Thursday May 5, 2016 I left for Spain a few days earlier than everyone else, the flight was eight hours and actually pretty smooth, not much turbulence and thank God no crying babies. I flew with a friends and once we finally landed in Madrid, it was 7:30am we grabbed our luggage, but then remembered we’d made no plan as to where we were going or even staying for the night. We decided let’s take a taxi to the city and see what the driver recommends. Downtown Madrid we tried hostel after hostel on the same street, walking with super heavy, we didn’t want to walk up a ton of stairs and eventually found a hotel that was much cheaper and nicer than the hostels we tried.
First day in Madrid, I didn’t get much sleep but I did have a good time. I got to visit the Real Madrid soccer stadium and took a tour that ended up being pretty cool. night we went to dinner and checked out this bar called Bia Bar, there I had the best mojito I have ever had!
This first week began to be a little bit of a challenge after the ride to Caceres and meeting the families. The host family I’m living with is extremely nice, the father speaks a little English and the mother speaks Spanish but she has been trying to learn a little more English but she been mixing it together sometimes speaking Spanglish. For the first couple days things were hard to get use to, the time difference and remembering most people here do not speak English what I’m used to. Getting around, communicating and feeling comfortable is another hard challenge, not only because I’m in a country I’ve never been to, but also because the communication within our group hasn’t been the best either we’re all separated by distance but also by exclusion.
I didn’t expect Spain to be this hard to navigate and for it to be so much walking. The first two days of class I got lost for over an hour trying to find my way home from campus and our meeting pointing to me I was lost, but I wasn’t worried about anything happening to me as far as my safety but more so worried because I was cold, it was raining and extremely frustrated because I wanted to find my way on my own and couldn’t It seems like the entire city of Caceres is a giant circle or a maze. As the first week comes to an end, I have been practicing my Spanish a lot more. I really enjoyed the activity from the second day, speed dating with students studying English at University Extremadura, that’s made me much more comfortable practicing my Spanish and talking to my family as well. I’ve even made a few friends here from the University and some of my host parents nieces that speak English really well. Next week is a brand new week with more activities and time to spend getting to know the language, the area, my host family and myself.
First day in Madrid, I didn’t get much sleep but I did have a good time. I got to visit the Real Madrid soccer stadium and took a tour that ended up being pretty cool. night we went to dinner and checked out this bar called Bia Bar, there I had the best mojito I have ever had!
This first week began to be a little bit of a challenge after the ride to Caceres and meeting the families. The host family I’m living with is extremely nice, the father speaks a little English and the mother speaks Spanish but she has been trying to learn a little more English but she been mixing it together sometimes speaking Spanglish. For the first couple days things were hard to get use to, the time difference and remembering most people here do not speak English what I’m used to. Getting around, communicating and feeling comfortable is another hard challenge, not only because I’m in a country I’ve never been to, but also because the communication within our group hasn’t been the best either we’re all separated by distance but also by exclusion.
I didn’t expect Spain to be this hard to navigate and for it to be so much walking. The first two days of class I got lost for over an hour trying to find my way home from campus and our meeting pointing to me I was lost, but I wasn’t worried about anything happening to me as far as my safety but more so worried because I was cold, it was raining and extremely frustrated because I wanted to find my way on my own and couldn’t It seems like the entire city of Caceres is a giant circle or a maze. As the first week comes to an end, I have been practicing my Spanish a lot more. I really enjoyed the activity from the second day, speed dating with students studying English at University Extremadura, that’s made me much more comfortable practicing my Spanish and talking to my family as well. I’ve even made a few friends here from the University and some of my host parents nieces that speak English really well. Next week is a brand new week with more activities and time to spend getting to know the language, the area, my host family and myself.
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