Anyways, I found my piso compartido, which is basically a floor that you share with other residents, with much luck, and love it thus far. I'm glad to call it home for many reasons...
a) In total there are 8 tías (girls) living here...Jessica from Colombia, Bárbara from Brazil, Nadia from México (who now needs a roomie), and then there are my friends Alex and Breanne from UW-Madison. And Sonya, my other half, will be moving in at the beginning of March. And I, of course, am the 8th resident here. And this is great because the other international students are wonderful, helpful, funny, and refreshing. And my friends from my program are loveable and comforting. Basically the best. Obviously we speak in spanish with our international roomies, and we attempt to speak spanish most of the time that we are together at home...I've been trying to push it lately because I feel lame when I speak in english! I hope to eventually eliminate english from my life in Spain...
b) Sonya and I did indeed push our beds together, creating a more spacious place to convene. This is a great aspect of this piso because it reminds me of home. As strange as it sounds, my friends and I like to just
hang out on my bed at home, because it is big and comfy...and although this bed is less comfortable, well, we still like to hang out here! We don't have a living room in this piso, just our bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen--and in international student housing like this, the kitchen is the typical place to convene. But as you can imagine, our bed is far more popular. Plus we have the biggest bedroom since it's a double, so there is room for all of our friends to hang out here!c) Location, location, location! We live literally 10 steps outside of the San Bernardo Metro stop. It is convenient, and so much closer to the University than my señora's piso was! I no longer have to walk through the park where a homeless man shouted at people and slept under trees and hid items in the bushes. Now I walk out my door, after greeting my loveable, friendly portero (doorman) Juan, see the spouting fountains, and hop down to la línea 4 en route to La Ciudad Universitaria. Plus, our neighborhood is close to all of the "student" neighborhoods, and in walking distance of Sol, the center of Madrid, as well as many other awesome things. You should be jealous about this.
Apart from moving into the new piso, classes have been going well. I still thoroughly enjoy my classes through the Reunidas program, but have been having a hard time figuring out how to get classes I need from Complutense into my schedule. There is a tricky rule about only 5 Reunidas students being enrolled in classes--and we all conveniently need to take the same classes in order to fill credits at our respective universities...and there are 100 Reunidas students. At least. A lottery system will determine our fate as far as deciding who gets to keep the classes that we all need...since I don't have the best luck in the world, you all better keep your fingers crossed for me! I didn't realize I would have to compete with my fellow Wippers (kids in the Wisconsin-Indiana-Purdue program) for both housing and classes! Either way I plan to make the most of my educational experience here in Spain. In addition to classes, I have been given
an intercambio. I have yet to meet César, but we just got in contact with each other. An intercambio is a student who is eager to practice language, so we'll spend half of our time together speaking in spanish, half in english. Plus he might show me the "cool" parts of town or neat places to go. It will be an overall helpful experience.←And this is Edificio B, where I take my classes! Just one building among many here--it is an enormous campus, and I have not yet explored it since I'm always in one building!
If I made it seem like I'm all work and no play...think again! I still have been enjoying nights out with friends. We went to La Champandaz, which looks like a cave, and tried one of their famous drinks--milk with some sort of alcohol..and some other mystery ingredients. Needless to say I will never try it again--although the milk did come out of the ceiling (which was cool), the taste was not desirable. We even left part of that 9.50 euro drink on the table. Unheard of! And on my first night in the piso, my roomies threw a big party which was incredible! I got to meet many people from all over Europe...and actually made it until almost 6am! Which is not an easy feat for someone who loves sleeping as much as I do.
Since I rambled longer than intended, I will spare you for now. But later this week I will fill you in on a few things I learned today in my Cross-Culture Workshop. It left me feeling even better and optimistic about my Spain experience! Talogo (how Spaniards say "hasta luego", meaning until later!)
