The Most Amazing City

I haven’t even spent an entire month in Madrid yet, but I’m absolutely convinced that this is the most amazing city in the entire world.

For the month of September I have class every day for about four hours, and I’ve learned an incredible amount of Spanish since I’ve been here. There are all sorts of little changes between the Spanish I learned in Miami, and the Spanish they speak in Spain. “Carro” in South Florida translates easily into “car,” but here in Madrid it means “shopping cart.” A “tortilla” in Miami is a sort of flat-bread, but in Spain it’s an omelet (and a darn good one at that), and everyone in Madrid says “vale” (pronounced a bit like balet) all the time – it roughly translates into “okay.”

In the few weeks that I’ve been in Madrid I’ve visited El Museo Reina Sofia, which is home to numerous Salvador Dalí paintings and Picasso’s famous Guernica, all of which were amazing to see in person. I also took a long weekend and visited Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (an autonomy in the northwestern-most part of Spain). This city, a major pilgrimage site for Catholics, is said to be the final resting place of Saint James and is home to one of the most stunning cathedrals I have ever seen in my life. While there we paid 20 euros a night to stay in a monastery right next door to the cathedral (the best 20 euros I’ve ever spent), and had plenty of time to walk around this amazing city. While in Galicia we also took a day trip north to a city called La Coruña, which a beautiful beach town. We spent some time on the beach and then visited their famous lighthouse, the Tower of Hercules, which is almost 1900 years old and is the oldest Roman lighthouse still in use today. From there we watched the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean, and headed back to Madrid the next day.

Everything about this city has been amazing – the food, the nightlife, and the people – and I don’t regret for one minute choosing to study abroad here. I have made some incredible friends - from UF, other schools in the U.S. and from all over Europe – and I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything.

I’m headed to Paris this coming weekend for almost a week, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of new information to share with you then!

¡Hasta luego!

P.S. I'll be posting more pictures soon! :)

The Group

Near the Teatro Real with Lina and a native Madrileño

Titan

Before dinner with the group Eating some tapas At an Irish Pub to watch the Gator game