Exploring Madrid: First Days of Studying Abroad in Spain

As I took off out of JFK Airport yesterday, I found myself staring out the window and thinking that in seven hours my brother and I would be in a totally different country without our parents. I thought that maybe I was in a little over my head and how this was definitely out of my comfort zone. As I sat looking out the window watching New York fade into a speck, which was soon swallowed up by the night, it dawned on me that going to Spain to study abroad for three months was actually happening. Before it was a distant thought, now sitting on the plane it still felt surreal, but I knew that we were actually heading to Spain for the experience of a lifetime. I went to sleep since it was very late by the time we took off due to a unfixable problem on our first airplane. I soon woke and looked out the window to see where we were, I was greeted by the rolling hills and rivers traveling through the great country of Spain.

We arrived at the airport in Madrid and met up with all the other kids studying abroad throughout Spain. Soon we were all loaded up in a small Mercedes Benz van and were on our way to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel in no time and were soon taking our bags up to our rooms. Before I knew it, I was eating a delicious lunch which consisted of fried peppers stuffed with fish, a hamburger and fries, and finally for dessert I had some fruit. The food was better than I expected, it was amazing.

We took a bus to the biggest park in Spain and on the way we marveled at the statues and architecture of the buildings. We arrived in the park and I was astonished to see so many people, they all were rollerblading, skateboarding, biking or just hanging out. We looked at sites and statues in the park, but by far my favorite was the Splendide Hotel. It was a building of all glass and was bare on the inside except of a few chairs and books which were attached to the chairs.  We couldn’t figure out what the purpose of the building was so we asked someone working there and soon we found the answer. The books described a hotel, but I was up to you to fill the bare walls and space with anything you could imagine. The hotel was the canvas and your ideas and imagination painted it.

Our park tour soon ended and we were on our way to dinner. We stopped at a place that served calamari sandwiches, along with many other foods. Everyone ordered the calamari sandwich, except for me; I ordered a sandwich with tortilla. A tortilla in Spanish culture is a food which consists of eggs and potatoes and it’s a type of omelet. During our dinner we learned how to tell if some restaurants are better than others. If there are napkins or trash on the ground it means that that restaurant has better food. The trash indicates that more people each there, which means its foods’ quality is better.

I feel as if I have been here forever but it has only been ten hours. I will keep you posted on my future adventures in the country of Spain.