Today marks my fifth day in Madrid and I can say with confidence that this city has welcomed me with open arms! Truth be told, when I first got here on Wednesday I felt like I’d tossed myself in the deep end. Since then, however, I’ve changed my mind!
If we run it back to Thursday, my day started with a croissant and coffee at a cafe, where I got to know my host sister. Program orientation was shortly after, and after a lunch of tapas (the first of many!) my friends and I got our first chance to explore the streets of Madrid on our own. Evening came around and I took the train home to have dinner with my host family and watch my first bullfight on TV (I felt so Spanish!) before venturing back out to meet up with friends! Friday was quite similar, although we took a walking tour to see some iconic Madrid sights, like the Royal Palace and the Plaza Mayor, which were stunning even in the ninety-degree heat. The sun sets so late here, and so the days feel much longer than back home- and we made the most of it, with a chock-full afternoon and night of sightseeing, shopping, and socializing.
On Saturday, I explored the Museo de Prado, though sadly I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the art! It’s my goal to visit one new museum every week here, as they’re so plentiful. Next, we visited the park of El Retiro and wandered the plaza of Felipe II once nighttime came around. That brings us to today- Sunday! I’d planned to visit the city-wide flea market called El Rastro, which has been on my bucket list for weeks now, but underestimated the remaining jet lag and slept too late to go! Instead, my friends and I went to a local live music spot for the afternoon, before grabbing some coffee and tapas and returning home early to prepare ourselves for the first day of work tomorrow.
After five days, I’ve already discovered some of my favorite things- seeing the city come alive late at night, lemon Fanta, becoming a pro at navigating the Metro, and successfully speaking to people in Spanish without giving away my American tourist status. Unfortunately, whenever I buy something it gives me away, because the machine always asks me if I want to pay in USD or Euros. But luckily that’s one of my only hardships! It’s also been so great to get to know my host family, and connect with each person in different ways: whether it’s watching tennis with my host brother, playing cards and cooking with my host sister, learning new words from my host dad, or being given lots of fruit by my host mom.
Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting a whole new group of people at the first day of my internship, bright and early at 8:30 in the morning. It’s a bit of a commute to the CIAL (Food Science Research Institute in English!) company, as it’s located at a Madrid university a ways north of the city. But despite the transport time, I’m eager to get started! I’ll be immersed in the biotechnology industry, a field in which I’ve been wanting to gain experience in for a while. I’m envisioning that I might need to draw on my wet lab experience in microbiology, and for sure will re-familiarize myself with collaborating with a team of researchers and asking lots of clarifying questions to communicate the best I can. One challenge I’m predicting is overcoming the language barrier, in the sense that there’s many science-related words in Spanish that I imagine I’ll need but don’t know yet. It’ll probably be a bit overwhelming on the first day, but like all of the new experiences I’ve been having, it should be a good day by the time it’s over. I’m also interested to see how international the company and it’s people are. I’m expecting a good amount of students, as I know CIAL has hosted interns from America before, and they collaborate with the University of Madrid to perform research and publish findings.
My goals for work this week are to socialize and get to know coworkers, ask lots of questions, and figure out how long my siesta break is! As for personal goals: to have dinner with my host family as often as possible and continue getting to know them, to visit the Thyssen Museum, and to find awesome jewelry and a leather jacket next Sunday at the flea market. We’ll see how that goes next blog!
Ciao, Katherine