First Couple of Days

To start I'm sure that you are thinking that this is just going to be another boring study abroad blog like the one Cory Levinson wrote, but his got him a girl to fly to China and basically take over his life so I figure whats the worst that can happen. Also to anyone who was to lazy to read the title that I have come up with (thanks Ethan Samarel) there is an emphasis on the word average. Don't come here looking for stories of me getting shit faced with players of Real Madrid or leading a protest against the austerity measures, looking at you Jesse Landy. This blog is doubling as my journal for my trip so you can expect some funny stories with my personal twist on them. I am also planning on doing different outlines on various aspects of the city such as the Prado, the Metro System, El Retiro, etc. If there is anything specific you want to hear about let me know and I'll do my best to give you the details.

Now for a quick recap of my first couple of days.

I landed in Madrid on the 9th and took a taxi to the orientation hotel. My driver was nice and made an effort to have a conversation with me and my broken Spanish. Once I arrived in at the hotel I passed out for a couple of hours and got up for my groups dinner. I met some other adventurous souls at the dinner and formed a small group to go out the first night. As you can imagine wednesday night was not a busy night, but we were able to bar hop and explore the city a little bit.

The next day involved some orientation on housing then in the afternoon I met my host family: Pepa, Jose Luis, and Monica. They are all super nice and helpful with my god awful spanish. I am planing on doing an entire post on them so I won't bore y'all here.

Friday night is a blur to me. I can remember seeing some transvestites in one bar and thinking "Toto were not in South Carolina anymore". Luckily I had some awesome year long students with me to show me around and get my ass safely on the right night bus at 4 am. I am planing a post on the Madrid nightlife once I actually experience some more of it so stay tuned for that.

As I say about my Spanish skills I will say about this blog.

It will get better, I swear.
~Gruber