Day one

El Palacio Real. This is what we see out of our window and is pretty much in our back yard. I'm a lucky girl!

 

Maggie and I with the headless street performer who made me wear his hat

Yesterday was my first full day in Madrid. We woke up, got ready, and made our blind trek to school using the metro system. Comes to find out, the metro is really easy to use, once you learn what all the signs mean, and where your stop is. Another important tip: escalators. In the metro station, escalators have two lanes. If you're on the right side, just stand there and ride. If you're on the left, you sure as hell better be moving. We made it to the right stop and then after asking a nun on the street if she knew where SLU was, we wandered around until we found the right building and made it to orientation fashionably late, of course.

Orientation was really boring, and doesn't deserve more than a sentence in this blog.

Plaza de Isabel II
Our closest metro stop: about a 1 minute walk!

After orientation, we got a tour of campus and the surrounding area. Though I have a 30 minute commute to school, I am so happy that I live in the area I do. Our apartment, as I mentioned, is right by the Palacio and Sol, the shopping/entertainment/restaurant/going out area, while SLU is a bit further from the center of the city.

My first legal drink!

When we got back from school, Maggie and I put on our sneakers and took a walk around to go exploring our neighborhood. I took some pictures which I'll be sure to put up soon. It was an awesome afternoon and everything is so pretty. We went for a very long walk (I guess now would be a time for the saying "not all who wander are lost", even though I'm pretty sure we were) and I've come to a few conclusions about spain. 1: All the cars are tiny. 2: There aren't really that many cars, and therefore everyone is skinny. I kid you not, there are no fat people. 3: Even if we did know the streets or route home, it wouldn't have mattered because most of the streets don't have street signs...at all. 4: When in doubt, stop at a hole-in-the-wall tapas bar for sangria. So tasty.

I really liked this picture,
such a contrast from the majestic old buildings

After our "water break" we continued wandering around and eventually found our way back through the Plaza Mayor, through Sol, and back to Opera (Where we live).

Before dinner, my roommates and I just sat around planning trips and places we want to see while we're here. We counted, and have exactly 15 weekends this semester...our list of "places to see" was at 20. I don't think time or my bank account will allow all that to happen. I think today we're going to try and cut the list down a bit to something more manageable.

The walk-up burger king, of course!

For dinner, we had fish (don't remember the name), potatoes, peas, and something that looked like cranberry sauce which I later found out was beets or something else that was not very good. Now, people who know me know that I despise seafood and have never eaten a full meal of fish. Though I'm not moving to Maine to live by the sea and open up a gumbo restaurant, it didn't suck! Also, for the record, it doesn't taste like chicken..at all.

El Mercado de San Miguel
Lots of yummy tapas and wine!

After dinner we decided to spend our first night out on the town. I looked at the night as sort of a trial run, not really knowing what to expect. We went to Dubliner's a very typical "slum" (slu madrid for short) location. Why everyone wanted to go to an Americanized Irish pub our first night in Spain is beyond me, but I guess you could look at the Dubliner as Laclede's: European edition. We stayed there for a while and then decided to move on to bigger and better things..translating for my friends, we got passes for free entry and a drink at a discoteca called the palace. In silly American fashion, we entered the disctoeca at 1 am, far too early on a Monday night for anything to be happening, apparently, took advantage of our free drink, and went home. Though this night in particular wasn't anything mindblowing, it did show promise for the rest of the semester! I'm just going to have to ditch my old lady ways of going to bed at 10 in order to keep up.

My roommates and I at the local Spanish (Irish) pub

This morning, I woke up much earlier than everyone else...I think I've been up for about 3 hours while my roommates are dead to the world; they're still breathing, I checked. I was about to go for a run but without a functioning cell phone at the moment, I should probably wait to run around a city alone (That's for you Mom) just to be extra safe. I suppose I had better wake these girls up so we can go to school and get books, school supplies, and our monthly metro passes--it's noon for goodness sake! I guess it's a good thing the second day of orientation is considered optional...


¡Hasta Luego!