Life Abroad: Week One
Bienvenidos a Madrid <3
It’s quite surreal to say I’m writing this from Madrid, but here we are. I’ve been awaiting this semester for a while now, but now that it’s here it still feels like I’m living in this weird daydream. I seriously, cannot believe this is my life. Feeling extremely grateful to be here, but moreso than the cliche of ~seeing new things and expanding my perspective~, I am really grateful for how uncomfortable I am. Moving to a new country isn’t easy: the culture shock of everyone around you speaking Spanish took me a couple days to adjust to. Well, I still haven’t fully adjusted but I’m getting there. I went from living on a campus surrounded by my closest friends and minutes away from my favorite restaurants (s/o Rich JC) to now having one close friend + a handful of acquaintances in a huge city with too much tapas and ham and not enough vegetables IMO. No offense to Spanish food, but so far the only saving grace has been cafe con leche and the various pastries. Anyways, things that are so easy at home take the most courage here: ordering at a restaurant, making new friends, running outside. But on the flipside, some things that are harder at home are much easier here: speaking up in class, walking at least 10,000 steps a day, and eating enough fruit [our angel host mom, Marian, has brought us so many fruits for dessert: kiwi, persimmon, pineapple, oranges, bananas, apples, strawberries].
I’m someone that thrives on being comfortable with my surroundings; I know myself pretty well, and I know what I like. Things I like: cuddling with my parents/friends, having a morning/night routine on weekdays, being in control over my mental and physical health. Travelling for this long without seeing so many friends, not having the most stable routine because of how unstable it is being in a foreign country, and having to adjust so quickly to this new lifestyle is throwing me a curveball. But this is making me uncomfortable, and as a result I’ve been growing, learning to deal with it. This way, I can change how my mind perceives change and unfamiliarity: I may not love this discomfort, but I know that it’s largely just my mind being too loud and preventing me from doing things that will ultimately benefit me. As I get older I’m scared I’ll get less brave to do things like this because I’ll know myself better, so I want to rework that pattern in brain while I still can.
In this city, I feel like a little kid again- the smallest things fascinate me about this place. I love finding something that’s different here and thinking about why it is the way it is- maybe that’s the designer in me, or just curiosity speaking. There’s life on every corner of every street here and I am in continuously in awe. This is something I hope will never go away even as weeks go by. I wrote in my journal a couple days ago some of the moments/things I’ve seen that have sparked joy in me:
Holding a conversation entirely in Spanish with my host mother for ~3 hours at our first dinner out and hearing her talk about her family, life in Colombia, and job as an engineer. My Spanish is getting so much better with every day; today, I made a reservation on the phone for dinner entirely in Spanish (although at said dinner, I asked for “la receta”(recipe) instead of “la cuenta”(bill), so it’s a work in progress)
The fluid casualness between Spanish students and their teachers. People rarely raise their hand in class, they just speak. Overall, classes are so much less intimidating than Michigan ones
Knowing that student antics are the same everywhere. After having my first “Professional Deontology” class where the professor spoke for the entire 80 minutes about philisophical theories he abides by (doesn’t have a smartphone/social media, teaches from entirely memory instead of using a powerpoint), I was elated to walk into the elevator full of my classmates afterwards and hear the Spanish boys making jokes
Anywhere you go at most times of day, you’ll see adults having a drink together outside of restaurans on the streets. Life moves at a much slower pace here
Riding the metro to class and having younger people play music or sing in between stops. There was a young boy playing “Mamma Mia” on the violin and that about made my day
As for things I’ve done in Madrid so far, here’s a compliation:
Walked around the magnificent El Retiro Park, a 350 acre park that is perfect for a morning stroll or run. There’s rowboats there you can rent, so I will have to do that one day
Went to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and Museo Nacional de Prado, Madrid’s best art museums. We went to one Saturday and one Sunday, and stayed for ~4 hours in each and still had so much more to see. Some highlights include: The Guernica, Las Meninas, Un Mundo
Got drinks with Casey, Will, and Sergio, where Sergio told us all the differences between life in Madrid and AA. If you were wondering, peanut butter is very hard to find in Spain
Went out with our roommates (sophomore girls from SLU) and Raymond! Our first night out and it was certainly… unmemorable for Casey and I. At one point while we were walking home, I apparently turned to Casey and said “So are you following me or am I following you?” Sure enough, she was following me and we had no idea where we were
REBAJAS- January is Spain’s rebajas (translation: sales) season, so all the clothing stores are having 60-70% on lots of things. The stores here are magnificent, and I love staring at people on the metro and on the streets to get outfit inspiration. It feels like I’m playing dress up everyday and I love it
Had my first week of classes; this is the boring part of study abroad. But, our building is magnificent and puts Ross to shame which is a feat. It’s this brand new tower in the financial district of Madrid and Casey and I joke that we’re like the Dauntless from Divergent when we’re inside. To illustrate how nice the building is: to get to class, there’s facial recogniion machines that give me access to the elevators
Tried lots of food, including: Jamon y melon (literally just a honeydew with two pieces of ham on it, it was so not enjoyable), croquetas, cuddlefish, paella, calamari, natillla, tortilla espanola. Snack foods tried include: ham chips, pantera rosa.
This is since the new year started, but so far I’ve read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and both The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. All three I enjoyed. I started The White Album by Joan Didion (RIP) but the essays are all about the 60s in America and it feels weird reading someting so American while riding the metro in Madrid. Quite the juxtaposition. I might pick up another book instead to enhance life here instead.
I’m going to sleep soon because I still haven’t been able to wake up before 11am unless I have class. Thanks for reading, and happy living :)
With love,
Rachel
