My First Few Days in Madrid

The first day in Madrid was pretty surreal. I went to bed pretty early the night before, around 10pm or so, but jet lag is interesting. I wasn't tired or anything, but for the first week in Spain I kept waking up around 7am feeling totally awake. Those who know me well, know that I am not a morning person and that given the opportunity, I'll sleep at least until noon. Anyways, the first day was odd. It was snowing quite a bit in Madrid, the first significant snowfall in 30-40 years or so. It had snowed 2-3inches or so, the city was more or less shutdown traffic-wise. We had about 4-5 hours of orientation meetings and such, our program director picked us up at all of our houses and showed us the bus system and Metro to get to campus. I typically walk now, now that I know how to get back and forth. Takes about 30minutes to walk to my Facultad, or “department.” The Complutense has about 140,000 students, and each are divided into Facultades. They have a pretty strong degree of autonomy, each has its' own library and cafeteria. (You can order whiskey and beer in the cafeteria) Kinda like the relationship between Eastman and the UofR, though most of the Facultades are on the same campus. (Econ is not, it's out a bit in the boonies)

I live in a very cool area, it's pretty close to the Ciudad Universitaria (University city) so it's very studenty. There's a doorman in my building which is neat, obviously something I'm completely unaccustomed to. He's a very nice old guy named Alfonso. I live in the 3rd (4th in the US) floor on an interesting street (Gaztambide, look it up on Google Streetview) about 3-4 blocks from 3 different Metro entrances, a major transportation hub, etc. The ground floor of every building is a store, from bookstores to kebabs, and plenty of bars.

Most of the stereotypes about Spanish people are not true, of course. But everyone knows that. No one goes to bullfights all the time, not many people really know how to flamenco, etc. Siestas are an interesting stereotype, which is half-true. Students take them, so they can go out last night, but aside from that I don't think adults really do. It is true just about everything is closed from 2pm-5pm though, which is sometimes annoying. Most stores are open 9-2, 5-8ish. The one stereotype that has been completely refuted is that Spanish people are wine-drinkers. Spain obviously produces some fantastic wine, but the general idea I'd heard was Latin countries (France, Spain, Portugal) drank a lot more wine over beer. Not true at all. Beer is consumed all the time here, most people eat lunch or whatever in bars with food on the side. Or people just pop into a bar for a beer. People drink beer here easily as much as in the US, probably more commonly. And in Madrid, (and in the South) there is a wonderful thing called tapas. Every beer you order, you get a little snack for free. Could be french fries, nuts, sausage, even a sandwich. It originated hundreds of years ago, they'd put it on top of the beer to keep the flies out, as well as keep patrons from getting too drunk. Our Spanish teacher once said “Ever wonder how Spanish people drink so much but don't die? Tapas.”



The eating schedule is very different here in Spain, and I like it. A small breakfast around 9-10 (or whenever you wake up), and the big meal is lunch, around 2-3pm, which produces a serious food coma. Most places offer a 2-3 course meal for 7-8euros, at the cafeteria at school it's 4.70euros, and it's pretty good. Then dinner is something a bit smaller, around 9pm or so. Chicken and rice, salad, something like that. My senora cooks very well, it's delicious. Took me a bit for my stomach to adjust to the amount of olive oil they cook everything in, but it's quite good. Obviously a cosmopolitan city like Madrid has just about every kind of food. Spanish traditional food is plenty of meat, like chicken, eggs, plenty of soups, good stuff. Then there's stuff like paella from Valencia, which is a mix of rice, chicken, sauce, seafood (I eat it without generally) and vegetables.

Anyways, the first few weeks in Madrid I had the language-intensive orientation program, which I got 3 credits for. It was 3 hours a day; we were divided into two groups based on skill level, I was in the upper level which actually had huge benefits. We didn't really do any work outside of class, and the class itself was pretty fun, our teacher was very nice. It's nice actually being rewarded with less work for being “better.” Kinda like Spain's university system. In general, public schools (which cost about 800euros a year for tuition) are better than private schools. The idea is if you're smart, you shouldn't have to pay for school. The complete opposite of the United States, more or less.



What's my favorite thing about Madrid thus far? The public transportation system. Both the bus and Metro can stand by themselves, combined, it's just awesome. You can get anywhere you want in the city, quickly and for very cheap. For 42euros a month, you get an unlimited pass. A ticket for one way is 1euro, but you can packs of 10 for cheaper. It's just awesome. There is an anamoly though, Madrilenos are known for going out around midnight, 1am, or later, and coming back around 5-6am or later. This is true, and that's why we take siestas. But the Metro is closed from 130-6, so sometimes after pregaming in an apartment (going out in Madrid is not cheap, but pregaming is VERY cheap) the Metro is already closed. It is awesome though, very clean, very efficient, very extensive.

That's about it for now.