My initial impressions of the school were in direct comparison to A&M in the sense of how the buildings looked. I think for Spanish standards it is very nice but it’s not nearly as modern as A&M. An example of this is chalkboards still being in use, and no AC in the classrooms. However overall, everything is relatively functional, and classrooms are smaller with around 60 people or more to a lecture depending on what type of class it was. The country isn’t too different for me other than the European architecture as I come from a Spanish speaking family so it’s very easy for me to understand and navigate a life speaking Spanish. The city on the other hand has its own charm and reminded me a lot of New York. Although the city doesn’t start to feel alive until about 10 am, the night goes on for a long time, and I began to understand why they called it the city that never sleeps. Living in the center of the city gives me the opportunity to see more clearly how tourism and locals interact and just a clear view of the daily timeline of all of these people. Some key differences I noticed apart from the obvious things like languages is the pace of life there. It is undoubtedly more leisurely. In Spain they have siesta time which is essentially a time period during the day where shops close for a few hours, and they go to either rest or spend some time with family and then they resume again. U.S culture is more individualistic which is something I noticed almost instantly from the connections I made with people early on such as my roommates and classmates. They are very attentive to you and value and respect you as opposed to back home which is rather unfortunate having to revert to what I perceive to be a shallower culture In the United States
