First Full Week in Madrid

Well, I am officially done with orientation at my adopted college, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Carlos III, in case you didn't know, was apparently the most important king of Spain. I have no idea what he did, (I will have to take a Spanish history class for that), but I know that there is a huge statue of him in the Plaza del Sol, one of the main parts of the city. He looks a little like John Adams to me.

Back to the point. Orientation consisted of hearing a million speeches about the different classes that we can take, and taking placement tests to see which language class we should be a part of. I had my oral test today, which always freaks me out because I hate actually speaking in Spanish. It went surprisingly well, though. I find out where I placed tomorrow and then I can make my schedule. We have a choice between taking CEH classes, which are Spanish classes for Americans (or I guess any foreigners), or taking Grado classes with the actual Spanish students. I want to take more Grado classes, but the CEH classes are really interesting, and the Grado classes are hard to schedule. I think that I am going to take one Sociology of Spain class with the Spaniards, and the rest CEH. We also have a culture class that is just our program where we take trips, go to museums, etc. Supposedly the workload isn't that bad for any of it, though, which makes me very happy after last semester.

Today I made a huge accomplishment: I got to school all by myself. I think that this is the first place that I have gone alone. The walk to the train station is pretty short (and it saves me 2 euros that I would have to pay for a ride back and forth on the metro). Then I took the 20 minute train ride all the way to Getafe, the little town where my school is, and didn't even get lost! I may be a city girl after all!

Things are starting to feel more normal since we have been getting up and going to school every day. I'm enjoying that. Hopefully I will get to start tutoring soon, also.

Next on my list: find somewhere to get my hair done. That will indeed be an interesting task.

Here are some pictures of the university:




A picture of what you see when you walk out of the cafeteria. This is kind of like the quad.


Another view of some buildings on campus.

It is all very modern, more so than I expected. None of the old world charm of WashU, though.

Tomorrow we are going to try to find a movie theater that plays American movies with Spanish subtitles, go see a película in the afternoon. Pictures of the apartment and my room to come!