September 18, 2023: 

Hey, ya’ll! I’m so excited to share our first few weeks here in Madrid for my first blog this semester! 

We arrived just a few weeks ago and were welcomed by stormy weather and gray skies (totally not normal for Madrid in September.) Despite the unexpected weather, I’m absolutely blown away by the experiences we’ve had so far. 

To begin our semester, the group and I went on a two-day trip to Toledo! Toledo is known for its medieval architecture with Muslim influences. Walking down the streets of Toledo was like walking through a time machine. We visited important religious sites including the (alleged) first synagogue in the world! To conclude our first day in Toledo we had a five-course meal at a fancy restaurant with traditional Spanish cuisine. 

We had our first full week of classes last week. Our first-year seminar is titled Unveiling Spain, where we are taught all about the country where we’re going to be living for the next few months. In particular, for our first week, we learned all about stereotypes. We discovered a lot about what Americans assumed about Spaniards, but also how Spaniards viewed us, which was an interesting perspective to take on. Further along this course, we will learn about the history of Spain and how the country was shaped into what we know today! 

Another aspect of Spanish culture I have observed while traveling was that Europeans tend to dress less casually than Americans: a hoodie and sweatpants will NOT cut it. Interestingly enough, last week was the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week here in Madrid. My friend Zach and I sought this as the perfect opportunity to showcase our fashionable looks! If you take a short 10-minute transit from our residential hall, you will find a street called Calle de Velarde. Along the street, there are back-to-back thrift stores full of trendy, affordable clothes. Zach and I found the perfect outfits here and off we went to see a fashion show for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week!  

This concludes this week's blog! I can’t wait to share all the experiences we will have for the rest of this trip. It has just begun, and I feel like there’s so much more I wanted to share already. Thank you so much for reading, and I'll write again soon! 

It’s always pretty neat to go thrifting in a foreign country only to find souvenirs from your hometown like Charles here:) 

Zach and I in our outfits we bought at the thrift stores, on our way to the fashion show! 

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! So much has happened since I’ve last written; I don’t even know where to begin. For starters, our group had our first big trip of the semester, and we went to Catalonia! It was strange seeing Catalan everywhere we went instead of Spanish. If you want to know more about our time in Catalonia, I recommend looking at Hannah’s blog for this week, where she talks all about it. Instead, I want to focus on the weeks after our trip till now!

My favorite activity in the past few weeks was most definitely our group trip to Alcala de Henares. This city is known for being the hometown of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. During our trip there, we got to tour his childhood home, learning about everyday life for people like him in the sixteenth century. Not only that, but we got to truly experience what life was like because while we were visiting there happened to be a Renaissance fair! More specifically, the Mercado Cervantino! The streets were adorned with medieval decor, and sprawled out across the street were endless booths of patatas fritas, cheesecakes, wooden gadgets, essential oils, and more! 

I was able to get my hands on the biggest chocolate croissant I had ever seen in my entire life. It was roughly the size of my head! The croissant cost about 3 euro, so I have absolutely no regrets with my purchase, and it was absolutely delicious.

In recent news, last weekend on October 12th was the National Day of Spain! To celebrate, some friends and I walked down to Plaza Cibeles to watch the Armed Forces parade! The National Day of Spain, also known as Dia de la Hispanidad, is a day when people celebrate Spain’s history and achievements. Interestingly, the 12th of October is the day that Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, symbolizing an significant date in Spanish history. 

The Armed Forces parade was interesting to watch, to say the least. It began with an overhead flight of planes and helicopters. In fact, for the past few weeks, we could even hear the planes practicing for the parade while we were in class! Everyone in the crowd was showing their pride for Spain, all dressed in Spanish flags and attire. 

I’m very excited about next month because I will be traveling abroad! I will be going with my fellow ambassador Hannah to Portugal! Stay tuned to see how we survive our adventure!

Hello once again! October and November so far here in Madrid have been fabulous! In particular, I am dedicating a lot of my weekends this November to travel. One of the benefits of this opportunity to study in Madrid is the ability to take cheap flights almost anywhere in Europe! With hostels and overall affordable traveling alternatives, there are so many ways to get around without breaking the bank.

For example, Hannah and I took a quick weekend trip to Lisbon a few weeks ago! Neither one of us had been to Portugal before so it was a completely new and exciting experience for us. We took a cheap one-hour flight and stayed at a hostel for two nights, living off the pasteles de nata. We took a free tour around the city before we were let go to explore ourselves!

Halloween here in Spain has been especially unique. Here in the Iberian peninsula the holiday known as “Dia de los Santos” is more popular. This holiday, directly translated to “Day of the Saints” takes place on November 1st, the day after Halloween. It is an official holiday of the Catholic Church and is established as a day of remembrance for the people who have passed away.

Halloween this year fell on a Tuesday, which means we had our weekly “paseo” that afternoon! For our weekly adventure, our group was brought to a flamenco class followed by a professional flamenco show. We learned how to dance with a fan "el abanico", traditional shawl "el mantón", and with the most important prop: our hands. Flamenco dance involves the whole body, but I always love watching the hands while dancing. We learned in class that when we dance flamenco, we need to twist our hands from the inside out and keep our arms rounded like a bowl.

Even more recently, our group took a trip to Andalusia, the birthplace of Flamenco! We traveled to Cordoba, Sevilla, and Granada. Granada is my favorite city on Earth, with the Alhambra absolutely jaw-dropping. In autumn when the leaves begin to fall, it is a unique look for Andalusia. We also took a tour of an olive oil farm in Sevilla, where we learned the delicate process of making olive oil and the correct strategy of tasting it. We even tried olive oil on ice cream! I had an amazing time this weekend, and I can't wait to keep y'all updated on my next and final blog!

Another sunset over the olive trees of the olive oil farm.

Sunset over Granada from El Patio de Acequia. Look at all those beautiful fall colors.

Hannah and I LOVED these pasteles de nata in Lisbon! They originated in the Jerónimos Monastery and we went to the original shop to try them. They taste the best with powdered sugar and cinnamon.