So far, Madrid has been amazing. The first things I noticed were just how clean and walkable it was everywhere! These past few weeks have been amazing because everything is within 10 minutes walking distance from our apartment. I love that I can use public transport, go on walks at any time of the day and there are tons of people everywhere! I’m already loving it here and am so excited to see all the adventures I get up to during my six months abroad.
We landed in Madrid on January 6th, which is a major holiday in Spain called Dia de Reyes. While we were excited to see the festivities and decorations, this also meant that every big store was closed in the city- leading us to wander around the city from store to store hoping to find a place that sold bedsheets and pillows so we didn’t have to sleep on bare mattresses that night! Thankfully, we were able to find this small general store that had exactly what we needed, along with many random things including a lot of imported Asian goods! Quite an interesting start to the semester.
I spent a couple days in Madrid setting up the apartment, exploring the city and getting used to the environment. A friend studying in Prague flew in to hang out, and together with two other Aggies studying in Madrid, the four of us went on to backpack around Italy for a couple weeks. After that, I spent the week back in Madrid getting ready for school.
While there are many similarities between Europe and the US, there are also many key differences, most of which I have come to love! Especially in Spain, people tend to eat later and stay up longer. It’s not uncommon to go outside at two or three in the morning and see tons of people still out and about, with tons of restaurants and tapas bars open! I also noticed how much more environmentally friendly places in Europe are, with recycling everywhere and almost no plastic bags, which I loved!
In terms of school, the structure is a little different as well. In Spain, most of our classes don’t have weekly assignments and homework like in the US. We have one or two exams usually that make up the majority of the grade for the class. This means outside of class, most of your time is spent studying for those exams rather than working on homework and projects, which I actually really like! I’m sure it might get more stressful when finals season comes around, though.
Overall, I’ve absolutely loved my first few weeks in Europe. It has been such an amazing and exciting time of my life, and I’m so excited to continue exploring Spanish culture and getting to travel around Europe during the weekends!