ZOOM.

The last two days have been really super busy. But, lots of fun. Yesterday our engineering group had yet another language and culture session (basically a crash course in Spanish vocab, grammar, and culture). Afterward, my friend Steven and I took the Metro for the first time to the meeting spot for our historical tour of Madrid. We wandered around la Plaza de Opera and found a pizza place to have lunch. We had pizza with bacon and ciruelas(which, as it turns out, are plums!). Then our group toured around some of the most historic sites in the entire city with our tour guide, Mario. He was funny and really knowledgeable of Madrid and the surrounding areas. The places we visited were SO beautiful that I vowed to come back again another day when my camera battery was fully charged (fail). After touring for about two hours, our group decided to go out on our own. We ran into some girls from Germany who were headed to TGIFriday’s happy hour, so we tagged along. And ladies and gentlemen, this is where I had my first (and second) legal drink (strawberry daiquiri and a raspberry rose mojito). We engineers are pretty boss.

Today was great. More language and culture class, of course. But then we were able to visit the school where we’d be studying, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, for the first time. We took the Metro from Moncloa, which is the stop right outside my apartment. By the way, my professor/instructor for the language and culture course is SO helpful and SO darn cute. Her name is Beatríz and she’s just the greatest. She helps us with our Spanish and gives us helpful tips for becoming real Madrileños. So she showed us how to get to Leganés, which is the suburb just south of Madrid where Carlos III is (about a 40-45 minute commute). When we got there, we were given a tour of the school by some students of the Universidad. We saw the library (aka. where I’ll be spending most of my time), cafeteria, sports center, and some classrooms. It’s a really nice campus and everything seems pretty easy to find. Afterwards, the students took us to their favorite bar and treated us to drinks and tapas. I had REAL sangria for the first time and una bocadillo, which is a “little” sandwich that actually served as a meal for me. I talked with one of the students who was actually going to spend the coming semester in Milan (like SOMEONE I know!) and he gave me travel tips for my future European travels.

Some of my roommates are headed out tonight but I think I need some time to cool my jets. We’re taking a day trip to Segovia tomorrow and I PROMISE I will bring my charged camera. Tomorrow night I’ll probably venture out to get groceries and some notebooks and school supplies. Who knows? My schedule these days is really up in the air. I was out from 8AM ’til 10:30PM yesterday and wasn’t even planning on doing so. Alright enough rambling. Hope everyone’s having a great day!