El Primer Día de Clases

Hola desde Madrid!

Still getting settled here and getting used the city and the pace of life here. So far, everything is pretty good. Today was our first day of classes both with the DePaul professor and at the Universidad Complutense. I think it will be a really good quarter. All of the professors are very nice and friendly, and I think I am going to learn A LOT. I am already learning a lot of Spanish just being here and forcing myself not to speak English.

The city is great. For my DePaul class, I walk right by the Museo Prado and the Plaza de Cibeles. WOW. It is really cool. I took some pictures along the walk today. I still don't believe I am here...I think it will hit me soon though....maybe.

I am still getting used to the culture here as well. For example, everytime you greet someone, it's a kiss on each cheek. That caught me off guard the first time when I was introduced to my host father's son haha. But in general, people are more social here. There is a lot of touching and closeness when you talk with friends, etc. The food is really really good. Our host father is a very good cook, so we have been eating very very well. Another thing that takes some getting used to is the bluntness of the people here. They usually just say what's on their mind. Other times, they might say something that sounds offensive, but is not meant to be. At first the honesty is a little offputting, but it is also kind of refreshing, there's no beating around the bush or anything like that.

The eating schedule is hard to get accustomed to as well. Here, we eat breakfast in the morning, a big lunch around 2 or 3 and then we have dinner around 9pm or shortly after. A lot of people in the program have commented that they are always hungry, and I feel the same way. I'm starting to get used to it though.

Home life is pretty good. I counted up how many people live in the house right now, and I think there are 14 of us all together. There are other students from the United States, 4 of us from the DePaul and the 5 of the Garcia family. It's kind of nuts, but kinda fun too. The bonus is that our laundry and cooking is done for us :) Like I said, though, they are very blunt. The Señora has no problem telling us if we don't make the bed or things like that.

This weekend we are going on an overnight trip to Cuenca, a small city about two hours from here. From what I hear we have the option of cliff jumping, horse back riding, or kayaking, so that should be fun. I'm excited to see other parts of Spain as well. So far I have only seen the very metropolitan area of El Centro.

It's almost 9pm here, so it's almost time for dinner, that's all for now.