First Impressions

     I have been in Spain for 4 days, and I am already starting to feel at home here. It is an incredible city with lots of culture, nightlife, and interesting people. When I arrived on Thursday morning, I was met by the BU trip organizers and went to a hotel for an orientation. The other people on the program (78 people, mostly from BU) are friendly, outgoing, excited, and equally as clueless as I am about navigating through Madrid and communicating fluently. Saturday morning, I moved into my host family, and I couldn't have been more surprised and happy with my setup!

My Favorite Things About Spain So Far:
1. The Schedule: Lunch is the biggest meal and is served at 2pm, after which I get to take a nap! Dinner is light and is at 9 or 10pm- prime for going out to bars straight from dinner. People do not arrive at clubs until 1am and often stay out until 6am. It also acceptable to sleep until 2pm on the weekends:)
2. Tapas: You get to try small portions of lots of things like prosciutto, olives, patatas bravas, tortilla española
3. My Homestay: great location, the most caring people, delicious food, my own room (picture below), a very cultural and unique experience, and new Spanish siblings
4. Love for Americans: The Spaniards are very friendly to Americans and only want you to teach them some English. From what my host family tells me, they do not learn English in depth in school. If you want to learn it, you need a private tutor. Everyone wants to learn English in order to get a good job.

More About My Homestay:
      First of all, my location is perfect! I am located right in the center of the city. Everywhere I've gone so far has been a 10 minute walk from the apartment. I can walk to school or to my internship in just 10 minutes. The Menchón apartment consists of the mother (Isabel), a son who is 17 (Adrián), a daughter who is 14 (Elsa), and an assistant who is from Honduras (Marta) who helps with the cooking and maintaining of the apartment. The mother of the house (Isabel) has been taking in students from BU each semester for 10 years. She is warm and speaks very slowly and clearly. Isabel is a well-educated woman who works for the state department of Spain and works in foreign affairs to establish and improve democracy in countries where it does not exist. Isabel insists on highlighting my route to different destinations on my giant touristy map of Madrid every time I leave the house. Adrián is not home much and is shy when he is. Elsa is the cutest, prettiest, sweetest girl. She is writing an essay about Florida in English for one of her classes and is using the book I gave them about Florida. Marta calls me "su nueva hija Evie (meaning "her new daughter Evie"). Isabel also has a boyfriend who comes over for meals sometimes. Mario is from Argentina and is very good at grammar and has been helping me by correcting my frequent grammar mistakes. My Spanish is improving rapidly because we speak Spanish at all of the meals with the family and soon when I am in class, the professors will be teaching in Spanish as well. It takes a lot of concentration but I understand almost everything. Forming my own sentences is difficult but I am improving each day. Everyone I have met has told me that my Spanish is impressive, so I am feeling rather confident. Today, I went on a guided tour of El Parque Retiro (picture below). Tomorrow, I have another interview for my internship at Glamour! And Tuesday I start classes!

Hablamos Pronto,

Evie