My third week in Spain

¡Hola a todos!

This time I will share with you my experiences of my third week in Spain, the moment that my classes started.

This third week was so nice, I thought it could only get worse afterwards, but by now I know that this is just how my weeks look like here on exchange! Let’s give you a chronological description, while leaving the study-related things for the next paragraph. During the weekend I enjoyed some drinks on a terrace together with two other girls on Plaza Mayor. It was very nice, the parasols even sprayed a little water, which was really refreshing. Afterwards, we visited Mercado San Miguel. On Saturday night we went to the cinema. The movie was awful, but we had great fun! On Sunday we visited El Rastro, one of the biggest markets of Spain. I bought a nice poster there, to decorate my room with. When I was almost back home, I came across something really fun! I just had to cross the Gran Vía, but….that was not possible! The last stage of the Vuelta a España was there! I am a real fan of sports, so this was a nice surprise for me. As you can understand, I had a good afternoon ;) From Monday till Friday I had to follow some lectures of course, but besides that I also went to the gym a few times, I ate delicious yoghurt ice creams with my flatmates, I met three new flatmates, I ate tapas, I went to an Erasmus party, etc. 

So, what about studying? On Monday, studying started for real. For the first time, I followed a course in which Spanish was the working language. Before the class started, some Mexican girls told me that even they had troubles following the courses, because the professors spoke so fast (while in Mexico the official language IS Spanish!). Therefore, I doubted whether I could manage to follow this course, but at the same time it was challenging me! It appeared that I understood around 50%, with which I was quite satisfied for a first time. On the one hand, I think it is good that I understood already half of it, because I only studied Spanish for one year. On the other hand, when you do not understand half of what is said, it is hard to follow the course haha! Of course I had to change my study plan a little bit, because some courses I initially chose had overlap, others were full… Eventually, I am doing 7 courses now: Innovation and technology management, Information management (both long-distance at Tilburg University), Marketing research, Business negotiations, Human resources management, Gestión de la distribución (= Distribution management) and a Spanish language course.

This week’s photo shows you Cibeles Palace, one of the most prominent buildings at the Plaza de Cibeles. It was built in 1909 as the headquarters of the postal service. Imagine, such a great building, just for the ‘postal service’!! I think it is very special to build such a enormous, beautiful building for this purpose. Futhermore, it is just one of my favorite buildings here in Madrid, on a walking distance of only 5 minutes from my room!

The anecdote of today is about a ‘ informal cultural difference’, let’s describe it like this ;) Since I am here in Spain, I really feel like trying new things, getting to know new people, etc. One night, I went out to Club Joy, one of the most famous (and expensive) clubs in Madrid. A drink usually costs 10 Euros or more in this place. But this night was organized for Erasmus students, and therefore you got a free drink when you came in. I felt like trying something new, so therefore I told the bartender to surprise me with a drink, as long as it was sweet it would be fine. The bartender was not used to this, I could see it from his face. While in the Netherlands, I think this is not a strange question… Eventually, he gave me pineapple juice! Actually I was expecting an alcoholic drink, but indeed, I did not specifically ask for this. So yes, he did it right, he gave me a ‘sweet’ drink!

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog!