Saying goodbye to Madrid

Hello blog readers,
Today it is the 31st of January. I will write my last blog while I am back in the Netherlands. Last Time I wrote about my first exams. That Tuesday I decide to not make the exam of genesis of the modern firm. I thought that this course would be an mission impossible and the day after we had the exam of organizational economics.

Wednesday at 17.00h we would have the exam, instead of 17.00h we finally started at 17.45 due to a lack of organization. ( how funny when you come to make an exam for organizational economics.)
We first took our place In the rooms 10.2.07 and 10.2.08. On the aula global site you could find these rooms but once we all had our place we had to go out and were divided by the teacher, all the candidates got called name by name to took place at your own seat. I had my seat in the first row what was so annoying because there was a lot of noise in the hall and I couldn’t read the questions very well. Also the teacher came 3 times in the class to change his questions of the exam because otherwise the answers would be wrong. The exam was very hard and since you got minus points for answering wrong I didn’t answered 4 questions. After the exam I thought it was nice to have a little break at the 100 monteditos with Jasper where we had French fries a salad with salmon and a drink for just 4 euros.

exams

Hello,

It is now the 9th of January, I just finished my second exam, Operations management. I thought it was quite easy. 30 multiple choise questions which were provided before and 4 open question which were also easy.

Back to Holland and back to Madrid

It is Thurday night , the 22nd/23th of December, 2 am. I made some bread and walked with Jasper to the bus at O’donnel. This is just 2 kilometres from our apartment but with a suitcase missing one wheel this was a terrible walk. I didn’t care and was only thinking about seeing my dog again. From O ‘donnel I took the bus to the Airport. We were of course far to early , as we arrived at 4 o clock and our plane would leave at 6.45 am. I still don’t know how I amused myself but at 6.30 we could go in the plane and because of the ice on the wings of the plane we had a delay of half an hour. Nevertheless we arrived 15 minutes earlier as planned. I took the train to Helmond to pick up my dog. As a surprise my dad came to the train station with my dog I missed so much. Then I took the train to Tilburg, the dad of Jasper picked us up from the station and made a very nice Dutch lunch for us. After I had to go to the doctor. My stomach couldn’t handle the Spanish food. That night we had a very nice dinner with the whole family of Jasper. I was very nice to tell them about our experience.

Last days before christmas.

It is Friday the 16th of December. We were just back from Porto, in one week we will go back to the Netherlands for Christmas. Tuesday we will have our first final exam and I still have to start learning so today I start thinking about how I would do that. The teacher didn’t post the slides online and we didn’t bought the book. He posted some study questions online so I started to answer those questions to learn the exam a bit.

Porto

Monday we had our last classes of strategic management and organisational economics. I was really sick so didn’t went to class. Jasper , went and came back with really bad news, the teacher of organisation economics had the great idea to give another test in the last class on Thursday but then we are in Porto so we will get a zero. The teacher wouldn’t make an exception for us and so we couldn’t make it on another day. So frustrating because all my effort in this course to get really high grades was worth nothing now. This zero will lower my average grade very badly.

Sinterklaas was in Madrid

Its Sunday the 4th of December, As I told you in my last blog we go out for dinner tonight.
We went again to Vivares 37, I love the food there and it isn’t really expensive.

Monday we celebrated Sinterklaas with our exchange friends, one of our friend went back home last weekend to her parents and brought us some ribbons with the head of Sinterklaas and Zwarte piet. We all brought three little presents, I brought a little Christmas tree and red balls for in the three and a cute frog with a clip for photos.

Party time

Hello guys,

It is already Monday, we had to make a case for strategic again. After this we just have 2 to make. Luckily I thought I didn’t do it that bad :) after our classes we went for the last day with the parents of Jasper to see some more things. We went to the new part of Madrid. We had a nice lunch and after we went to palacio de cristal where seemed to be a bohemia garden. Unfortunately this one was closed on Monday so we went to the apartment of Jaspers parents to have a nice drink and talk a bit more. That night we had a good bye dinner at vivares 37. Also this is a very nice restaurant where you can get very nice 3 course menus. For 12,90 you get bread , wine, and a menu. I took the salad with salmon and asperses. After I had a nice fish with fries and as a dessert an tart of the house. After a nice last walk around the city alongside the chic hotels we had to say goodbye.

parents of Jasper

After a weekend with seeing some movies, and Dutch television which we always download here I relaxed a bit. The teacher of organisational economics told us that our presentation was moved to Thursday instead of Monday so we would only have the second part of the review test.

It was already Monday the 21st of November, because the teacher talked again too long and we had also 2 presentations, so the second part of the review test was again moved. A bit annoying since now I have to learn it for the third time and I was already so nervous for it.

time flies

A beautiful purple sky, view from my room.


It is already the 17th of November. Time really flies, it is rainy in Madrid but still not very cold compared to the Netherlands. However the Madrilène people seems to think different.
All the dogs here are dressed up in a nice suites to protect them for the 16 degrees. It’s very hilarious to see and I was almost doubting about buying a suite for my dog as well but I think he wouldn’t like it that much.

seville

Every Monday morning again I have troubles to get out of my bed. We have from Monday till Thursday classes at nine which means we have to wake up at 7. When I compare this to my schedule in the Netherlands it’s a lot more structured. After classes and another case evaluation with our teacher Jasper and I thought it was maybe time to spoil ourselves a bit so we went to Lateral, a very good tapas restaurant. We took some meatballs with a delicious sauce and croquettes de gambas. Also we had vegetables in tempura and bread with tomato sauce and codfish filet. It was very cosy and it encouraged me again.

halloween

Hello people, here I am again with my weekly blog.
It’s already Halloween, a party they actually celebrate here and we got a day of for it. I went whit Jasper to the 100 monteditos to have a nice lunch. It was very hot again today and it could be maybe the last real hot day. Wearing a t-shirt drinking a Kas-limon and eating a delicious little bread with smoked salmon and scrimps with the sun in my face I felt myself really lucky! That night we went out for dinner with our Spanish friends and also our Russian friend came with us. We went to bocadillo de calamaris where we got a bread for 2,70 with calamaris. We went to La Latina a nice neighbourhood of Madrid were we bought a drink from the chino sellers which you can find everywhere. After we went to our apartment were also some other Spanish friends came so we were with a big group. It was such a very very nice evening! They learned me the Spanish and Latin-America dances. They also told us a lot about Spain and their youth. One friend of mine has a seconds house in Benidorm and invited us to go with him there for a weekend which will be so excited. Also his dad has his own hotel and every year he gives a big party there and he invited us for that party as well. Our Spanish friends are really so, so nice!

my parents are here

Hello everybody, last time I told you my best friend was here. I will continue my blog from here. Sunday we ate our lunch in a very nice bar, its called 100 monteditos. If you are once in Madrid you have to go here for sure. For just 1 euro you can get a little bread. This ones are really small, more like a tapas with for example smoked salmon and tortilla. Next you can get a pull with 0,5 litre of beer for just 1 euro or some soda. We had a nice lunch there and it is always crowed.

Spanish Culture

After two months living in Madrid I will tell you something about my experiences with the Spanish culture. The first weeks on University were hard for me. Unlike in the Netherlands the difference between teacher and students is much bigger. For example when you are quite sure the teacher is making a mistake and you try to tell him he can become very grumpy.
In the Netherlands we are used to have your own opinion here it is better to follow the opinion of your teacher.

When Spanish people give an answer on a teacher’s question the will always start their answer with ; Maybe … because you cannot be as sure of your answer as the teacher. One day the average grade of an exam was around 2 or 3 , the teacher asked us how it could be possible that nobody understood the exam. I told him that the questions were a bit unclear so I did not understand what he was asking for. The whole group of Spanish people looked at me in shock because they thought I was very rude by telling him what I was really thinking. However after me some Spanish people were carefully supporting me by admitting my point.

Holland in da house

Hello blog readers,

Last weekend I went to Valencia, we came home at 01.30 so the Monday after I couldn’t go out of my bed. I made my homework for that week and rest a bit in the morning. Jasper went to the airport to pick up Xander a friend of him who I know as well. That night they came eating with me so I made some delicious tapas.

Tuesday we had classes and Xander came for dinner again. Wednesday we always have one class. That night we went to the parque de la Montana with our friends to have dinner end enjoy the sunset. It was a very nice evening. I still like the fact that so many people hang out in the parks at night. People from the age of 8 who belong in bed in the Netherlands at 21.00 pm and also a lot of people from the age of 80 who are outside the whole day long, while in the Netherlands a lot of them hang out inside their houses. It is so cute to see an old couple in the metro who help each other to go in. I guess people live longer because they are so often outside. I think I am going to miss my dinners in the parks when I am back in the Netherlands.

I feel home

Hello blog readers,

More and more I get the feeling that Madrid is my home now. My Spanish get better and better and we met some Spanish friends from Carlos III. Also I already used the Spanish Marktplaats which is called Segundomano.es.

Monday and Tuesday we had classes. More and more I see the advantages of this school system. Since we have to do homework and really discuss this exercises, and we also have review tests I guess that I will have a real Christmas holiday instead of Christmas-preparing-weeks-for-the-exams which I normally have in Tilburg. Also it is really easy to prepare these review test since they are about just three weeks of lectures so the exams will be more relax when you know that 40 % of your grade is about an 8.

my subjects

Hello blog readers,
If you are thinking about going to Carlos III next year I first want to tell you something about my first experiences about my subjects. Take into account that I am a fiscal economics student and not a Business administration one and that for me a subject is quickly a bit boring.

I start my week with strategic management. This course is really nice, I like the topics very much. The only problem that I have with this is that the teacher is not really clear in what we have to prepare for next class but when you come in class and we are going to discuss an article he always summerisas the articles because nobody knew that they have to read it at home. The discussion about the articles are always quite interesting.

my life in spain

18-9-2011

Every day I see them again. Blue skirts, Scottish diamonds, white polo’s and so on ; kids in school uniform. So cute to see. Not only kids from primary school but also high school kids.

Saturday the 10th I stayed at home to make homework even though it was 35 degrees outside and I were not really in the mood.

Sunday Jasper and I went to the finish of the Vuelta, the Spanish ‘Tour de France’. It was nice to see this, especially because we stood at the first raw and could see everything very well.
We also met two American travellers who were really nice! They gave us some tips for going to America. Jasper caught a bidon from one of the racers and I made some very good pictures.

First classes at Uc3m.

Hello blogreaders,

Monday was my first day at Carlos III. I already found out a faster way to get there what is always nice to know when you have 4 days of classes at 9 am. My first class was Strategic Management. The new professors were as good informed as we were. ( Not really good ) so he didn’t manage to get the slides on the screen. He had to wrote down everything on the blackboard. His accent is really fun, but I won’t complain , this was one of the first people who actually speaks English in Spain so that was nice. The second class we had to watch a youtube movie about Enron.( I think we could do this also at home and better he told us a bit more about Enron himself) I have to get used to this school system, we have to make a lot of assignments, case studies and so on and they want you to be in class. In Tilburg I just follow some of my courses but some of them are so much easier to be studied at home and for these subjects I never go to classes. Because there are at max 30 people in the classroom you have to participate active and you can’t just sitting in your chair, enjoy a cup of coffee and a nice slice of bread. However I don’t like homework, I do like the fact that classes are just one hour, you got case studies out from the real life what makes it more fun and you can better imagine what the subject is really about. In Tilburg I sometimes really don’t. Also the rapidity of the classes is much slower than at Tilburg.

new people

Hey hey, here I am again.
We are doing so much every day so I will keep you up to date.

Tuesday we went to the new 'parque rio'. It is designed by some Dutch student from Maastricht. It is a very beautiful park. we went to the playa area. We rented 2 beach chairs and a parasol for just 3 euros and made it a really relax day. There was a water playground really nice to cool down a bit and for having so much fun! Unfortunately we forgot to protect ourselves and burned so much.

The adventures of Kelly in Madrid part 2.

It is now one week ago that we arrived in Madrid. We get more and more used to the Spanish way of life. “tjilp tjilp tjilp” this is a traffic light in Madrid. Instead of a woodpecker noise in like in the Netherlands “trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” they prefer a sparrow over here.
As we learned at Tilburg University in the Spanish classes that we have to say “hasta luego” when you say goodbye, people in Madrid say something like “hasta logo”.
When they ask you “que tal” they don’t really want to know how you are going but just ask it out of honesty and the only thing you have to say is “que tal” back to them.