Classes begin

Hello everyone!

Classes at the University Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Getafe begin Monday and my first one starts at 9am…which means I have to leave my house at 7:45…and get up even earlier! Which is REALLY early based on Spanish-time. My host parents who are in their 70s and retired don’t go to bed until after midnight or 1am and wake up around 10am every day, so it feels really funny saying goodnight to them when I’m the one going to bed.

Getafe is a part of the “Comunidad de Madrid” but it is its own city about an hour train ride from my house. I catch the metro for about 4 stops, (changing lines once) then take the train to the stop which is a 5 minute walk from the campus. Not the most ideal commute, but the metro and trains come anywhere between 3 and 6 minutes apart during busy hours so it’s not too bad. I found 4 classes that fill up my Monday at Tuesday – and that’s it! So I’m hoping they work out because it would be great to have open days for an internship and travel.

The woman who works on finding internships for the Middlebury students (I’m here with a Middlebury program in case I didn’t say that before) told me about one “practica” (internship) teaching high school students at a bilingual school in Getafe. They put strong emphasis on math and science which are my stronger areas so if I can help teach classes in English or Spanish it would be great! I would probably go there one day a week and help out teachers/help make class plans and maybe even teach some parts. Pretty cool, more to come on that…

The student network at UC3M for foreign students (ESN) organizes a great orientation for all the new foreign study students. For tomorrow they have rented all the courts and fields for 3 hours and we have “Sport Day” so I’ll get to play some “voliplaya” (beach volleyball, it’s one word here I love it!) which should be a blast! They have organized a pub crawl for this Friday and a day trip to Toledo this coming Sunday for 10 Euros! Toledo is a very cool (I’ve heard) medieval town just south of the Madrid border. ESN is also offering a trip to Granada (down south, famous for free tapas, flamenco and the Alhambra) for just 100 Euros which is dirt cheap! So I’ll sign up for that if there are any spots left!

We had orientation at UC3M on Friday and met all the students studying abroad here for the semester. There are people from France, Italy, Portugal, Holland etc, we are a group of about 100 I’d say. They gave us a lot of great information about the campus and offices and classes, took us on a tour, and gave us free tapas afterward! The word for snack here is “merienda” which I love, because I love snacks. We had croquetas (mixture of milk, flour, cheese and usually some kind of meat, battered and fried), Spanish tortilla (thick round tortilla made of potatoes, eggs and usually onion, cheese and sometimes other veggies and meats), fried calamari (different from the US, but since I don’t eat it I didn’t bother to ask…it grosses me out), bread with cheese and smoked ham (thin slices, like REALLY flavorful smoked bacon, it’s called “Jamon Serrano”) and chorizo, among other things. The jamon serrano here is really popular and cheap. It’s a big pig leg that has been smoked and just about every household and bar/restaurant has one, propped up on a wood holder, ready to be thinly sliced for “bocadillos” (bread cheese and ham sandwiches) or any of the other dishes it is used in. I’m not a huge fan. It’s almost too flavorful, I prefer bacon, which here is spelled and pronounced “beicon” (pronouncing the “o” like you would in “phone”).

The winery trip was fun but not what I expected. We went to a town about an hour out of the city and spent most of the time at an olive oil mill! We got to see the old grinding machines (picture attached) and where the finished product is stored, and tried some pure olive oil (looks like dirty car oil) but it was delicious! There are many families in this town who had olives or grapes but no way of making olive oil or wine, so there is one winery and one olive oil mill now where people bring their olives and the mill processes them and returns olive oil. The mill takes some money for the processing but can’t sell the oil, it just goes back to whoever owned the olives! I think with the winery they buy the grapes and then make wine and sell it. We got to interview the woman at the winery who is the master mixer/analyzer and see her office which was filled with chemical distillation apparatuses and things I’ve never seen before! It was pretty cool. The best part was the olive oil tasting we did (see picture) there were 3 types – extra virgin, one that had been filtered more than normal, and one made from a unique type of olive that has a garlic-y flavor. Then we tried the olives! Some were good and one was disgusting. We also had raw olives (just picked) which are SO bitter I had no idea! I mean I barely dug my tooth in and my whole mouth was dry for an hour. The olives go through a lengthy process of being soaked in water that is constantly filtered and changed, before they are edible or usable for olive oil.

Well enough about food! I’m getting hungry. I’m attaching a picture of me and some friends at a bar called “Museo del Jamon” (Ham Museum, it’s a chain) where Jamon Serrano hangs from the walls like it’s decoration. There’s also a picture of a doner kebab – not sure if I wrote about it earlier, but it’s my new favorite thing. The kebab places are open at all hours and they have big bbqs with meat always turning and cooking on a big metal pole, and they shave it off and put it in a toasted baguette with lettuce and yummy mystery sauce, the best part is they’re super cheap and delicious! And I finally took a picture so I had to share.

Hope all is well where ever you are reading this!
Hasta luego!