I can’t believe that I’ve finally arrived in Madrid!\u00a0 After befriending a native from the city on my flight and riding my first metro to get from the airport to my host family, I am shocked by how detailed, bright, and clean all of the high rise buildings are.\u00a0 Since I’ve only associated “cities” with the concrete skylines of the United States, I am shocked to see a completely different take on city life.\u00a0 Though the streets are brimming, public pace is extremely slow compared to my home.\u00a0 I soon realized that this is because Spaniards spend their free time outside of the home, unlike Americans who host parties in their own living spaces (which is not common here at all).\u00a0 Though I would assume a late dinner is the result of a hectic day with not enough time to cook, my family’s evening meal at 8:00 is considered extremely early for Spaniards, who eat their main meal around 3:00 in the afternoon.\u00a0 The social schedules and norms are surprisingly different from what I’m used to, even though Spain and the US both share western culture.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, my arrival in Spain has humbled me more than I expected it to.\u00a0 Since I’ve only traveled for leisure and not for learning, I’ve been challenged here in Madrid in ways that I didn’t expect that have made me aware of how very narrow my idea of “society” and what it’s constructed of has been my whole life.\u00a0 For instance, I spent a full minute standing in front of an elevator with my suitcase, waiting for the manual door to open for me since that’s how they operate in the States.\u00a0 To anyone passing by, I looked like a total “tonta”, or idiot, plugging up the stairwell… but in reality, it is only through allowing myself to be humbled by my lack of knowledge regarding these small nuances that I will be able to grow in adaptability during my two month stay here in Spain.<\/p>\n
I have made great friends my first week at Nebrija University, and even visited the nearby town of Toledo, which is the capital city of the providence “Castilla la Mancha”, the home of the incredibly popular fictional character Don Quijote.\u00a0 This book has been immortalized as more central to Spanish culture than Shakespeare is to the English, its pages and images adorning metro walls and shop windows alike.\u00a0 I was shocked at the contrast between the antiquity of the cobblestone streets and iron smelting shops of toledo with the modernity of Madrid, making me realize the history present in the country that I lack exposure to in the US.\u00a0 As and American Studies major, I am amazed at the depth of the country’s timeline that is simply not present in our 250 year old nation, and am ecstatic to continue exploring it.<\/p>\n
There’s so much I have left to learn.\u00a0 Just today, I spent an extra thirty minutes on the metro because I got on the train going the wrong way, and ended up completely outside of the city by a river (that I made a mental note to run by later).\u00a0 Overall, it has been in these moments of complete confusion that I have stumbled upon my favorite parts of the country… whether it was finding my favorite open-window caf\u00e9 after painting a nearby fountain after school with friends from class, stumbling upon a rose garden and horseback policeman during a run in Parque del Retiro, eating an actual hot-waffle strachiatella ice cream cone with raspberry jam on a street curb in Toledo, or sipping on my first cup of gazpacho walking through the indoor\/outdoor flea market called “mercado de motores” because of the locations history as a Madrid train station.\u00a0 The more I make steps outside of my comfort zone, the more rewards I receive as I open myself up to being humbled and forming new friendships in the home of my favorite language.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I can’t believe that I’ve finally arrived in Madrid!\u00a0 After befriending a native from the city on my flight and riding my first metro to get from the airport to my host family, I am shocked by how detailed, bright, and clean all of the high rise buildings are.\u00a0 Since I’ve only associated “cities” with … Continue reading Arrival in Madrid<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3398,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63994],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spain","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}