Tan mucho hacer, tan poco tiempo

Well, life has improved for me greatly since I arrived in Madrid on the 8th. My bag finally arrived, albeit 5 days late, school started on the 12th, and I am getting along great with my roommate Carlos, my host mother Isabel, and all my new friends from CSU and the other American universities. After going out a few times I am starting to get to know a few other people here as well, which is also very cool.

I am taking 5 classes at the University of Alcala, although my first class has been canceled due to myself and a girl from Auburn University being the only students who attended it on Monday. My other classes here are as follows: Cervantes and his Works, Civilization and Culture in the Hispanic World, Translation, and Phonetics. I like all of my professors so far, and it seems like each class will have some really interesting subject matter for me to learn about. Que bueno!

I am meeting new people every day and starting to get to know others better as friends. It really helps having a roommate to plan events with and talk about our experiences. We are trying to refrain from speaking too much english with one another, and we rarely do around our host mother. He and I are quickly becoming the center of our group of friends as far as planning and socializing go, in part due to our proximity to the university, plaza, and main pedestrian street here in Alcala. And while I'm on the subject I'll take some time to explain exactly what life is like here for me.

I live in a second-story apartment with another student from CSU, Carlos Escudero, and a host mother, Isabel Garces (with an accent on the E, this blog program doesn't do accents and I'm too lazy to go back through and cut and paste each one). He is a 20-year-old spanish major from Texas, and he moved to Fort Collins for school. His father, stepmom, and two half-brothers live here in Spain outside of Madrid, and I had the pleasure of meeting all of them last weekend when we took an excursion to the city. Isabel is a grandmother whose children and grandchildren live here in Alcala and Madrid. I haven't met them yet but she has many pictures and has told Carlos and I a lot about them and they sound very nice. The apartment is in the old city center, and so is very antique-y but in a good way. Most of the flooring is tile, and there is some cool tile and woodworking on the walls and ceiling as well. My room is actually pretty big compared to what other students have said, and Carlos and I share a bathroom. A maid comes twice a week to clean because Isabel has some problems with her back, but she cooks three meals a day for us and does our laundry once a week. She is the nicest lady, very patient, kind, and quite an amazing cook. Really Carlos and I could not have asked for a better situation, and in comparison to what other students have told us we really lucked out.

Our apartment is really very close to just about everything we need here. It is only a 7-minute walk to our classes at the university, a 5-minute walk to the Plaza de Cervantes, a 12-minute walk to the train station that goes to Madrid, and no more than a 5-minute walk to any of the bars and cafes we have been to so far, depending on which one we go out to. This is in comparison to some people who have to either take a bus to get to the plaza and surrounding area, or walk for up to half an hour. Fortunately, except for the teenage wanna-be spanish gangstas (I came up with a new word for them: spangstas), the city is very safe to walk around in, even at night.

We went out a couple times last weekend, and our favorite bars are the Continental, Casa Roja, the Music Bar, and the Can-Can. And when I say "bar", it has a little bit of a different significance here than in America. Most bars in Spain are more like pubs, as they all serve food, and are also places to come out and socialize and have a coffee or other non-alcoholic drink. The cool thing about Alcala is that it is like Granada with respect to the tapas culture. If you order a drink, you automatically get tapas with it for free, and each bar specializes in a different style of tapas. This is really handy for between meals, as the tapas generally are not huge portions but make for a tasty snack. The only bar that is not like that as much is the Can-Can, which is more like a club atmosphere (una discoteca). We have only been there once, but ended up staying out and dancing until it closed at 6 AM. Yeah, crazy, but also very fun and different. We are starting to make friends with the bartenders at the Music Bar too, and they even came out to Can-Can with us after they shut down at 2 AM. I think the reason there is a bar culture such as this here is that people don't really go to each other's houses to hang out very much at all, so if you want to see people you have to find a meeting place. And with the weather being what it has been here lately, going out for a stroll is not a comfortable option. Speaking of which...

It snowed a little more today, which once again slowed down business and traffic in the surrounding area. It has also stayed very cold here, which has kept all the sidewalks very icy and an adventure to walk on. No one owns snow shovels because it really never snows here (except for in the last week). There were guys with pickaxes clearing the ice from the steps of the university when I went to class yesterday. In any case, Isabel gave Carlos and I matching scarves to wear today, which was really cool (or warm rather). I am going to buy a scarf here when we go shopping tomorrow, it really helps, especially with the wind. Not to mention scarves are all the rage here right now, with about 75% of people wearing them when it is cold.

There are a lot of things I'm still getting used to, especially the prices of things, although taxes are included in the prices and tips are almost unheard of, which is nice. I am walking around a lot, and trying to take pictures when I can, although I still haven't brought out my DSLR camera much yet, partially due to the weather. I am getting used to my phone, and I did purchase an international phone card, so I will be making some phone calls today and the next few days to reconnect with people. If you would like me to call please email me (chimichanga18@yahoo.com) with your phone number. My phone from the states has died and I somehow spaced packing my charger, so I have no access to the phone numbers in it as of right now. Also, if you would like a postcard or a letter, include your address as well. I would like to call and write to people, but was in too much disarray before coming here to have the foresight to get all of this information from everyone. I will be updating this blog with pictures and more info fairly frequently from here on out, so feel free to "follow" it (the option at the top of the page) if you are curious to keep up with me and my spanish adventures. Until next time,

shantron5000