Wandering through Segovia

At the beginning of the program, Middlebury organized a cultural day trip to Segovia, a small medieval city not too far from Madrid. It’s quite touristy, but there is an unmistakable charm to the place. 

Images from first week in Madrid 

Since my last post two months ago (oops!), I’ve settled into life in Madrid. During my first week, I explored the city with Aaron, who has since left for his study abroad adventure in Seville. During that week, we set off on foot and walked for hours until we were too tired to go on.  At this point, we would stop at a restaurant to eat dinner. While we ate at quite a few places, there are two that deserve a mention: Pez Gordo and Estado Puro. At Pez Gordo, we ate salmorejo (a cold vegetable-based soup), sauteed eggplant drizzled in honey, and stewed turkey. Everything was heavenly. Though I can’t remember what we ate at Estado Puro,  it was equally delicious. After Aaron left, my program started, and my study abroad experience officially began.  

I’ll start off by telling you about my living arrangements.  I live with a host mother whom I adore very much. She is a 47 year old therapist, works out of her apartment and is still searching for the love of her life. Initially, I had requested a host family (mother, father, children), but they are very hard to come by. I must say that I am truly happy with the way things worked out. Curiously enough, I was the only one in my program that chose to live with a host family. The other options were to live in a dormitory with other university students (not necessarily Spanish) or to live in apartments with other non-english speaking people. Almost all of students chose to find their own apartments because they felt they would have more freedom. However, their first week(s) were spent in hostels while they completed their search, which according to most, was very frustrating. Also, I don’t feel as if I have less freedom than any of the other students. I come and leave as I please and my host mom has no issues with this. Obviously, each living arrangement has its pros and con, and thus suited to different kinds of people.  For people who are very independent, living in an apartment is ideal.  You  prepare your own meals, take turns cleaning, and wash and hang your own clothes. Oh yeah, 99% of apartments in Spain don’t have dryers.  The option of living in a dormitory allows you get to know more students, but there are community bathrooms (which I am obviously not a fan of) and well all the issues that come with dorm life.  I consider myself pretty independent, but I also believed that living with a host family would provide a better cultural experience. I’m never lonely. I always have someone with whom I can eat my meals and practice Spanish.  And did I mention that I get traditional Spanish food, my room cleaned, and my clothes washed and dried?  What’s not to like?   

As for those delicious meals that my host mom prepares, some of my favorites are red peppers stuffed with cod in a delicious gravy, grilled salmon, eggs stuffed with tuna, tomatoes, and spices, stewed lamb, oxtail, yummy baked mackerel, apple, beets, and salmon salad in a homemade mayonnaise dressing, and delectable cod-fritters. She also makes this delicious cabbage dish that I cannot get enough of! I usually eat breakfast  and dinner at home. At lunch time, I am on the university campus (a 30 minute commute), so I eat lunch in a restaurant nearby. Between 1 and 4 pm (which is the Spanish lunchtime) restaurants offer a menu of the day that can range anywhere from 8 euros to 45 euros (though the norm is about 10 euros) and includes two dishes, bread, dessert, and a drink.  As you’ve probably guessed, lunch is the largest meal of the day. As for my bedroom, it’s on the small side, but it has a really large closet and a small terrace. My only complaint is my bed, which could be a tad bit longer. After visiting my friend’s apartments, I’ve concluded that small beds are the norm in Spain.  Take from that what you will.  

Now on to academics. The Middlebury school in Spain offers the option of taking all of your classes in the Middlebury headquarters with Middlebury professors and other American students or taking your classes in a Spanish university with local Spanish students. I chose the latter because I believed that it would allow for better cultural immersion. Middlebury also allows students to complete an internship for credit. Since Yale doesn’t grant credit for these internships, I take four classes at Carlos III University and one Spanish grammar class at Middlebury which is mandatory. What do I think of Carlos III? I can’t say I love it, but I don’t exactly hate it either. The Spanish university system is quite different from the American system. In Spain, students choose a major upon entering and throughout their four years, they take specific classes required to compete the major with an occasional elective thrown in. Classes are small for the most part and by the second year, the students know each other extremely well. The universities also seem a lot less organized and there are definitely fewer resources. Moreover, students don’t usually live on campus. Instead they live at home with their parents. For this reason, there isn’t that same sense of community as is the case with the majority of American universities. 

This semester, I enrolled in the following courses: Bioethics, Politics and Communication, History of Contemporary Political and Electoral Processes,  and Education for Citizenship and Human Rights. I absolutely loved Education for Citizenship and Human Rights! The professor was so passionate and engaging. Bioethics was also enjoyable. History of Contemporary Political and Electoral Processes was a hit and miss. Some days were great, others not so much. Politics and Communication started off really great and went downhill from the there. The professor was all over the place and extremely disorganized. The Middlebury grammar class, which meets once a week, has been very helpful.  Well, the semester has pretty much come to an end though we still have exams in January. Soooo annoying! How am I supposed to relax when I have to think about all of the material I need to study? Seriously, someone needs to revise the system! I’ve decided not to head back home to the Virgin Islands during winter vacation. Instead, I’ll be spending the holidays with my host mother and her family. 

As for my social integration into the university, I’ve made some Spanish friends, but one of my best friends is actually a girl from Bulgaria who moved to Spain when she was about 13. I met her at a casting and we clicked immediately.

Wow this post is getting way too long. Happy holidays everyone! 

I actually don’t have any photos of the hotels. If you would like to see them, you can visit their websites. I’ve posted the links below for you: 

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-photos/bcnbr-renaissance-barcelona-airport-hotel/

http://www.espanol.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-photos/madva-ac-hotel-los-vascos/

Those of you closely following my blog would know that I’ve been a victim of “delayed” luggage. The first few days were definitely the hardest. I felt absolutely lost without my bag and after numerous pleas to callous American Airlines representatives went ignored, I was often on the verge of tears. You might be thinking well if it’s lost, won’t they reimburse you for what the bag is worth? Well yes, but only after a minimum of 2 months. What am to do until then? Replace all of the shoes, clothes, vitamin supplements and toiletries? Maybe, but what about the pictures and timeless mementos? Irreplaceable. By the fourth week, I had given up all hope of receiving my lost bag despite being told only three weeks earlier that it was in London and would be flown to Barcelona. Whether it was coming by boat, airplane, car, or train, it wouldn’t take three weeks to get from London to Barcelona! I was sent a claims form, on which I was to record all the items that were in my suitcase. Three days later, I filed my claim against American Airlines in the amount of $4,000 and two days after that, I received a call from an AA representative informing me that my luggage had been found! I received my bags four days after the call. Did my $4,000 claim expedite the search process? I’ll never know, but I finally have my bag after more than one month! Cheers to that!

Sights of Barcelona-The End