Getting to know the city, and university

It's been too long since my last post, so hopefully I will remember all that has happened in these last two weeks! The picture is of the kitchen and dining area of the house I'm staying at in Madrid.

Classes started finally, so I'm starting to settle into a routine. I'm taking language, Spanish economics, Latin American literature , professional Spanish class, and Spanish art classes with American students, and a "mini-curso" seminar on medieval cities with Spanish students. It's definitely a bit of a challenge to take classes in Spanish in other subjects other than literature, but the teachers are used to teaching foreign students so most of the professors use vocabulary that's dumbed down. There is a pretty big range in language abilities in some of the classes, because our placement tests were mainly for our language class. I am enjoying the language class the most actually, because we are learning colloquial expressions, and typical phrases that are much less formal than what we all learned in the classroom back in the States. There are many differences in the way Spaniards speak in comparison to in Latin America, so I'm learning a lot everyday and realizing how silly I sound using the formal language I've been taught before. Spaniards are a very close-knit people, with very forward and sometimes shameless manners..and if someone uses the more formal language or the wrong word, it can be interpreted as cold or unfriendly!

The challenge is that the majority of my classes are with American students, so I will have to really try hard to interact with the Spaniards. On campus they are seemingly always in big groups and don't go out of their way to meet us. Unlike at Berkeley where people seem to be more independent, it's rare to see a Spaniard eating, walking around campus, etc by themselves. I did sign up for the student activities membership and the Erasmus organization (for other European students studying abroad here) so hopefully that will be a good way to meet people. Last week I also met my "intercambio" Natalia, a Spanish student who signed up for an exchange with a foreign student. We met up under the clock at Sol, one of the main squares in Madrid (and the point zero to measure distances to Madrid) and got the typical Spanish snack of chocolate and churros at the famous San Gines cafe close by. We ended up talking for 2 hours, 1 in Spanish and 1 in English, and she was really sweet! I think there is an exchange night twice a week at a cafe, and also a weekly Erasmus hangout at a bar in Madrid. Otherwise the best place thus far to hangout with Spaniards has been going out and finding less touristy places with locals, like close to Alonzo Martinez, Plaza Santa Ana and Chueca. Though the pain is getting back home at night because the metro closes around 1. You usually have to wait a while for the night bus and even if I get off at the closest stop I still have to walk a while to get home.