Week One!

I’ve been in Alcala for a little over a week and it’s completely surreal! I cannot believe I’m abroad. We’ve all done so much in the past nine days and I know there are many more adventures to come.

We began our classes on Tuesday after we took our placement exams on Monday. So far, all of the classes seem interesting, as well as manageable. We take our English classes at the CIFF, which is conveniently located in the Plaza de Cervantes. The CIFF offers literature, finance, marketing, business ethics, and theology. I am only taking literature, business ethics, and theology since I’m not a business major. We take our Spanish classes at Alcalingua along with many other international students. I placed into a history class, which is taught in Spanish. This class is called “Historia y Cultura,” and incorporates lessons about Spanish art, architecture, culture and customs. Spanish classes run everyday of the week, but end around mid-March, which means we’ll have extra time to travel.  I was worried that I would have a hard time following along in my Spanish class, but our teacher speaks slowly and her animated style of teaching definitely makes the class more engaging.

We only have our CIFF classes once a week from 10:00-1:30. Literature, taught by Maria Jose, is on Mondays; the course will cover literature written during the Spanish Civil War and seems like it will be a great class. We all love Maria Jose and I have a feeling that she will be a great teacher. Business Ethics seems like it will be a good class, as well. Our teacher’s name is Ivan and he put a big emphasis on getting to know us, what philosophy we already know, and what we’d like to learn. I have Spanish immediately after my classes at CIFF and then I usually go home for a traditional Spanish lunch and siesta. From about 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., the majority of the little shops in town close for lunch and siesta. I found this out when I tried to go to “El Papeleria” (the stationary store) for some notebooks and school supplies around 3 p.m. to find it closed until the evening.

We’ve also been exploring Alcala’s nightlife, as well. Many of the bars and discotecas we frequent, like La Media Pint and Can Can, are used to welcoming college students each semester. Also, these particular places were favorites of Loyola students who studied abroad in Alcala in past semesters. As a group, we mesh well together, love to dance and let loose after our long days in class!

This past Friday night, we took our first trip into Madrid. Acala is only half an hour away, so it was relatively easy getting there. We took a bus from Alcala to Madrid and then the metro. I found Madrid’s public transportation to be both clean and efficient. We decided to go to the discoteca club, Joy, which was a lot of fun to experience, but both the cover charge and the drinks were absurdly expensive.

But, I found that I enjoyed Madrid much more during the day when we went with Maria Jose on Sunday. We took a quick train ride from Alcala and met Maria Jose for a long walking tour of the city. The city was beautiful, a mix of grandiose historic buildings, museums and plazas mixed with the new, modern wall street-esq area. We visited the king’s palace, the opera house, El Prado (which I plan to return to), several famous plazas, the national library, and Congress. After our long walk around the city, Maria Jose took us to an incredible lunch at El Café Oriente, a luxurious restaurant located just outside the king’s palace. We enjoyed a seven-course meal that included scallops au gratin, crab, stuffed peppers, braised monkfish, rack of lamb, and a chocolate souflee with ice cream. It was delicious! I plan to visit Madrid again and spend a little more time exploring, eating and shopping.

Overall, it’s been a successful, crazy, tiring, exciting first week. Some of us are beginning to plan trips outside of Spain. So far, I’ve booked the Canary Islands in April and Paris for our upcoming 3-day weekend.

Where I go to class everyday

The beautiful Plaza de Cervantes

Just hangin' with Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

 Our daytrip to Madrid

Calle Serrano in Madrid

El Plaza Mayor in Madrid

El Palacio Real

First few days in Alcala

I’ve only been here for three days and already ready time is flying. It seems as if I’ve been here for much longer! I’ll recap how the experience has been so far.

The flight, which left from Newark Airport, was very smooth and went quickly. It was about 6 and a half hours. Thankfully, we could watch movies and the lights stayed dark in the cabin so we could try to sleep. The plane ride went well overall and we landed safely at Madrid Bajaras Airport.

We arrived at 9 am and claimed our luggage. We were all so jetlagged already and it was disorienting to have to function! Everyone looked ridiculous with our absurd amounts of luggage. I noticed and was glad that everyone had just as much as me (if not more!) We waited for our on site director, Maria Jose, to meet us and take us into Alcala. She seems really nice and so organized. When she met us, we carried our bags out and loaded onto a bus. Alcala is about 30 minute drive from Madrid. Then, we met our host families in the center of town and walked to our respective homes.

Alcala de Henares is a beautiful, manageable town/city. There are quaint cobble stone streets, old buildings, shops, restaurants, and we can walk everywhere in "old Alcala" all of our homestays are spread out around the town, but a few sets of people in our group are really close to us. Everything is situated around “La plaza de Cervantes,” a huge beautiful plaza in the center of town, which has statues, a fountain and a large gazebo and pretty trees. This has usually been our central meeting place. Marissa, my roommate, and I live about a street away from the plaza in “La calle mayor” (which means main street.) This location couldn’t be better because we are less than five minutes from the two buildings where we take our classes, plus close to good shops.

The first day, we toured Alcala with Maria Jose and she showed us the two places where we take our classes, La Alcalingua (for our Spanish classes) and the CIFF (for our English classes) along with her office, shops, the bus station (for buses to Madrid or New Alcala), and the train station, and Carrefour (a French Wal-Mart type store) and lots of little cafes, and tapas restaurants. Also, the weather here is very mild. We can't believe it, almost everyone told us it was going to be so cold. For the past few days, it has been raining on and off, but tomorrow it will be in the 50s.

Our host mother is named Perla and she is a nice little older lady, probably in her 60s. Marissa and I share a room that's small but we made do. We have very little closet space and no drawers, which is difficult. Perla doesn't speak any English, but speaks as slowly as she can so we can understand. It’s hard getting back into Spanish mode, but I think it will come back soon.

Meals are a big deal for Spaniards, so we almost always eat together and have to tell her when we won't be here for dinner. It’s tough getting used to Spanish eating habits. They eat very little for breakfast (like usually coffee and fruit) and then lunch is the big meal, usually consisting of 3 courses and dinner is light, usually just tapas. I think I'll like it once my body adjusts.

Tomorrow is our placement exam for which Spanish classes we'll be in, so I am eager to see which level I place into.