First Post in Madrid

Hola family, friends, and mentors!
¡Finalmente estoy en Madrid! I flew out of SFO on Tuesday (Sept 2) afternoon, and arrived here in Madrid on Wednesday afternoon. My flights went very smoothly and were all on time, and I got to experience Germany for two hours in the Frankfurt airport. My time in Germany was not a waste, though, because I learned quite a bit. Most importantly that Lufthansa serves FREE beer and wine on their flights. This obviously was too good of a deal to pass up, and their food was surprisingly good as well. Lesson learned: European airlines rock.
Once I arrived in Spain, I took a cab to the hotel where I stayed with my friend for the night before we were allowed to move in our homestays. We walked around the downtown area that night and went to Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor. For dinner I bought a cured ham sandwich from a very popular chain restaurant called Museo de Jamon (which literally translates to Museum of Ham). Yes, pork is one of the main staple foods here. No, this is not the best place for Orthodox Jews.
After excessively breaking my religion’s dietary laws, I moved into my homestay, which is in the northern part of the city. I’m in the fifth floor of my building (which is actually the sixth because the ground floor is considered “0”) and had to carry my 4 bags up all the stairs…I couldn’t figure out the rinky dink elevator…I doubt it does. I am living with a very nice woman – señora – named Eusebia García, or to me simply Señora. She lives alone (not anymore!) and I’d guess is in her mid 60s. My señora is very nice but does not speak a word of English. Fortunately, she is a good cook and promises paella tomorrow night. She even told me she’d teach me how to make it. I’m pumped.
Rooms here are notoriously small. I have a pretty big one for Spain’s standards. I am sleeping on a trundle bed, but fortunately I am the only one in the room. My señora told me that often times she has two people live there. Yikes! It’s nice, though, and I have a lot of privacy. However, it is somewhat lonely since I live pretty far away from my other friends and have no roommates. Just Señora and me. Good thing there is great public transportation here so it’s only a 10-minute subway ride to downtown.
On Friday, I took the commuter train down to my university, Carlos III where I met up with all the other UC students and had a brief orientation and tour. After helping lead so many orientations and tours this summer at UCSB, it was enlightening to be on the other side. The main difference, though, was that this orientation was entirely in Spanish (Javier, you’d love it!). All my classes will also be in Spanish. Hopefully the professors will talk a bit slowly. Speaking of the language barrier, my Spanish is good - but I realized that I’m far from fluent. It is difficult for me to understand a lot of what people say here since they speak so quickly. I understand most of what my señora says as well as my program staff at the university, but I have to concentrate so hard to do so. It’s a bit frustrating, so hopefully it will get easier soon!
After the orientation, Andrew (my roommate from back home) and I decided to go to the school cafeteria where we were pleased to find we could get a manchego cheese sandwich…and beer. Just what we needed! Today I walked around the area where I live and found a really nice sports park where I went for a run. I’m pretty fearful I’m going to gain a lot of weight here, so being able to run there is a relief. Apparently there’s a pool too, but I didn’t see it and I heard it closes in a week or two anyway.
Tonight I stayed in to watch the Cal game on my Slingbox, a device that I got that allows me to control my home TV from anywhere in the world. Tomorrow I plan to go to the Prado museum (it’s free on Sundays) and check out more of Madrid. More updates to come soon…and pictures – I need to take some.

Hasta pronto,
Michael