almost a week in...

My past few days in Madrid have been amazing – but they have definitely been filled with their ups and downs. Me encanta mi señora, se llama Angelines! ( I love my homestay – her name is Angelines.) She is a cute elderly woman who loves to cook, laughs at me when I try to wash my own dishes, and the other day when I half – ass made my bed, she finished making it. She has a very large apartment, where I have my own room and practically my own bathroom. I live right off an amazing street to shop on, which may become a problem. J Angelines is an amazing cook – pollo, tortilla patatas, sopa, (chicken, potato tortillas, soup) and she always tells me that I don’t eat enough. Ella siempre dice “Tu comes pequeno” y “Puedes comer toda la comida que tu quieres!” (She always say “You eat so little” and “you can eat all the food that you want”.) Today I learned that she is an amazing artist and almost all the pictures on her walls are her own work. She is definitely better than Miro, who has an exhibit en el mueso de Reina Sofia (where we went today with class). We watch movies together, game shows and telenovelas.

Classes haven’t really started – I just have to go to language classes at Sampere but they do not start until 3:30 pm. When we got to Sampere on Monday, we took a placement test, and then started with our culture classes. After class, all of the international students at Sampere went to the bar down the street and had some drinks. Every night, my senora asks me if I’m going out and once when I said I think so but I’m not sure, she sort of laughed and said that I better take advantage of it before I have to start waking up early. I leave relatively close to my friends Alison and Mat, and 2 other kids that we’re friends with which is really good when we go out or when we walk to class. On Monday night, I thought it would be nice if I asked my señora if I had to be home by a certain time. She pretty much laughed in my face, asked me if I had the key, and then told me that I could come home whenever I wanted as long as I have the key. Monday night, we went to the Puerta del Sol, went to a club and then made some new friends en la fuente – literally. We saw some people jumping in the fountain – some girls from Argentina and some guys from Italy. After the adventure in the fountain, the five of us stayed and talked with the Italian guys.

Tuesday was my first up and down day – I slept late, had an amazing lunch with my senora y su nieta, watched “The Simpsons” en español, and had a nice walk to class. Class was okay – grammar was boring but culture was a little more interesting. After those classes, all of the students attending my university stayed for a meeting with Ana, our advisor, and she spoke about classes. That was when my little downfall started. When I got home, I ate dinner with my señora, she gave me a vocab lession in the kitchen of all the food words I did not know, and she showed me pictures of her family. A bunch of students from BC decided to go to la casa de cerveza donde podíamos beber todas las bebidas que queríamos y solamente necesitaba pagar 12 euro. The deal ended at 1:30am but it was still a good time. However, when getting ready to go out, I blew a fuse in the apartment and I think I broke my hair straightener and one of my converters, adding to my breakdown. However, the night made up for the break down though – it was nice to just go out with everyone.

Today I took a nice walk down my street and to Ross’ office so that I could pick up Jess’ cell phone charger. Afterward, the class went on a tour of el museo de Reina Sofia where we saw works from Dali, Miro and Picasso. I learned a lot about the artists and it was actually not a painful trip to a museum. When we were in the museum, Mat said that he saw our Italian friends from the other night. Later on, when Alison and I were walking from the bathroom, we saw them too and we all went and got lunch before our language classes. After class, a bunch of us walked back together and then Alison, Mat and 2 of our other friends stopped for a drink and some tapas before returning home. It was nice to just relax. I came home, ate dinner and read in the living room with my senora. When I finished my book, leí un periodico espanol, se llama Hola! I didn’t understand everything that I was reading but I understood more than I thought I would. I just need to work on my speaking.

I miss my baseball and my football but Madrid is great – I don’t really want classes to start!! haha