Departure & Arrival

I began my trip flying from Cleveland to New York, and then taking the group flight from New York to Paris, and finally one final flight from Paris to Madrid. I left at 3:30pm on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Madrid at 2pm Wednesday afternoon (Madrid is 6 hours ahead). The flights went well, especially on Air France where each seat is equipped with a personally controlled television as well as delicious French food and wine. After the flight attendant handed me my sleeping mask, I spent most of the flight in deep sleep.

Arriving in Madrid, our group was met by the director of the BU program Ray Green. Although very excited about arriving in Madrid, we did run into a small travel problem. Because of the short time connection between Paris and Madrid, not all of the luggage had made our flight. Thus, I was stuck in the same clothes for 3 days, without a single item. You cannot imagine my happiness when I finally received both of my bags Thursday afternoon.

From the airport we took a giant bus to our hotel, Hotel Paris, and were given our roommates and our rooms. We did some exploring around the Puerto Del Sol area, and I got a SIM chip for my cell phone. My new Spanish # is 011-34-697-402-166 (In Spain, all incoming calls and text messages are free – so call me!!). Later that night, we began our 3 day orientation session with a meeting for our internships followed by dinner at the Hotel Regina. I LOVE Spanish food!


Later that evening, although extremely jet-lagged, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out the Madrid nightlife. A few of us went to a bar called Don Belayo, and spent the evening there.

The next morning, we woke up, had a traditional Spanish breakfast, and headed to the International Institute where we will be taking our classes. We had many more meetings, picked out our classes, and explored our new school. The International Institute is compromised of 4 universities including, Boston University, Syracuse University, SUNY, and Accent. In the BU group, we have students from BU, Northwestern, Rhodes College, University of Michigan, Stanford, Brandeis, New School, and Wake Forrest. The classes I will be taking this semester include the internship, Spain and the EU, History of Spanish Culture, and Contemporary Spanish Literature. I have my first meeting with my internship supervisor on Monday morning at El Banco Munidal de la Mujer.

After orientation, a small group of us decided to walk back to the hotel and check out the sights of Madrid. What a beautiful city! The architecture is just breathtaking. I cannot wait to do more exploring.

We had our Spanish dinner at the hotel followed by a crazy night of exploring some of Madrid’s finest clubs including Cibeles, Dreams, and Palacio Galavario. It was also one of the girls’ 21st birthday. (I have noticed I am the youngest person here, most of the students are juniors and seniors and will be turning 21 while in Madrid this semester). Overall, we met many Madridenos and were able to get tons of Spanish practice.