Start of the Journey

Day 1: I am doing study abroad in Madrid, Spain for July this summer with 90 other students from different colleges in Georgia. I’m going to use the blog to tell about the different places I visit and differences between cultures. I probably won’t write in it everyday, but am going to try a few times a week. We arrived in Madrid on Saturday night exhausted after a 9 hr and a 2 hr plane ride, but didn’t get much sleep. I knew a few of the people coming on the trip, but have met a ton of really nice people too. We are staying in a place called the colegio, which is run by nuns and a gorgeous place. I got a room on the top floor and the stairs are a good workout every time I want to come up. Madrid is six hours ahead of Georgia so it was a difficult time change. We do things as a group, but they also give us a lot of time to explore in little groups. A few of us went to a little restaurant to get Sangrias and dinner to celebrate our arrival. The exchange rate here is awful. For 1 euro, you pay 1.66 American dollars. It makes you spend money much quicker than you think. Every July, Madrid hosts a HUGE gay pride parade so at the plaza and we took the metro to check it out. The metro here is a lot more complex than Marta. The gay pride parade was crazy. Groups had made float and there were bands playing. There are no open containers laws in Spain haha. It was really cool.

Day 2: Sunday morning we took buses to Toledo, a really pretty city about an hour and a half away. It was gorgeous and very historic. Got some pictures. We had a tour guide for a few hours and then got a few hours to explore for ourselves. There are a lot of cathedrals and museums there and it is all centered around a really pretty “square” area. That night, as a group, we went out for tapas and sangrias in area in Madrid called Sol. It was really fun and Sol was awesome. There is so much shopping and they also have a lot of the same stores we do, which surprised me, like H&M and Zara. A lot of Madrid is centered around Sol and it’s a big walking place. We got home late and everyone had to due homework Sunday night for classes that started the next day.

Day 3: Monday morning came quickly. The colegio serves us breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Friday. They serve each meal for an hour. We got breakfast at 8:30 and classes started at 9. I am taking Spanish conversation from 9 to 11:15 and Spanish 4 from 11:45 to 2. Lunch is not until 2 because they are used to eating a lot later than we do. Dinner does not start until 8:30, but I slept through it on Monday. We went back to Sol to go shopping on Monday afternoon. In the square at Sol people dress up as statues. The best one was a guy who painted himself and put his head in a baby’s body. To celebrate Fourth of July, we went with about twenty people from the group to a bar called Cave bar, which was really fun! The drinks are large but expensive. Stayed out way too late! In the colegio, the nuns lock the gates at 3, so we have to be back by then during the weekdays, and we barely made it. We also went to a club on the way home and took pictures in a European photo booth, which was fun.

Day 4: On Tuesdays and Thursday we take field trips to different places in Madrid. Today we took a field trip to the mosque and cultural center for Madrid. It was okay. Afterwards, a group of us went to McDonalds, which was delicious! We took a bus tour tonight of Madrid which was pretty but 4 hours long…. I am staying in tonight and catching up on A LOT of sleep! I’ll try to be good about writing in the blog!