More madrid

We walked lile all around creation today just looking at the city. Did you know Madrid has its own egyptian temple? Wild. We did the other kind of obligatory type things like going to the palace. It was super cool, if you go take your student id (like ISIC or whatever) cuause it is way cheaper that way. They wont let you take pics inside but here is a pic i took of the outside. The inside is way cooler, promise.

Cave Bar

We found a sweet bar last Friday, not sure what it is really called but it looks like a cave so we are deaming it cave bar. They have a drink called Leche De Pantera. DO NOT DRINK IT! Its really fun to watch them pour it cause it comes out of the cealing but its pretty sweet. I am a dark beer girl myself so it was pretty nasty. We ordered an obscenly big thing of it. This is us all looking at it

Comida

Omg, we went out to tapas tonight and I discovered some baller spanish food. Namely croquetas and tortilla espanola. Not too sure what was the in the croquetas, something like cheese and potatoe, maybe some chicken as well. Torilla Espanol is just eggs and potato but its got kind of a fried thing going on. Amazing! It was nice to get away from the random pasta stuff my senora has been making me, it is so greasy. Here is a google pic of the tortilla espanola

Thank God for Apelcom

I couldn’t take dishing out so much money on calls so I followed what some of my new friends on the program were doing and went to a phone place called Apelcom. I’m SO glad I did and I finally found a plan that works with my overprotective mom. She had so much trouble figuring out how to call here, that now I can call her without losing all the money I saved up to come here!! God knows how much she needs to talk to her youngest, so I signed up with a new and cheaper cell phone company called Apelcom. It is only 8 cents per minute to call the states!!! I’m saving almost 2 euros a minute!! Also I can all my new Spanish friends for the same price as all the major cell phone companies. Kinda helps that the people there speak English too because my Spanish skills still need a lot of work. If there is anybody reading this looking for a cheap way to call the states or just a cheap cell phone in Spain, I would recommend Apelcom. Their website is http://www.apelcom.com/, and if you are already in Madrid they are located near Gran Via, sooooo close to Starbucks… YAY!! Keeping the coffee fix alive . Anyways now that I can call you all I will be sure to tell you all about Nacho, my new Spanish intercambio, and very cute at that….plus his name is super “guay”, part of my new Spanish vocab that means very cool! Hasta Luego!

holy crap cell phones in spain are expensive

Couldn’t hold out any longer and called mom … my free 7 euros were gone in like 2 min… who knew that calling the states was 2 EURO PER MINUTE?!? Plus they charge a connection fee so I am getting screwed. If I don’t find a cheaper cell phone option soon my money will continue to go like liquid and I will have to rely on facebook for the rest of the semester! Until I find a cheaper way to contact ya’ll I’ll still be waiting to hear from you all

Got a Cellphone in Spain!

So it turns out there are cell phone stores all over Madrid. I had no idea which one to choose, but I ended up buying a cell phone that makes it seem easy to call the States. The company is called Orange, and I got a cheap red phone, weird huh? Considering the name J It’s free for me to receive calls but super expensive to make them so everyone from the states this is my new number: + 011 34 902 888 414. So far so good since it’s pay as you go and they started me with 7 free euros. Hopefully that will last a little while. I’ll be waiting to hear from ya’ll soon!!




This is the new phone, kinda ugly but what can you do?

Finally in Spain

Hola! I am going to make this first post short and sweet because I am really tired. So today was officially my first day in Spain!! All I can say is VERY overwhelming…I definitely need to work on my Spanish speaking skills this semester. My senora picked me up at the airport, and she seems super nice. Her house is basically an apartment floor, and she has one daughter and one son that live with us. I tried calling home once I got settled, but my cell phone doesn’t function here. My senora was nice enough to let me use her home phone, but I definitely need to look for cheap cell phones in Spain the next few days. Can’t wait to hear moms voice again, but for now I am off to bed. I will keep everyone updated in the next few days. Miss you already!

This pic is from the program meeting where we all met for the first time! It´s goinng to be a fun semester!