Halloween ended October with a bang and somehow it’s already November 5th. Autumn has hit Madrid full force: chilly breezes, crunchy leaves, and the brown knits are here for the season. As is the case with many other students, the library has become my second residence–the best place to productively get some work done because my toasty dorm room beckons me to drink hot coffee and watch movies online with friends. Halloween in Madrid was amazing: the hundreds of dressed-up, costume wearing people made Sol feel like one huge open-air fiesta. According to my Spanish friends, Halloween is only recently increasingly popular,”Us Spanish people love a reason to go out and party,” joked one of my girl friends.
These “nuns” insisted my friends and I take a photo with them. Oh, the kindness of festive strangers!
The week leading up to Halloween was even more exciting because one of my friends from New Paltz who is studying in Kingston, London this semester came to Madrid! She spent a good five days here and I got to play the expert and show her around “my city.” After not having seen each other since April of spring semester, we raved about how as sophomores last fall, we would have never thought we would be spending time together in another country, less so another continent. It was as though my worlds were colliding as we caught up over tapas in an old cave/basement of a bar and spoke about our time studying abroad.
Reunited and it felt so good! After an evening at the two world-famous Prado and Reina Sofia museums, we hung out in Atocha.
Along with other New Paltz faces, a few weeks ago I participated in Spain’s first Holi Run (very similar to the American Color Run) with a couple of other girls from New Paltz! Every now and then I would see them on the path and get a face-full of holi powder thrown at me by them. Although Madrid is a big city, we inevitably run into each other at events–day and night!
Casually running the same 5K with Gunsel and Pauline! 😀
Though we go to the same university, we wind up seeing each other more at different going-ons in Sol. With the semester in full gear, it’s also easy to lose track of time but even though days become weeks, I know we’ll have plenty of stories for each other when we get together. Well, this is just a quick recap of the last couple of weeks…I have a good amount of homework to tend to. Granted, I chose to take 3/4 courses in Spanish and even as a native Spanish speaker, taking classes in one of the most rigorous universities in Spain is no joke. I do not regret this, though, not one bit 🙂
Welcome, November!
Halloween ended October with a bang and somehow it’s already November 5th. Autumn has hit Madrid full force: chilly breezes, crunchy leaves, and the brown knits are here for the season. As is the case with many other students, the library has become my second residence–the best place to productively get some work done because my toasty dorm room beckons me to drink hot coffee and watch movies online with friends. Halloween in Madrid was amazing: the hundreds of dressed-up, costume wearing people made Sol feel like one huge open-air fiesta. According to my Spanish friends, Halloween is only recently increasingly popular,”Us Spanish people love a reason to go out and party,” joked one of my girl friends.
These “nuns” insisted my friends and I take a photo with them. Oh, the kindness of festive strangers!
The week leading up to Halloween was even more exciting because one of my friends from New Paltz who is studying in Kingston, London this semester came to Madrid! She spent a good five days here and I got to play the expert and show her around “my city.” After not having seen each other since April of spring semester, we raved about how as sophomores last fall, we would have never thought we would be spending time together in another country, less so another continent. It was as though my worlds were colliding as we caught up over tapas in an old cave/basement of a bar and spoke about our time studying abroad.
Reunited and it felt so good! After an evening at the two world-famous Prado and Reina Sofia museums, we hung out in Atocha.
Along with other New Paltz faces, a few weeks ago I participated in Spain’s first Holi Run (very similar to the American Color Run) with a couple of other girls from New Paltz! Every now and then I would see them on the path and get a face-full of holi powder thrown at me by them. Although Madrid is a big city, we inevitably run into each other at events–day and night!
Casually running the same 5K with Gunsel and Pauline! 😀
Though we go to the same university, we wind up seeing each other more at different going-ons in Sol. With the semester in full gear, it’s also easy to lose track of time but even though days become weeks, I know we’ll have plenty of stories for each other when we get together. Well, this is just a quick recap of the last couple of weeks…I have a good amount of homework to tend to. Granted, I chose to take 3/4 courses in Spanish and even as a native Spanish speaker, taking classes in one of the most rigorous universities in Spain is no joke. I do not regret this, though, not one bit 🙂
Zameena Mejia
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