First Week of Classes Part One

Since I don't think it's entirely necessary to explain each day in detail I'll lump 'em all together and point out the important things.

Monday was the first day of classes. They start at 9 am and end at 12:15.  Since it doesn't take me that long to get ready for school, I've been waking up at 7:45.  I'm trying to get as much sleep as possible in each night! Spaniards eat a very light breakfast, so I've been eating 2 pieces of toast with Nutella along with Cola Cao (hot chocolate).  It's a light breakfast, but I haven't felt like I need to eat more
afterwards. Drinking hot chocolate in the warm weather is a little difficult, but I've been able to stomach it.  I've decided to walk to school everyday (unless I'm running late or it's super crappy weather, which is unlikely to happen).  I leave the house at 8:30 giving myself plenty of time to complete the 20 (ish) minute walk.  It's a really nice walk that takes me through the Puerta del Sol and past the Congress building.  Usually I get to school by 8:50 so I have time to walk around and get my things in order for class.

Our day is divided (for the moment) into 2 classes. One from 9-10:30 with one professor (so far Gemma on Mon and Tues, and Susanna Wed-Fri) then a 15 minute break, when I usually eat a piece of fruit, followed by our second class from 10:45-12:15 (with Ruben). So far we've been doing a lot of grammar review, learning about Spanish culture, learning new adjectives, and doing a lot of hands on activities.  There are only 5 people in our class right now, Katie and I, 2 German girls, and 1 British man. People will be coming and going from our morning grammar classes all the time, as a lot of students come to TANDEM for a few weeks to either improve on their Spanish or start learning Spanish for the first time. So far Ruben is my favorite.  He's very energetic when it comes to teaching, and his class basically consists of lively discussion about the homework or other topics ("the best way to learn spanish is to get a spanish boyfriend." "do you have any friends that would want to be our boyfriends?")

After classes are over, we've been doing all kinds of things (keeping in mind that we return home (normally) for lunch with our families).  On Monday after class we had our academic orientation where Lesley told us all the things we needed to know about when classes are, how we're graded etc. Monday night I went adventuring around my neighborhood again for a few hours.  I walked all the way to the Temple Debod and back. There was a gorgeous park on the way with statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on horseback, as well as a fabulous fountain.  Everything was lit up beautifully and the night was warm so there were a million people out.  It was a great way to end the night.

Tuesday after class I went home for lunch then met up with Katie, Mikaela, and Anke (a girl from Germany who finished Tandem classes that day). We did a little shopping at Principe Pio mall before heading back to school to meet with Ruben for our first cultural activity.  Ruben took us on a walking tour of Madrid and pointed all kinds of neat things out to us that you might never learn on a regular tour of Madrid such as: the marker on the ground in Puerta del Sol from which all distances in Spain are measured, the clock that people watch on New Years Eve, the statue in Plaza Mayor that birds used to get trapped inside, and many other things.  Everything was in Spanish but I understood most of it. After the tour, everyone in the group (Katie, Mikaela, Anke, Julian (boy from Germany) and I went and got bocadillos de calamares (calamari sandwiches) per order of Ruben. They were delicious, but it was hard to eat the bread and the calamari at the same time.After we finished the bocadillos we desperately needed a drink, so Katie, Mikaela, Julian, and I found a little restaurant with an outdoor patio and got something to drink (us girls split the sangria of course. We let Julian have some too.) As we parted ways for the night, Julian, Katie, and I were all headed in the same direction (towards Puerta del Sol).  As we got closer we noticed there were tons of people in the plaza all cheering and chanting and wearing Atletico (one of the soccer teams in Madrid) gear.  Soon we found out that el equipo Atletico had won some European Championship and this was the day of the celebration. All the players were inside one of the main buildings on the plaza.  We grabbed ourselves some free crowns (that say campeones (champions) on them) and tried to see if we could get a glimpse of some of the players. Unfortunately, there were too many people by the building so we couldn’t get a good look. But it was still kind of fun to participate in a big celebration like that.  After that we all went home for dinner.

On Wednesday after class we hung out at school for a bit, just chatting and getting to know each other better. After that I went home for lunch then decided I needed to run some errands. I went to el Corte Ingles and bought myself a modem from Orange that lets me get the internet wherever I am.  It was 20€, plus 3,50€ each day for internet service. But if you use the internet more than ten days in a month (which will obviously happen) you pay a flat rate of 35€.  It’s a little expensive, but I couldn’t live without my computer and the internet.  Then I went to the grocery store and bought myself 7 apples (one for each school day for the next week and a half).  The apples are HUGE. But they’re not very sweet.  Still, they’re a good snack in between classes.  After dinner that evening I met up with Katie, Antonia and Sina (our German friends), and a bunch of other people from school that I hadn’t met yet at a restaurant called 100 Montaditos. It’s a restaurant where everything costs less than 2€ each, and they have 100 things to choose from.  On Wednesday nights however, you can get 1 montadito, and 1 LARGE drink (like tinto de verano (summer wine)) for only 2€.  Pretty sweet deal.  All the little montaditos are basically 3 bite little sandwiches filled with a variety of different things.  You place your order by marking off on a sheet of paper what things you want. Then you bring it up to the bar, they place your order, and you wait till you hear your name called over the loudspeaker (Katy, por favor, Katy), and you go up and get your food. It was super crowded but really fun.  We left the restaurant at about 11:15. By that point I was super tired, so I went home (and I wanted to Skype with my family), but everyone else went out to another bar to get a drink. I was glad I didn’t go, I would’ve been so tired on the next day! After Skyping with my family I finally went to bed.