So today marks the end of our orientation week here in Madrid...it's been a crazy hectic week filled with group activities and free meals haha. The past few days I've just been continuing to explore and get to the know the city (which is huge!) and the people in my program. We've had several guided tours of lots of different areas of Madrid, pointing out the government buildings, movie theaters that show American movies and the best bars. Yesterday we had a night tour of the theater district from the professor of the Spanish Theater class which I'm going to be taking starting next week. After that we had a USC-paid-for meal of tapas (yummy!) and wine. So fabulous to know that my tuition dollars are going to excellent bottles of wine! :-) It's funny because tuition for this semester is the same for a semester at USC, but somehow here tuition includes sponsored meals and trips and bar excursions! Makes me think that USC should probably start including this in LA...Anyways after the group meal we kind of split up and went in our different directions to explore the Madrid nightlife. We wandered around this area called Sol, which is one of the central points in Madrid and is filled with bars, shops, and tons of people. A few of us ended up in a very smokey Irish pub (of all places...) for a while and just hung out getting to know each other.
Bright and early this morning (well actually not so bright because it's been incredible foggy here...makes me think of San Francisco) we met for a day-trip to Toledo, a small town about an hour outside of Madrid. Toledo was so beautiful! We spend the day in old town, exploring the tiny, winding roads that were barely the width of one car yet miraculously buses attempted to navigate them. We had a really entertaining tour guide who took us through the city, to the cathedral (the 10th biggest in the world) and a sword-making shop and a small church to see one of El Greco's masterpieces "El entierro del señor del conde de orgaz". The painting was amazing to see because I had spent a while in my spanish class last semester discussing its importance. It's a huge piece of work that has never been restored and the colors and detail and still brilliant.
After our tour, we had a delicious (and once again fully paid for) lunch in a cute restaurant. It was long and leisurely and fun to sit and chat with the group. The bus ride back to Madrid was long because of traffic and we all dispersed to our homestays to rest up for tonight. I'm still adjusting to the night schedule here in Madrid. The plan tonight is to meet up with the entire group (read: 26 loud americans haha) and go out to a club. Things don't start happening here until around 1 am and the idea is to stay out until at least 6 so that the metro is up and running again for an easy return home. Luckily, tomorrow is Saturday so there will be some massive sleeping in!
So far, it's been pretty cold here...definitely colder than back home was over break...but scarily it hasn't snowed yet although it has snowed in LA. Crazy! That's expected to change soon though because apparently there is a massive cold spell coming in early next week that is supposed to bring snow to Madrid! I'm kind of excited actually because I've never lived where it snows but I'm sure that excitement is going to fade pretty quickly after my toes start to freeze off haha.
Alright I need to get in a nap before tonight! Lots of love to all! Hasta luego!
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