Well it's been a whirlwind, traveling always seems to be. My flight went really smoothly, it felt like it went by in 3 hours. Unfortunately during those three hours I had to deal with the Indian woman next to me staring at me who didn't speak a word of English. She would lean over and try to look at my magazine and would turn herself to get a more complete view of me. She didn't do anything on the flight except eat, sleep, and stare. I guess I was more entertaining than Nights in Rodanthe.
When I finally arrived in Madrid on Saturday I had to find my airport shuttle with all my luggage which was a little tiring but it wasn't too difficult. The shuttle took me straight to my homestay for 19 euro, and the taxis charge around 30 I heard so it was a great deal.
I was thrilled to find an elevator in the building instead of having to lug my bags up the three flights of stairs. Reme greeted me with a huge smile and HOLA GUAPA!. She is an adorable little old woman. The apartment is huge for an apartment in the smack dab center of the city. She gave me a tour and I got to pick which single I wanted, and of course I went for the nicest one.
I'm living with 5 other NYU students in this apartment, which should be quite interesting.
Reme chatted with me for around 2 hours and boy does she have stories. She is full of them. After hearing all about the horrible girls who stayed here the previous semester, I went take a nap and then went grocery shopping. The prices were very reasonable and I got most of the stuff I was looking for. I even found a 4-pack of Greek Yogurt for 2 euros, that totally made my day. I'm still on a mission to find hummus in this city, I will keep you all updated on that. I live right around the corner from a Zara (which will most likely turn out to be my Forever 21 of Spain) and I'm in an area that's blocks away from some of the coolest areas of Madrid and in itself is full of places to eat and shopping. I lucked out tremendously with my apartment, talking to friends who live far away or in rooms that look like closets.
I went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at 5:30 on Sunday. I went online and was happy to finally be able to chat with friends. I'm also fortunate in that I have internet in my homestay, meeting quite a few others that don't. I made myself pasta, butter, and parmesan and because I couldn't find I container of the cheese, I had to buy a big block of it and grate it on my own (how gourmet of me). She had a pretty intense cheese grater and I ended up grating one of my knuckles...ouch!
Then my housemates started to arrive! First came Jeffrey who is a visiting student from California. We went out to explore a little and drank some cola cao (*jajaja-irene!!!) which is like hot chocolate, but better. They served it as hot milk and a packet. When we returned Greg and Nneka had arrived and were trying to figure out the internet. I went to skype with my parents, which was very fun and is going to save us lots of money on phone calls. Around 4:30 Valerie arrived, and we were supposed to be meeting everyone for a walking tour at 5 so with her getting all situated we arrived a bit late, but did the tour anyways. It was SO pretty. We went through el Parque del Oeste which is situated on a hill with great views, has a temple in it, and it was covered in an orange glow from the sunset. We wandered on, me leading the other two girls and we all know how great I am at directions, but I successfully got us back to our street. We were walking for about 3 hours and went quite a ways.
Afterwards we were just hungry and tired so we rested a bit and went out to dinner. Sundays in Madrid prove to be the wrong night to try to find a restaurant because everything is closed, but after I searched for about an hour online I found a place that served Spanish food and that would cost less than 20 euro and we went around 10 (they eat dinner We had a tough time navigating the menu but in the end I ordered some batter-fried veal stuffed with goat cheese covered in a wine sauce (not that I knew that was what it would be when I ordered it) and a glass of wine. With tax and all it ended up costing me 17 euro. My wine was less expensive than the sprite which I found quite humorous, of course is was a tiny glass, but the sprite was also a european mini-sized bottle.
Today we had orientation at 9:30 and although I got up at 8, the six of us had a tough time figuring out the showering/bathroom situation. We were a bit late, but it worked out just fine because it didn't really start until 10. They went over everything from classes, to trips, to how orientation works, and then we went for a paella lunch. It was great! I ate the vegetable one, a little hesitant to go for the fish one just yet.
Afterwards we wandered and I somehow led us to find the phone store we were looking for. I got a pay as you go phone for 19 euro (25 bucks) that had 10 euro already on it and I can call anyone with movistar for 5 cents and text for 7.5 cents. It's great!
After a trip to the Corte Ingles again (picture a multi-floor Macy's plus a Walmart Superstore put together) and bought a hair dryer and returned home with tired feet and after listening to some Reme stories about men, I am ready to cook myself dinner and maybe even go out after.
Lots-o-love
Kelsey
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