Life Lessons with Sam

To start things off, I want to share with you all a very important lesson Spain has already taught me in the few days that I have been here with a brief(ish) story:

In Europe, there is a pretty impressive train system that uses a combination of regular railways and high speed trains that can essentially get you to any city you want. This rocks for study abroad, but for people that don't live in Spain, you have to go to the train station ahead of time and reserve a spot for the train of your choice. So... imagine yourself walking down the street in a new country, walking into an airport sized train-station, and into a big room that looks and feels almost identical to a DMV. Like walk in, grab a ticket number from a small kiosk, sit and watch a TV screen that directs you to a counter, and talk to someone who isn't particularly thrilled to be helping a helpless person right before closing time type of DMV.... And then try to do it completely in a language that you are trying to learn.

So I wait for an hour and a half right? And I walk up to the counter and ask the woman a question, she directs me to an entirely different office on the other side of the train station, where I am redirected to a different office, where I am eventually directed back to the first DMVish place. Confusing right? I felt the same way. Upon returning to the original office, I was told by a different worker that they could help me with my original question, I couldn't actually reserve my tickets because I would have get another number and wait all over again since I was out of order. And because the train station was closing shortly after, I was forced to head home empty-handed and extremely frustrated. I was pretty hangry too so that didn't help.

That being said, I got a very small glimpse at the reality of moving to a foreign country with a different language and trying to do something much harder - for example, buying a home in a foreign country. 

In my first day of class, my professor spoke about the importance of learning new things. Trying to learn something that you know nothing about (like a new language or culture) is extremely important because he said that it can “aumenta tu capacidad de comprensión entorno y aumenta tu tolerancia hacia lo desconocida” - basically, develop a higher capacity of understanding things while gaining a higher tolerence for the unknown. It's enriching and empowering to be forced to fail in order to find success. Not only do you learn to appreciate the struggle more once you overcome, but you learn to be more understanding towards the struggles others are forced to face. So while my DMV-Train Edition experience was a nightmare of a way to spend an afternoon, it's hard to describe in words how fulfilling it was to still walk away from today, having tried and even failed, but to have taken a step towards figuring this whole "living in a foreign country" thing out... and all in Spanish, que bueno.

Inside: Beautiful Railstation, Outside: DMV

You will be glad to know I have made arrangements to go to the train station again tomorrow, and amigos I assure you I won't walk away without my tickets.

(PS, Another life lesson: Don't wear brand new sandals the first day of being abroad... lots of walking = lots of blisters lol)

Real Madrid

As part of my classes abroad, we have lecture from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm, break for lunch and siesta :), and go on cultural excursions por la tarde (in the afternoon) as a class. Monday we took a tour of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium home to Real Madrid club de Fútbol. If you know who Cristiano Ronaldo is then you will recognize Real Madrid, and if you don't then look him up and you'll be glad you did.

(Sorry Coach, I joined the Fútbol team)

 (For more pics check my Photo Album)

Afterward, the Superbowl of European Fútbol started at 6:00, where I experienced my first soccer game in España. It was muy divertido (very fun) amigos.

Plaza de Cibeles

As I mentioned in my previous post, most of the buildings in Madrid are originals that have been here for centuries, including apartments, restaurants, government buildings, and even the streets you walk on. The architecture is BEAUTIFUL to walk around and look at, imagining people from the 1700s or earlier built it. That being said, today my class and I toured the Plaza de Cibeles, which historically is the communication center for Madrid. People have been able to come here for centuries to send mail, write telegraphs, and make phone calls. It is pretty famous for the glass roof that covers the courtyard because it is made up of thousands of small triangular glass panes. No two are the same shape so the roof curves like weird bubble - cool stuff. Check out some pics below: 

(featuring Flat Jessie)

It also had an incredible view from the rooftop terrace:

And for those of you who were wondering about the flag down the front of Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid has the largest Orgullo (Gay Pride) festival in Europe. I found this out later while walking down a quiet street to get ice cream, when a giant parade appeared around the corner.

ICYMI: this started today

Anyways, thanks for tuning in (sorry for the novel, but you'd be amazed how much stuff you can pack into two days if you put your mind to it).

Hasta pronto amigos!

Las Aventuras de Madrid

So I have good news for you all. Much like I expected, my fellow classmates are all very friendly people, one of which is lowkey (highkey) a very talented photographer. Kyle Woumn is his name and he has agreed to work with me on my blog so I can show you guys some really cool photos of Madrid from our perspective (plus he is a super nice guy).

Shout out to Kyle everybody

If you want to check out some of his work, he keeps a Personal Instagram as well as a Photography Instagram, and it's quality stuff if you are interested.

Rooftop Madrid

After a little siesta, myself along with some of my classmates walked over to Círculo de Bellas Artes, which is a cultural organization that has a killer rooftop view of Madrid. 

(Told you Kyle was good)

(Just a little culture blurb for you- in Spain, it is customary for everyone to break from what they are doing around 2:00pm, go eat lunch at home with their families, and then siesta (nap) so that they are refreshed to go back to school or work. I heard of this and was excited to use it as an excuse to take a nap everyday, but it's actually a real thing and there are almost no people out walking around from 2-5ish..... Spain rocks am I right?)

El Rastro y La Plaza Mayor

Every Sunday in the streets of Madrid, you can find a super popular Flea Market called El Rastro de Madrid. The streets are flooded with people and booths of everything you can think of from clothes and shoes of different styles and cultures to dolls to fresh produce. While I did manage have some self control from a spending perspective, I walked away with a beautiful Tapestry wall hanging for only 10 Euros (yasss). All in all, good shopping and great people watching in a beautiful city:

Around the corner from El Ratro after some tapas for lunch (Spanish food is unreal y'all), we got a little culture at la Plaza Mayor which is a huge square Plaza in Madrid built in the 1600s. I also learned that most buildings in Madrid are original from as early as the 1500s and many have been refurbished to give the inside a pretty modern feel.

 We start class tomorrow so stay tuned for more updates throughout the week!

(PS- All the pictures from these places will be in my Photo Album)

Thanks for tuning in amigos!

¡Bienvenidos a España!

¡Hola a todos!

After months of planning, waiting until the day of to pack, and a last minute mani/pedi date with my mom, I finally made my trek to España. For those of you who have never been on a flight overseas (don't worry I was one of you too until a few hours ago), international flights ROCK! They feed you meals constantly, so I ate free shrimp cocktail and watched free movies the entire time.

I flew out of los Estados Unidos at 5:41 pm Atlantic Coast time, watched the sun set and fell asleep until the sun rose again on the other side.

Views from seat 29A

We landed in Spain after 8 hours at about 2:00am Atlantic coast time, so 8:00am here in Madrid, Spain where I am currently experiencing jet lag (yay). But no amount of jet lag can deter from exploring a little bit outside the Residence we are staying in --and don't worry, there's a Starbucks on almost every corner around our dorms. Here's a sneak peek of Madrid:

Basically, I already love it here. Stay tuned for more, I'll be here all month... Lol

-Sam