One week down...

TONS more to go!

Anyways, hola everyone! I finally caved in to paying two euro per hour and am at a small internet cafe right by my homestay. This place is really crazy- the radio just played ¨It´s Raining Men¨ and there are little kids running around all over the place. It´s nice to be able to connect to the outside world, though.

Right now the WIP-ers (that´s what they like to call us at the university: Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue) are in the middle of orientation and ¨piso¨(apartment) hunting. It´s extremely stressful because the apartments in Spain are very small and do not offer very much. Kate and I are trying to find one with two single rooms available, hot water, a somewhat working kitchen, and internet (Wi-Fi) and so far no luck. At worst we´d have to share a room, which wouldn´t be too terrible and definately cheaper, but most of the apartments have multiple people living in them right now, so we might end up feeling a little crowded.

I will be taking classes at Complutense, a HUGE university in Madrid (the campus has over 100,000 students!) I´ll be taking three classes taught in Spanish, with all American students, and two classes actually offered from the Complutense- these classes will be much more difficult as they are meant for the Spaniards and not us extranjeros. Should make for an intersting semester, but if these classes don´t help me improve my spanish then I don´t know what will!

Overall, Madrird is a pretty crazy place- it´s a huge city with tons of people and it´s very easy to get lost here. Spaniards are on a very different schedule: up early for work, everything closes around 1 for a siesta then open up again around 4 or 5. They don´t get home from work until around 7ish, dinner doesn´t start until 8 or 9, and clubs and bars are practically dead until midnight, and the metro closes at 1:30 and doesn´t open again until 6....

Besides adjusting to the schedule and frantically trying to find an apartment from speedy spanish talkers, I am enjoying Madrid. The other kids on my program are very fun and it will be nice to get to know more Americans, Spaniards, and other foreigners as the months go on.

Hope all is well with everyone!! Missing you all like crazy!!

-Nicole

PS: GO BEARS!!! We got to watch the games on Sunday night at an Irish pub called ¨Dubliners¨where there were a ton of Americans- the place was packed! I cannot believe I´m not at Purdue for all the Bears-Colts madness, but you all know I´ll be doing the Super Bowl shuffle in spirit!