Estoy aquí! I arrived in one piece, barely awake, but nonetheless extremely excited to go out and conquer Madrid. In typical Megventure fashion, our plane arrived an hour late which set us back a few hours for everything else I did that day. After taking a shuttle to Terminal 1 to meet NYU, a large group of us boarded a coach bus headed into Sol where we then proceeded to catch a taxi to our apartments. I’m living with three other girls from NYU and absolutely love the place. It was definitely nerve racking signing a lease in a foreign language, but after going over it lentamente (slowly) in Spanish with our lovely landlady, Patricia Mateo, everything was smooth sailing from there.

Roomies

After unpacking we explored around Sol (the city center and where we live), and found La Puerta del Sol, La Plaza Mayor and a cute little café where we nibbled on some Café con leche y croissants (Coffee and Croissants). We then took to the metro and embarked on a NYU walking tour to smooth over the jetlag (which is thankfully currently nonexistent).  Much to my amazement, the metro system in Spain is incredibly efficient, easy to navigate and super clean. We took la línea amarilla (Yellow Line) to Argüilles from Sol and walked down Calle Princesa to the Templo Debod which is a marvelous Egyptian Water Temple given to the Spaniards in 1968. After getting a panoramic view of West Madrid from the end of the Templo, a group of us living in Sol trekked back to our apartments but not before walking past the marvelous and extremely beautiful Palacio Real, the residence of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. For being a pretty spread out, non-English speaking city, Madrid is extremely easy to navigate – on maps everything seems miles away but in reality, everything is really close to each other.

Sol

El Palacio Real

Later that evening the girls and some guys from Amherst decided to go out and see Sol some more, which turned out to be a complete fail, not because it was a Sunday night, but because it was too cold for Madrileños. This city just gets me, its unbelievable: not going out because its too cold, siestas, wine all day, tapas instead of full meals, and the laid back attitude of la gente (the people). It’s an absolute sueño (dream) to live here and I can already tell that I will not want to leave (lo siento Mom and Dad).

The following morning (Monday) we all had orientation at the NYU Madrid campus which is located off the Santiago Bernábeu (aka the Real Madrid Stadium) metro stop. I myself was incredibly happy when I found out that we get to pass it every morning, but I guess thats just the inner soccer fanatic within. Although the commute is rather long – a little less than an hour – I’m so glad we live in Sol because it’s really the center of it all for us. Orientation is similar to welcome week: you meet a bunch of people, go out, forget names, take placement tests, sit through lectures on being safe, etc. It’s very relaxed and a great setting to meet a ton of people.

After orientation, NYU sponsored a Paella lunch at cool restaurant called Muuuu north of school. Los Díos! The paella was absolutely amazing. I was apprehensive at first to try it because I didn’t know what was in it, but it was so good. Words don’t even begin to describe it. Though the paella was apparently the best in the city, I cannot wait to travel to the coast and try paella in Barçelona because I heard it is unreal there.

That night, a group of us decided to head out to Sol again, except this time it was a lot more fun! We wound up at a lovely tapas bar that is very popular with both Americans and Madrileños – El Tigre. They provide drinks and numerous tapas for only 6 Euros. Trying the tapas brought me back to my “Fear Factor Days” of living in Japan because we didn’t know what was on any of the plates, nor could the server, Alberto, explain to us what they were.  I still probably couldn’t explain to you what they were, but my favorites were the pan y jamón and las patatas (bread and ham, and potatoes). The jamón is very different here, but is absolutely one of a kind. There are Museo’s de Jamón in almost every barrio (neighborhood), and the Spaniards are very proud of it.  I don’t quite understand, but I’ll take it.

Patatas Bravas

Following El Tigre, we headed out again to this place called Joy Eslava located in Sol. It was great place to dance, the weird thing was that it was completely empty until about 3 or 4 in the morning. Madrileños have an extremely warped sense of time that will definitely take some time getting used to, but as a night owl I’m sure I’ll really love it.

That’s all for now, off to day two of Orientation. Hasta Luego!