Life Abroad: Week Two
Feeling like Home
Week Two went by in a blink of an eye. Feeling more settled in my new apartment, adjusting to the time change, and slowly fumbling into a new routine. I went on three runs this week to Parque Del Retiro, the giant park I mentioned in my last blog post. I love running there because whenever I go (usually around 1pm), there’s so many people there simply enjoying the park or sharing a moment with friends. 1pm in any US park on a weekday is usually not very busy. At the park, there’s a bit of everything: friends sharing a bottle of wine while sprawled over a picnic blanket, grandparents reading on the park benches, couples going for a stroll with their tiny dogs or tiny kids. And there’s lots of runners too, which I don’t see anywhere else in the city. I do always get stared at on my run to the park because I don’t think it’s common for people to run on sidewalks and by stores where other people are walking. But I’d rather run to the park and then just walk in the park so I can people watch. My favorite thing I’ve seen so far is two older ladies sitting on a blanket with their shoes off and their feet sunken in the soil. I try to meditate for 5-10 minutes in the park while sitting on a bench or against a tree trunk, but my attempts have been mostly unsuccessful because I get nervous about closing my eyes for that long; I’m afraid of getting my phone/airpods stolen.
Speaking of things being stolen… some of our roomates got things stolen from our apartment this week. Long story short, they went out to a club, came back home incoherent with two random Spanish dudes who ended up stealing a laptop, phone, and a bunch of their money/cards/IDs. Thankfully, Casey and I share a room that’s separated from the rest of the apartment + all our valuables were in this room, so all of our things were safe. This was a huge wake up call because not having a phone/laptop/credit card/ID in a foreign country is terrifying and a situation that can usually be prevented as long as you’re aware of your surroundings and belongings. American girls are also a major target for robbers, so it was a good reality check. The girls have definitely learned their lesson (not to bring strangers into our apartment, not to get blackout every time they go out in a foreign country), but Casey and I have also been extra careful since then.
While our roommates were out at the club, Casey and I met up with another Michigan girl, Mia, who’s studying abroad at our university. We went to a language exchange night at a bar called “Beer Station” (lol). People come to practice whatever language they want + find international friends, so we were mostly speaking English to help those who wanted to practice + a bit of Spanish. We were definitely the youngest people there but it was really exciting to meet so many people from all over. I talked to people from Scotland, Venezuela, the UK, and other Spanish people. It was so impressive/hilarious to hear how much they knew about American politics (Michigan being a swing state, for example) and how opinionated they were on who would be the next president (Trump?). I ended up talking to a guy named Jorge (from Salamanca) who told me about why he quit his job at PwC after a year because he hated the stressful lifestyle, gave recommendations on where to eat the best Spanish food, told us that Ibiza is wonderful for parties, and likes Beyonce lol. He actually did a semester exchange at Emory, a summer program at Notre Dame, and an exchange in South Korea, so he had pretty good English too. Turns out he may just have been too friendly to me because he bought tequila shots for us only for me to inform him I had a boyfriend minutes later, but I did tell him I was 20 and he was 26, so I thought he would’ve gotten the message already. Anyways, the whole “work burnout” thing seems to be a common complaint here. The girl from Scotland told us about how she was hospitalized because the stress and anxiety from her past job had gotten to be too much; she’s now in Madrid for a vacation before she starts her new job. Coming from UMich/Ross where those high stress jobs are idealized so much, it’s refreshing knowing that they really aren’t all that. Jobs are just jobs, not meant to be lifestyles or personality traits or how we measure our worth. This is something I’m constantly working towards fully embracing because so often we equate the highest paying/stress jobs to the highest level of intelligence. Living here is slowly unraveling that false mystery.
Our host mom bought ketchup, mustard, and mayo for the house. We’ve already finished one bottle of ketchup. You may think that’s so American of us, but really she just brings us potatoes every day and then suddenly the bottle is empty. Other foods had this week: Ham serrano, tuna salad, salad w olives and corn (surprisingly good), pesto pasta, lots of ham once again, fish sticks, + more flan! I think she just wants us to eat more and is trying to buy foods we’re more used to. Lots of fruit this week as well, the apples are not good here though. I stick to oranges usually. I bought some instant ramen because I miss Asian food. Casey and I also got burgers from a place we found on TikTok for lunch one day.
We watched the sunset on top of Metropol Parasol and tried to spot who was American and who wasn’t. That day we had been walking for so long (23,000 steps) and had only had tostadas and cafe con leche to eat, so come 8:30pm with 2 failed attempts to get dinner from restaurants (reservations, closings, staring at roller blades for 20 minutes, etc.), it was a moment of serendipity when we walked into Maccharoni & Co. It was this fancy Italian restaurant but we were 1 hop skip jump away from getting McDonald’s because that’s how irritated/hungry we were. We ended up splitting a bottle of rose and eating scrumptious pizza/pasta, and learned that they will charge you for eating the bread they put on the table. Drunk off of 3 glasses of rose, Case and I skipped backed to our hostel and charged our phones and tried to think of conversation topics we had never talked about yet. Then, we got gelato because we’d seen so many people eating it. It was divine.
The second day we woke up from a glorious sleep (if you ever stay at La Banda, you will understand because the beds were so cozy), and got breakfast at Jester. My go to breakfast here is a cafe con leche with some type of pastry (this day, I got a croissant de crema). At breakfast, we heard the girls behind us talking about how fun college in the US is and how much freedom you get there. We walked around the Guadalquivir River and talked about driving and how the American college experience differs from the Spanish one. It really boils down to living at college vs. living at home. We then went to the Seville Cathedral (one of the largest churches in the world, Columbus is buried here) and got orange wine and tapas which we ACTUALLY liked for once (croquetas de hamon and queso de cabra horneado con mermelada de ciruela aka baked goat cheese w plum jam). Finally, we walked more around the city and talked in depth about the Abroad Girls Insta posts that you’re all probably familiar with +how embarrasing/strange it is", until it was time to go to the train station. Three hours later, it was really nice to feel calm and comforted walking back to our apartment in Madrid- it really did feel like coming home.
We took our first weekend trip this week to Seville! The city is seriously out of a movie-for real, Game of Thrones was shot at Real Alcazar (the palace in Seville). It was such a quaint Spanish city with orange trees lining the sidewalks, kind people who always asked where we were from, and beautiful architecture with Arabic influence. The first day we woke up at 5:30am, train arrived in Seville at 10:30. We spent so long (like, 3.5 hours) walking inside Real Alcazar because the weather was beautiful, the architecture was gorgeous, and it was interesting to learn about the history behind the place. We also went to Plaza de Espana and listened to the music, watched some street performers. and walked around. The music there travelled up the stairs and out to the plaza because of gaps in the building and it was peaceful in sight and sound. The abundance of live music in Spain/Seville is one of my favorite things because it forces you to stop and listen and appreciate where you are in that moment. And also just because, it’s nice to support other artists because putting yourself out there bc that is so brave. Speaking of music, hearing all this music live has made me that much more excited about songs I used to love! When we were at the language exchange night, they played Mardy Bum, the 1975 and I listened to those songs the rest of the week. Similarly we heard a drummer playing along to Safe and Sound and Otherside by RHCP, and I listened to those on the train ride home. It inspired Casey and I to make a playlist to commemorate our time here (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/11ayeuzHGXhaxs1res6IDg?si=17a876b9efb34d22).
Thanks for reading, and happy living.
With love,
Rachel
