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.

Christmas

This week Kelly and I would go to Porto, how exciting!

First however some classes had to be attended. Monday was a quite normal day, except for the fact that our lovely Organizational Economics teacher announced a review test for next Thursday, one of the day we would be in Porto. That was a bit of a disappointment, but that test would only count for 4% of the final grade, so it could be worse.

Episode 10: Welcome home!

Hello all,

I can tell you I safely arrived back home! So this last blog will be about the last phase of my exchange period: returning home again.

The last days in Madrid I was thinking about what I would like to do again when I would be back in the Netherlands. Of course, I wanted to see my family and friends! I was looking forward to the ‘ordinary’ things like watching TV with my sister or having a tea with my best friend. I was also curious about seeing my home village again, because it is a very small village compared to a world city like Madrid. Furthermore, I was looking forward to taste some Dutch things, such as dark bread for example.

Of course I also thought about the fact that the chance would be quite high that I would experience reverse culture shock, since I was feeling really at ease in the Spanish culture. But what exactly would I miss from Spain? Probably the whole feeling of living on your own in the city center of this beautiful city. Furthermore, the sunny weather, the nice food and of course the many great people I have met during my exchange period.

I think it may be difficult sometimes to settle back in my old life, but on the other hand: I feel happy to be with my parents and sister again at this moment! The reason for the difficulty is probably the fact that I developed myself and I thus changed a little, while generally speaking my environment did not change at all.

5th december!

It’s the day before Sinterklaas, exciting …
To celebrate that, Kelly and I went out for dinner to Vivares 37 again, because it offers very good value for money. Three courses including bread and drinks for 13 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.

Parents gone again ...

This week were the last days that my parents were here, so I would enjoy those days very much!

Monday the 28th I first had classes, but afterwards I went to spend to afternoon with my parents. They visited the ‘new’ part of Madrid that morning, which is between Nuevos Ministerios and Chamartín.

Episode 9: December!

Hola!

I think it is time for a new blog about my life here in Madrid! While people in the Netherlands were busy with the celebration of “Sinterklaas” during the first half of December, I was not bored either. With four exams, some presentations and some final reports to do, it was a period of studying. However, I had enough time to do great things too of course! For example, the 2^nd of December I really liked: first two friends came to my place to eat paella, then we went to a party at a friend-of-a-friend’s place, after which we partied in Club Moondance. Other fun activities were: having dinner at tapas restaurant Lateral, visiting the Christmas markets, going to lounge bars, visiting the zoo of Madrid, eating ice creams at Llao Llao and watching “El Clásico” (Real Madrid – Barcelona) with flat mates.

During the second half of December, I started to realize things were coming to an end: making exams, saying goodbye to people who already went home before Christmas, and of course: Christmas and New Year’s Eve. About the exams I cannot tell a lot: I have the feeling I passed them all, but I don’t know any grades so far.

Saying goodbye is of course not the best part, but it has a positive side too. When people realize their good time in Madrid is almost over, they start to enjoy even more, and I join them! That’s why we: ordered that too big ice-cream at Llao Llao, organized a last Mexican dinner with our “Club of 6”, went to Starbucks more often, had a great Christmas dinner with my team, had a nice birthday party, went to different Christmas markets and partied once again all together at Star Studio. However, one of the most beautiful experiences was the “Inauguración de Navidad”: an amazing light- and firework show on the Palacio de Cibeles (see foto). It might sound strange, but it felt like a symbolic end of our Erasmus time!

And then, finally, I was together with my family again! My parents and sister visited me during Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which I enjoyed a lot!!! Of course I showed them the hotspots, but very ‘usual’ things too, like my room and how I walk to the supermarket. I saw new things too since we went inside the Palacio Real, El Escorial (a big monastery) and the stadium of Atlético Madrid. Furthermore, we celebrated New Year’s Eve like real Spaniards. The idea is that at 12 o’clock you eat a grape on each clock stroke, because that will bring you luck. We tried our best: we have eaten 12 grapes at 12 o’clock, near Puerta del Sol, and drank champagne. Okay, that we were not sure whether it was 12 o’clock, that one of the grapes fell in my jacket (of course I have eaten this one too), and that we used some more time than was allowed: I don’t care. It was an unforgettable moment and we enjoyed it a lot. That’s what it is all about!

Well, the upcoming 11 days are my last days in Madrid. I will do a lot of things for the last time. I will have 2 new flat mates too and I need to write some papers etc. Again, I will not be bored. Oh, and Epiphany is a big celebration here in Madrid, so I will check that out too of course!

Dear readers, my next and last blog will follow in a week or so!

Adios!

¡Mis padres!

Already the 21st of November: time flies when you are having fun. This is the week that my parents are visiting me, yay! This means that I have to be tour guide (again!), but for my parents it is nice to see all the places you have been bragging about the last couple months. First however, some school work has to be finished and some classes have to be attended.

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.

November in Spain

Hello!

As promised, this blog will be about my exchange life during November!

First of all, I need to update you regarding my football team: we won for the first time! Next to that, we played an international tournament with other university teams in Valencia, which was a great experience. It was a combination of several things I like: football, fun, a lot of international people and a lot of Spanish to practice. Since the days lasted really long (they started early to play football and ended late since we went out) I practiced my Spanish approximately 18 hours a day. The bad thing is that I got injured the day after the tournament…

November was also great in terms of visitors: I got visitors two times this month! First, one of my best friends came with her dad to see the match Real Madrid – Osasuna. They stayed for a few days and we had a lot of fun. Two weeks later, two other friends came to see me, which was great too.

Now I will to tell you two anecdotes to illustrate how I perceive Spain now and then. I often hear myself saying “that’s typical Spanish” after which I always have to laugh, because I enjoy the unexpectedness of some events here. First, I went to a football training (before I got injured) to find out that the door was locked. I was the only one there, and started to doubt whether there was a training. Fortunately, my trainer and a team mate came too. We decided to wait, since it is quite normal in Spain that someone comes half an hour after the time you had a meeting, so it could be that the “man with the keys” would come late. Then, while waiting there, another girls football team arrived. They told us they had to play against Comillas (us!). We said that match was planned for two days later, but they did not believe us. The man with the keys came, and the other team just got into the building ready to play a match. Our trainer did not pay attention to this, and started the training with us as usual. After many phone calls, the trainer said we had to play a match! Without proper clothing or referees, we played the match eventually… Typical Spanish! Another Spanish experience was going to the hairdresser. Here in Spain, it is very normal to put a price list and promotions outside the shop. One day I saw a nice promotional action: cutting, a special shampoo treatment and a special conditioner treatment for only 10 Euros! So I was dreaming the whole day of a nice hair massage, but when I finally sat in the chair ready to receive this nice treatments, it was horrible! It was so quick and it even hurt me! Typical Spanish? ;)

I think you are pretty much updated now, although I have to mention some other nice things I did to conclude: I found two lounge bars which have become my favorites (“Olé Lola” and “Areia”), I went shopping two times in one week, I cooked “hutspot” for some international friends and I had a drink with a girl I knew from my trip to Morocco.

In short, I enjoyed November a lot! Adios!

Seville!

Hola gente! This week something quite exciting is about to happen: I will visit Seville! First however, some classes had to be attended and some homework has to be made.

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.

Halloween

Hola todos! I am starting this blog with a holiday that is not really celebrated in the Netherlands, namely: Halloween. In Madrid, it is very common to totally dress up and have lots of fun during that day. We even got a day from university; I was surprised by that fact, but hey I could not complain. So Kelly and I decided to go to 100 Montaditos, our favourite place to have lunch. Cheap small sandwiches and half a litre beer for 1 euro, what else does a guy want? And also that day was the ‘last’ day with nice weather: the sun was shining, temperatures were 22+ degrees. Still lovely this time of year (November!).

Episode 7: October

¡Hola!

I have realized that I am a little bit behind with telling you all my stories and experiences here, so this blog will be about October and next blog will describe my nice month of November! Well, in short October was a very special month because I had a bad experience as well as some “peaks”. Let’s start with the worst and end with the nice things!

One Monday evening I felt very tired, but I thought this was normal because I had a exhausting football training the night before, after which I slept few hours and then I went to school and played another football match. I decided to go to bed early and then everything would be fine the next day. Well, it turned out to be different. I will not go into detail, but I was ill for eight days. I suffered from diarrhea, nausea, fever, abdominal cramps, etc. On Friday morning I decided to see a doctor. It appeared that there was one who had consulting hours at my university! It was a little bit difficult to understand all medical terms in Spanish and therefore the doctor sometimes used gestures to inform me, which was often very funny. After 8 days in total, three different medicines and two more trips to the doctor, I was healthy again and went to Morocco! Read my previous blog if you would like to know more about his travel!

Well, of course the rest of the month was great again! I visited Salamanca, played my first football matches and was quite often not at home during the evenings/nights… What I did? I went to club Pacha for example. And we had another dinner scheduled; with my friends here, we try to have dinners with food from our different cultures every two weeks or so. This time, it was my Swiss friend’s turn to cook. She made three dishes and it was amazingly delicious! I will never forget these dinners with the six of us, I enjoy it very very much!!! Furthermore, I went to the “cocktail street”. Actually it is called Calle de la Reina, but the Spanish came up with this other name, simply because there are so many cocktail bars in this street. Another day, my two Turkish flat mates celebrated the birthday of one of them. It was interesting to experience the way a birthday was celebrated in the Turkish culture. It included Turkish music, Turkish food and even Turkish dances!

The last thing I would like to inform you about is that my sister and best friend visited me from October 25 till October 27. It was absolutely great to see family or friends after 2 months! I showed them my Spanish life and we enjoyed it together.

No anecdote this time, because it is a quite long blog already, but I do share with you a picture of course! It is the façade of the University of Salamanca with a lot of tourists in front of it who try to find “the frog”. The story behind this is that if you are able to find the frog without the help of a guide or anyone, it will bring you luck…

¡Adios!

Episode 6

Dear readers,

One of the possibilities an exchange offers you is travelling! Therefore I would like to post a blog about my travel to Morocco. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I have selected 5 pictures I have made during this travel. Enjoy!

Description of the pictures:

1. Camel ride in Tangier

2. A traditional pharmacy

3. A traditional carpet-weaving factory

4. Chefchaouen

5. Typical landscape of the north of Morocco

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.

Episode 5: Intercultural experience

Hello readers,

This time we were asked to write something about the intercultural experience we had so far. Let’s start with a well-known theory on adjusting to life in a new country. This theory says that many students go through different stages during their exchange period: the honeymoon period, the negotiation phase, the adjustment phase and the mastery phase. In the honeymoon period, everything is exciting and you are enjoying new experiences and are very positive about your new home. My honeymoon period started when I had found a room and lasted approximately one month! Then normally the negotiation phase follows, in which students start to compare their host and home cultures more in depth and this usually leads to anxiety and frustration about the new culture. Students can get irritated by cultural differences and feel disconnected from the new culture. Well, I truly believe that I skipped this phase, because I immediately got accustomed to the new culture after the honeymoon period. 

Coldplay!

I will continue my blog where I left of last time: Kelly’s best friend, Jennifer, was here for her last day, but we had classes, so she decided to join us. Not that she really liked to get up a 7 a.m., but she had no other choice or she would be in our apartment all alone. Our teacher did not even look up when we were sitting front row; he probably assumed that she was one of his students who never comes to class. Jennifer enjoyed the class so much that she fell asleep after a few minutes.