Madrid and Me!: First 2 Weeks of Real Life

If you don’t like public rants about why Spanish uni sucks, then don’t read the first entry, entitled: Universidad. If you like me, read the rest.

(-) 3 tapas: Universidad
I have now officially finished my first 2 weeks of classes and have discovered that hating school is not specific to the American system. University here is so unbelievable frustrating. First off, we received no direction in picking our classes. Each facultad has a different system for posting classes. Facultads are basically the different schools (i.e. facultad of history, or facultad of economics). The Spanish are incredibly disorganized, and it was so difficult to find classes because I’m taking classes in two different Facultads (one in Econ, one in Information). I visited about 8 different classes, originally trying to keep my schedule to Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday only, but that didn’t work out. After trial and error I finally got my schedule to work out and now have class Monday-Thursday. Secondly, it is really difficult to understand some of the professors, and impossible to understand any of the students. In addition, the professors don’t assign homework, but then they talk about these “trabajos” we have to do, but don’t tell us how long they are supposed to be or when they are even due. They give absolutely no explicit direction whatsoever. Very different from the American system, and very, very frustrating. Luckily, Spanish people are so far really nice, and I’ve been able to ask some students in my classes for help just understanding what the professors want from us. Lastly, a lot of the classes (aka all) use the virtual campus to matriculate and to post the course description and other class goodies. We cannot access virtual campus until we are officially registered, which will be who knows when, thanks to the very disorganized and unhelpful UC-center at Complutense. Thus, I had no idea when my Historia del Grafismo Espanol class changed to Intro to Grafic Design instead. The only good thing about school is that, generally, the Facultads have kickass food for cheap.

Official classes: Economía del Desarrollo, Estructura Económica Mundial, Introducción al Diseño Gráfico (Historia del Grafismo Español), y Relaciones Internacionales en los medios audiovisuales.

(+) 1 tapa: Sometimes my Spanish seems like it’s getting a lot better.

(-) 1 tapa: Most of the time my Spanish is still just really shitty.

(+) 2 tapas: tutoring
I started tutoring Susana’s coworker, Alejandra, in English. It’s super fun and Alejandra is a great “student”.

(+) 4 tapas: Matt and Ivy’s visit to Madrid!! (in brief)

Matt and Ivy are two of my friends from UCSD who are studying abroad in Barcelona for the semester. I got to see them back in August when they first got to Spain, but only briefly. They decided to come back to Madrid for some awesome Katy-time and to experience this great city.

Day 1: Beautiful, clear, warm day in Madrid. Chickpea and spinach stew for breakfast/lunch --> Metro to Sol where we found a Haribo candy store and picked up some goods --> Mini walk around Sol --> Back to Sol for pastries at La Mallorquina --> Walk to Plaza Mayor, sit in Plaza Mayor and listen to some street performers --> Go up to my friend Barton’s apartment for the first time who lives IN Plaza Mayor. Amazing views from his apartment --> Walk to the Prado to view some Goya, El Greco, and Velazquez --> Go home for some pasta dinner --> Unsuccessfully go out, but still have a great time!

Day 2: Pure awesomeness on a melancholy, gray day. Metro to Sol to get more pastries and coffee at La Mallorquina --> Walk from Sol to the botanical gardens at Retiro. Pretty flowers, pretty greenery, cool mini-museum --> Walk from botanical gardens to Vertical Gardens nearby. Basically a giant wall covered with different kinds of green plants --> Go inside to the Caixa Museum next door to the vertical gardens --> Check out the floor dedicated to the exhibit of Charlie Chaplin. Pretty cool, learned new things about Charlot (who looks mighty different without that little moustache of his) --> Walk from Caixa museum to Retiro park. I had never entered on this side, but it was incredibly gorgeous. Lots of greenery, lots of trees, lots of grass, lots of leaves fall, lots of Autumny feeling --> Somehow navigated our way to the pond/lake thing in Retiro where we rented a boat! --> Row-boat adventure in the pond at Retiro!!! --> Walk from Retiro to Chueca for some cañas and tapas at El Tigre --> Go from El Tigre back to Sol to the bar Dubliners to watch Real Madrid play Atlético Madrid (super exciting game) --> Go home to prepare to go out for another somewhat unsuccessful night.
Oh well, Day 2 with Ivy and Matt was definitely one of the best days I’ve had yet in Madrid. Visitors are fun because it gives me the excuse to act like a tourist and do all the touristy things I wouldn’t do normally.