite a bit since then, and over the next week I'm going to try to update with a couple big entries about the trips I've taken.

For now, here's a little update about what I'm up to right now. I took my last exam last thursday (phew! I hated linguistics!) and now I've just got some downtime until we start second semester classes next Monday. The new CIEE students have arrived already and this semester me and Argentina have taken in another student! Our tiny apartment is a bit cramped now but it's nice to have another person here too! Her name is Jane and she's from Stanford, Connecticut. We haven't had much time to get acquainted yet, not to mention the poor girl has to talk all in Spanish to me and she's only been here two days.

To fill the time since I finished my exam until we start school I've started doing hot yoga at Hot Yoga Infrared in Madrid and I love it! I have such issues with over-stressing about everything that it's been really good to do something really relaxing and I always feel great afterward. I've also been hanging out with Ian since we're the only two old timers here. We went to see Django Unchained last night and it was SO good! The movie theatre experience here was pretty crazy... it's a teeny little theatre in the city but there were SOOOOOOO many people there that you could hardly move around. Somehow we managed our way to the snack bar counter for some popcorn and soda and made our way to our seats (third row, so my neck is a tad sore haha) and got to enjoy a nice English movie on a slightly-smaller-than-US-theaters screen.

This week I'm going to get registered for classes and (fingers crossed!) get an interview for an internship in a hospital. That whole thing has turned out to be quite the ordeal... Even though I notified the program back in September that I'd like to do an internship in a hospital second semester they managed to not find me anything until January 7th and then told me that all of the materials (including a Hep B, Hep C, and HIV test) were due January 10th. Well I was in Germany visiting Sam at the time and very sick with the stomach flu--another story--and didn't end up getting everything turned in until a few days after the deadline but we'll see if they still consider me...

Well that's really all for now! Nothing too exciting. But I'll try to get all those old posts put up :)

Las Canarias!

So last weekend we went to the Canary Islands and it was absolutely incredible! The Canary Islands are technically part of Spain, although the are located off the western coast of Africa, and as such have an incredible climate :) It was 85-90 degrees and sunny all weekend and very enjoyable!

On Thursday night I had gone to the Tallest Man on Earth concert with my Spanish friend Alejandra (which was INCREDIBLE by the way) and got back home at about 11:30 p.m. Then we met at 5 a.m. on Friday morning to go to the airport so I was a just a little bit sleepy... haha but anyway the flight was about 3 hours and it was my first time flying Ryanair which was interesting. They talk over the intercom the entire time and try to sell things the whole flight so it was a bit obnoxious and impossible to sleep but oh well we were heading to the Canary Islands so I was too excited to sleep anyway! We arrived at 9 a.m. Canary Island time and headed straight to the beach where we got on a catamaran and went to go whale watching. We ended up running into a group of about 20 dolphins and they swam underneath and around our boat for over a half an hour, playing, jumping, and watching us. It was truly incredible and so beautiful. Then we headed to have have lunch and... RODE CAMELS. It was an interesting experience. I thought it seemed kind of sad because they camels just sit there chained to each other, getting up when needed, having to sit when not, but our director told us that it's a very important part of the Canary Island culture because camels were used there in the old days and that they're treated fine and all that. Anyway then we headed back to our hotel and were free to do what we wanted for the night so me and the girls went out to dinner and then came back and crashed at about 10:30.

On Saturday, we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel and left on the bus at 9 a.m. We went to walk around a small town and see some of the sights there. Then we started the drive up into the mountains. We went to the peak of the volcano Teide, which is about 13,000 feet high and is the third highest volcano in the world. We could only drive so far, and then we took a cable car up to the top and then it was about a half hour hike to the very top. The view from the top is probably the most impressive thing I've seen in my life. You could see the other Canary Islands around us!! It really was beautiful and I had a moment thinking about Grandpa and how he would have loved to see this being the mountain man that he was :) I really loved it and I wish that I could have shared the experience with my family. After coming down, we stopped to have some lunch (we were starving after that hike!!) and then headed to the capital of the Canary Islands, Santa Cruz, to see that city. We did a bus tour of the city, and then went to a pizzeria for dinner as a group and had (a lot of) beer and pizza. We made it back to the hotel, showered, and a few of us went out to have a drink but we were pretty exhausted so we made it back pretty early again and went to sleep.

On Sunday, we didn't have to leave the hotel for the airport until 2 p.m. so we got up at 9 and had breakfast and then headed to the beach. The beach was black sand and it was sooooo beautiful. The pictures really don't do it justice. It also made your skin super soft we were all rubbing it all over our skin to exfoliate (hahaha) :) Then we headed back to the hotel to head back to chilly Madrid :(

Overall it was a truly amazing weekend. The culture, climate, etc. (and accent) there is very similar to those I've seen in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It was nice to get out of the city and into nature for a while. I took so many pictures and they're all incredible that it would take too long to try to put them in this entry, so I'm including a public link to my facebook album so that you can take a look at them all. If the link doesn't work, leave me a comment and I'll try something else. Hope you enjoy them!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3714659917500.2132008.1605750104&type=1&l=b22b758c9c

Freiburg and Sam!!!

So... here goes the post about my most exciting weekend since I've been here... going to see Sam in Germany!!!

I left Madrid at 3 on Thursday and flew to Frankfurt, then took the train from Frankfurt to Freiburg and arrived there at about 10:30. Sam picked me up from the train station and we went to meet up with his friends and went to their student bar.

Then on Friday, Sam and I walked all around Freiburg until he had class. We had some delicious pastries for breakfast and then had some currywurst(?) for lunch which was really good. We met up with two of his friends and shared a pitcher of beer. Then I walked around and did a little bit of shopping while he had class. Later on we went out to dinner at the restaurant where his friend worked and he ordered me wienerschnitzel, which is a typical German dish I guess, and it was delicious. The restaurant was next to this huge beautiful church so we sat outside and just sat, ate, enjoyed wine (Sam, beer) and talked. Then we met up with a couple of his friends and had a drink at two different bars.
             

We ate outside the restaurant in the blue building

On Saturday we slept in a bit and then went and got pizza and pasta for lunch and ate outside in a really cute courtyard. Then went up into the mountains there which was incredibly beautiful. It was very cloudy and a little chilly and just drizzling a tiny bit, but the clouds made the view of the mountains and the forest sooooo beautiful and since it wasn't really great weather there was hardly anyone there so it was very romantic :) It was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Since there wasn't really anyone around we couldn't ask someone to take a photo of us but we took a few selfies haha. We also stopped to get gelato on the way back which was sooo yummy. I had lost my voice almost completely the night before since I'm sick, so in order for me to recuperate a bit, we just came back and watched Bridesmaids and took a nap. Then we got up and went to get groceries and took them to Brandt's apartment to make dinner. We were super fancy and had wine (that was 2 euro for a bottle of red and 1.60 euro for a carton of white!!!!), cheese, apples, and bread for appetizers and then Sam made some chicken and vegetables in a tomato/wine sauce for dinner which was equally good! Then we just sat around and drank some more wine (beers for Sam and Brandt) and chatted. 

On Sunday Sam and I walked around Freiburg a bit more and he showed me some more stuff and then we sat and had cappuccinos and talked and then went to get flammkuchen for lunch which is sort of like a thin crust pizza and it was delicious. Sam then had a second hankering for gelato so we split a cone :) Then we came had to say goodbye since I had to leave from the Freiburg train station at 3 :(

I finally made it back to my apartment in Madrid at 11 pm on Sunday (note to self: never leave that late in the afternoon on Sunday!!) and was EXTREMELY sick. But the infection of the pharynx (yes, that's what I have, I went to the doctor today finally) I got while there was well worth it :) It was soooo incredible to see Sam again and just made me even more sure that we'll make it through this year just fine.

I just want to say thank you to my parents (and Sam's). We appreciate it sooooooooooooooooo much how much you guys are supporting us in traveling to see each other or just with our friends this year. This will surely be the most influential and rewarding year of our lives and we wouldn't be able to do it without you. I really can't say how much we appreciate it. I know you're both going to read this so I hope you know it! We love you so much!!

Well this weekend I'm off to Tenerife in the Canary Islands with my program... hehehe. It's going to be amazing I'm sure. I just hope I feel better by then... :/

Besitos!!!

Mountains in Spain!

This entry is way overdue, but two weekends ago (Saturday the 22nd) I went with my host mom and some of her friends to the mountains outside of Madrid. It was a really incredible time! The views were so beautiful. We hiked for probably about 5 hours in total and when we got to the peak, we could see Madrid on one side and Segovia on the other! It was very cool and it reminded me a lot of home and Wyoming.

 

Argentina, Maria, Florida, Paloma, and me (the giant)

Then on Sunday we went to see the "circo" (circus) which was incredible! I went again with my host mom and her friends and it's like an indoor event with people who do like the flying trapeze and all that cool stuff. It was really awesome! This is the link to the performance we saw if anyone wants to see what it was like. They have photos and videos of some of the performers so you should check it out :)

http://www.teatrocircoprice.es/web//index.php/espectaculos/view/210


Those were really the only eventful things that happened that week, unfortunately...

Changes...

I'm going to add a longer entry later on today about some of the things I've been doing over the weekend, but for now I'm just going to give a brief update about what's going on with me overall and in Spain overall right now.

Yesterday in Spain there were protests in 5 plazas of Madrid, a few of which are just some odd blocks from where I live. These protests over the day became violent and several protesters, and police officers, were injured when people tried to press beyond the boundaries set by the police. If you're interested in reading a bit more about what went on, here's one site:

 http://rt.com/news/spain-protests-parliament-crisis-942/

I'm sure you can find information about this anywhere though. Likely it's on the news in the U.S. Anyway, I wanted to go shopping to grab a couple winter items since the weather here dropped 30 degrees overnight and suddenly we were thrust into fall. My host mom was adamant that I not leave the house unless it was to go to class. I was thinking... okay I really just want to run to H&M really quickly, it's not going to take more than 45 minutes... but I heard the helicopters all day and then when I left for the Atocha Renfe train station I saw hundreds of people already gathered (at about 4:30 p.m. here) on Calle Atocha and Paseo del Prado.

When I was on my walk home (at about 8:00 p.m.) there were even more people gathered, and lots of police. I don't need to walk through any of it to get home so I really had no idea of how bad things were until I got home and my host mom was frantically calling her friends asking if they had gotten home okay since they live by some of the plazas where the protesting was happening. Then we watched the news and I started realizing how intense the protests had gotten.

So as if the unrest here with the protests isn't enough to make me not want to leave the house, this morning it was raining. Normally, I like when it rains back home because everything smells so fresh. Here... it stinks when it rains. Not to mention I've gotten a sore throat (yes, of course, right before I leave to go see Sam :/). Which was an experience in itself. I stopped by the pharmacy and told the pharmacist that I had a sore throat. She asked me if I had any other symptoms (cough, runny nose, fever, headaches, etc.) and I said no. She went behind the counter, got me two prescriptions, I paid 9 euros, she informed me on how to take them, and I was on my way. No doctor necessary! I thought it was pretty funny...

Anyway I'm still waiting to see if what they gave me is actually going to help... so far no. But I've been having lots of hot beverages, taking vitamins, drinking lots of water, taking cough drops, etc. Although doing this has proved no easy task!! I brought a big supply of vitamins with me, since I take them normally in the US and had a lot left, but here they are super expensive! Especially vitamin C. As for water... the water here from the tap is totally fine to drink. But there aren't any bubblers anywhere!!! It's made drinking water sort of difficult. I see people drinking cafe con leche ALL DAY but never see anyone drinking water. I don't get how they all are alive if no one stays hydrated. As for the hot beverages, ugh. Nothing here is really ever "hot." More like lukewarm. The coffee here is really espresso with a lot of milk which I have to add a ton of sugar to for it to taste normal. So the coffee is hot, but the milk comes from the fridge, ergo lukewarm coffee. I must admit I'm getting a little homesick for waking up at home to Dave's fresh prepared steaming hot chocolate raspberry coffee..............

Anyway I'll update later today with a post covering what I did over the last weekend with some pictures. Just thought I'd get some thoughts out today since I've had a lot on my mind last night and this morning.

Settling In...

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since my last entry but it's because I'm starting to settle into my classes and schedule and there really hasn't been that much going on. But here's a recap of my first week at the Universidad Carlos III.

We didn't end up getting our train passes so we had to apply for them individually a second time (which I did today with Argentina) and for now we just have to get the 10 trip ones. Anyway on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday I have class starting at 9:00 so I have to get up around 7:00 and leave here by 8:05. It takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to walk to the train station, and then I have to walk about another 10 minutes (maybe a bit less) to get to the campus from the train station. So I usually arrive around 8:45 or 8:50. Friday I don't have class and Tuesday I just have one class at 5:45 so I usually leave around 4:45.

So far my classes are going fine. My language class and Coloquial Spanish class are actually EXTREMELY helpful as we've already gone over a ton of like real life situations so we're learning a lot of everyday conversation that I never learned in the U.S. Just like the more common way to speak and respond to people. So I'm really happy with those two classes. My Contemporary Spain class is actually really... dry, I don't know, just not fun. We've only so far talked about newspapers and tv channels and radio stations. But yeah idk. My History of Spain class is really hard. The professor just speaks SUPER fast for an hour and a half straight and I've taken at least 5 pages of notes every class and I don't even catch everything he says. So I think I'm going to buy a recording device or something. And lastly, my linguistics class, which is the direct enrollment. I've met a couple people in the class that are from Spain and I'm really liking the class so far, but we'll see.

En el Parque del Retiro

Thursday I went on a nice long 3 hour walk with my host mom through the Parque del Retiro. I love going on walks with her because I'm learning my way around the city really fast and she knows SO much about the history of Madrid and Spain in general.

A fountain en el Parque del Retiro

On Friday the group went on an excursion to the province of Segovia to go kayaking and to a small medieval village called Pedraza. It was sooo fun. The kayaking was great and it reminded me so much of Wyoming and Colorado. The Pedraza was also really cool because one of my favorite movies from when I was younger, Ever After, has a scene that is modeled after the Castilla de Pedraza so it was really cool to see.

Friday night I went out with the group, which I'm pretty much over now haha. But anyway then on Saturday I went shopping with some other girls from the group and then to get pizza for lunch, since Argentina was in Alcalá all day for her master's program. We also went to a tattoo and piercing shop because some girls want to get their noses pierced, but sadly they were busy so we're gonna go back later haha. Then I took Ian and Lauren on a walk through the Buen Retiro (since I'm a pro now) and then went home, had dinner with my host mom, and went to bed pretty early.

On Sunday I really wanted to go to the Hopper exhibit, since it was the last day, but when we got there it was all sold out already :( I was super sad. But then we went back to the Buen Retiro and rented the boats in the little pond thing and that ended up being super fun. Then we had a little picnic and I got home around 9, had dinner with my host mom, did some homework, and went to bed.

In other news, me and Sam have my trip to Freiburg to visit him all planned! I leave next week Thursday at 3:50 to fly to Frankfurt, and then I'm going to catch a train from Frankfurt to Freiburg and should arrive there at about 10 at night. In typical Sam style, he has a list of stuff for us to do. I'm sooooooooooooooo excited to see him. It hasn't been too hard being apart yet because we talk on skype or google hangout pretty much every day, but it really will be incredible to see him (and in Europe!). His dad is also helping us plan our next trip, which will start with him getting here in October and being in Madrid with his friends from Freiburg FOR A WHOLE WEEK!!!! And then me and him will leave Thursday the 18th to spend a long weekend in Paris. :) :) :) I'm very excited.

This Thursday we have the "Rock the Vote" event at the club Kapital which is an event for all the American students (free) and is sort of just an event for the elections upcoming. Not sure what's all happening there, but it should be cool. Then this weekend I'm going with my host mom and her friends to go hiking in the mountains, so I'll make sure I do another post next week around this time and let you guys know how all of that has gone. Then I'll be off to Germany for my first European excursion!!

Well that's all for now!
Un besito,
Jolene

After a week...

I realize it's been a while since my last post, but this week we had such long days with orientation that I would come home and crash at night. So this will be a fairly long post to cover the whole week, but we also did a lot of fun stuff that I have to tell you all about!

SUNDAY

Sunday was our first real day of orientation. We met at the office (which is right next to el famoso museo nacional centro del arte Reina Sofia) at 10:00 and had presentations about various themes such as using the study center website and being safe and what to do in case of emergencies, bought our mobile phones, and were introduced to the network of students who are from Spain and go to la Universidad Carlos III with us and accompany us for various activities and volunteer their time to help us acostumbrarnos a la vida madrileña. Their names are Adriana, Alejandra, Almudena, Guillermo, and Carlos and they're all MUY majos (cool and nice). Then at night we did a walking tour of Madrid. It was right as the sun was setting so it was incredibly beautiful. We walked past important sites like el museo nacional del Prado, el Palacio Real (the royal palace), la catedral de Santa María la Real de La Almudena (a Catholic cathedral), la Plaza Mayor, etc. Then we stopped at a bar and had some tapas for dinner. We got home from dinner at about 12:30 and I went straight to bed!

MONDAY

Monday we started orientation at 9:00 and had presentations about our host families and being comfortable in our homes, classes, the university Carlos III, how to register for classes, and played a name game to make sure we all knew each others names. In our group, there are 13 students including myself. Some are from the east coast (Boston, New York), one from Tennessee, one from Georgia, California, Ohio, Portland, etc. For lunch we went to a restaurant called Ginger in la plaza de Angél. Then we had some more presentations at the office about the cultural agenda, excursions, internships, etc. At night we went to el Museo Sorolla to see a special exhibit. I thought it was a really cool museum. It's in the house where Joaquín Sorolla used to live and has a lot of his furniture there, obviously many of his paintings, and a beautiful garden. After going, I KNEW Dave would love it and I want to go with my family when they come :) Then we came home and I had dinner with mi anfintriona en casa at about 10:30, chatted for maybe an hour or so and then went to bed.

TUESDAY

We started orientation again at 9:00 and had presentations about making goals and how to achieve them, blogging for the CIEE website, more about the cultural agenda, using our UC3M email, and volunteering. There is a non-profit in Madrid called t-oigo which has American students go to the homes of young deaf children who have hearing aides and help teach them English! I think it sounds like a great program and I've emailed Dale, who presented to us, and hopefully will be starting to volunteer with them soon! At about 1:00, we went to the train station and took the train to la Universidad Carlos III for the first day of our orientation there. The University is GREAT. Their library is SUPER cool, they have a brand new gym that is really nice, and the campus is pretty and not too big that I'll get lost. I didn't take any pictures, but if you're interested in seeing what the university is like the website is uc3m.es. It's a short train ride to Getafe, which is south of Madrid. We had lunch at the University and then had a guided tour of campus by Carlos and Guillermo. We then took our oral exams, which are part of our placement examination. We then had time to start registering or looking at classes in case we weren't sure yet which ones we wanted to take. We got back to Madrid at about 8:00 and had a little bit of time to rest and eat dinner and then it was off to bed.

Me, Lauren, Kendyl, and Jennifer in the Getafe train station after the first day of UC3M Orientation.

WEDNESDAY

Today we met at 8:30 at the train station to head to UC3M. We had orientation there until 4:00 at night. We listened to professors each give about a 20 minute presentation of their class, took the written portion of the placement exam, and had some time for lunch. At 7:00 we met to go on a tour of the neighborhood La Latina. It's a very popular neighborhood in the center of Madrid. After the tour, we went to a restaurant called La Turkana. All the profits of the restaurant go to a medical surgery project in Turkana, Kenya. The tapas were great and we had some cerveza and sangria and chatted with Adriana and Alejandra and then headed back to our homes at about 11:00. 

THURSDAY

Thursday we met in the CIEE office at 9:00 for some presentations about a Moroccan exchange program, and Disfruta Madrid Más, which is a program that gives students discounts on all sorts of things. We left for UC3M at about 11:00 and continued there with hearing presentations by professors, had a break for lunch, and headed back to Madrid at about 6:00. At 7:00, we met to go to the Teleferico, which is basically a cable car that takes you a few miles out of Madrid and back so you have some fantastic views of the entire city. Then we went to el Parque del Oeste (West Park) to check out some of the sites there and have a picnic. It again was perfectly timed at sunset and was a really pretty walk through the park. The picnic was fun too! Then as a group we went out to a couple bars in la plaza de Tirso de Molina and in Lavapiés to have some drinks. We met up with a few friends of one of our group members who are studying at a different university in Madrid and went out to a bar with them as well. Three bars in one night, you're wondering?! Yes. It was a long night. I made it back home at about 4:00 a.m. and was surprised that we were some of the first to be heading home. La vida madrileña......

FRIDAY

We didn't have to come into orientation Friday at all, except that each of us had a 15 minute meeting with Senzeni (the director) to confirm our registration and print out our schedules. I'll be taking one required language class (I placed into the high advanced class), three CEH classes (which are classes with only international students but are taught in Spanish) History of Spain, Spain Today, and Colloquial Spanish, and one direct enrollment course General Linguistics. At 2:30 we met at Plot Point, which is a theatre school owned by one of the host families. We had some food, and did some activities with the people who work there. This is when things got really interesting! I got back to our apartment at about 6:00 and then me and my host mom got ready to go to one of her friend's birthday parties. We left at about 7:45 and their home is a 10 to fifteen minute drive outside of the city. About 30 people were there in total (I would guess) and it was incredible. First we sat (and stood) around a table and had some food, chatted, and drank. I got to meet all of Argentina's friends and talk to them a bit and they all told me a speak great Spanish, which made me VERY happy! Her friend Paloma, whose birthday it was, is a dancer of 13 years or so. She does like ethnic dancing sort of and she's REALLY good so her friends got her a brand new (gorgeous) orange skirt and top for dancing and a little wrap around scarf thing with jewels on it so it jingles when she shakes her hips (which she does a lot). As soon as she opened it everyone was like put it on put it on!! and of course she did. Then the tables got shoved to the side of the little garden so that there was room for dancing! Everyone was dancing for about an hour or so. It was really an incredible experience--a true fiesta Española! At about 11:00, they did a "magic trick" for the kids. Which was the they had four people lay in a square on chairs with their heads in the lap of the other person (hard to explain) and then they took the chairs out. I'll attach a picture, but it was adorable and all the kids were screaming "magia magia magia" which means magic. We got back to Madrid at about 11:30 I think so I met up with the rest of the group who were all at a bar getting ready to leave for a club. We went to a club in La Latina and I ended up catching a cab home earlier than most because I was tired. 

So far today, me and Argentina both slept in til about 11:00 and then had some breakfast. Then we went through the supermarket to pick up a few things and she explained more to me about things like the differences in milk, jam, and olive oil. We also went all around the neighborhood so she could show me the ferreteria, panaderia, farmacia, papeleria, etc. Then we got back at about 4:00 and ate lunch. Now we're just both on our computers and listening to music. I think tonight we're going out with some of the spanish students, Adriana and her friends.

Hopefully this post wasn't too long! I'll try to post a little more frequently from now on :)

¡Un saludo!

Jolene