Nebrija y Comida

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were quite eventful. Lots of school, food, and friends.

ISA Office Building

On Tuesday, we had orientation and placement exams for the first month of intensive spanish classes at my university, Antonio de Nebrija. The school is very small and all the classes are in one building, but it is very nice. After the placement exam, all of the ISA students in my program got to know each other better and went to the ISA office in central Madrid, where we had a few more hours of orientations. It was a very long day of tests and information being thrown at us, but it was nice to get to know the others in the program better.

Nebrija

Nebrija is about 45 minutes away from my homestay door to door. We have to get up pretty early and take three different lines on the metro then walk about half a mile, but it's a very easy commute. I'm starting to really get a hang of the metro system and I'm excited about how easy it is to go anywhere in Madrid!

After a much needed siesta and cena, my roommate and I decided it was about time that we tried Chocolate con Churros. Within maybe 20 minutes of where we live is the most popular place for this, Chocolatería San Ginés, so we met a couple people from our program there for the most delicious dessert ever. The place reminded me a lot of Cafe Du Monde's beignets in NOLA. Next we decided to wander around Madrid for some vino, and found a cute little hole in the wall place that served pan con pollo with any glass of wine. Apparently in Spain, and maybe all of Europe, whenever alcohol is served it must be served with some food, so the bread and chicken spread was free of charge.

Tyler, Casey, and Sheldon

Chocolate con Churros!

Wednesday was the first official day of classes for the intensive month. I was placed into the intermediate level with a class of 8 students. Here, instead of the students moving from classroom to classroom, we stay in place all day and the profesoras come to us. We have the same group of students for all of our classes this month since we don't have an option in which classes we take based on our level, so it's interesting being with the same 8 people four and a half hours every day. I haven't quite figured out the differences between the three classes we're taking, but we only have two profesoras between them. It is all in Spanish and at first it was a little hard to follow, but after a couple hours I got it. The teachers are very animated in explaining concepts and the classes are very entertaining.

Since we didn't have a very early start to our day Wednesday, Casey (roommate) and I were full of energy and ready to further explore Madrid. We met up with more ISA students and went shopping along the streets for some good rebajas. All over the place there are tiny shops with really pretty scarves in the street, so I got one for only 5 euros. Some places have them as cheap as 3 euros, so I'm sure I'll be buying more! Next we went to Mercado de San Miguel, which is basically a little marketplace where people can buy tapas, frutas, y dulces. I went straight to the baked goods and sampled a pionono, which is a common sweet in Argentina with dulce de leche. My host parents are from Argentina, so Marina was surprised when I was telling her about the pionono here in Madrid.

Dulces!

Our last adventure of the day was to Cien Monteditos. 100 Monteditos is a Cervecería that has beer and bocadillos for 1 euro more or less each, so naturally Casey and I each got bocadillos con jamón and chips, and a beer for only 2 euros! It was really good and cheap so we're already planning on going back soon.

Small sandwich, big beer

Tonight Marina y Carlos are taking Casey y yo to an Argentinian restaurant for dinner, I can't wait!