Wednesday:
Woke up for first day of classes. Had International Finance, Spanish, and Equities and Investments. The Finance classes seem to be very interesting. I was first to arrive to my International finance class and started talking to Dr. Howden about hockey because he's from Ontario, Canada. ( he was really bummed out about the youth hockey championships from the Russian win over Canada in the finals). Only one other student ended up showing for the class, so it was just me and student. **Only male in this class...lets see if I can capitalize on this opportunity :). Next class was Spanish. Most likely going to drop this class. Waaaay to easy, went over how to pronounce vowels today, plus it felt weird feeling like the smartest person in class already on the first day. Not going to waste my time on something that i am already getting better at and using everyday. Why take a Spanish class when you got a book devoted to Dirty Spanish phrases anyway? (thanks Andy.) Equities seems to be a fun class to. Its a subject that I am excited to learn more about. However, Dr. paulo Soalo is Chilean and is having a hard time to speak English at the normal pace. Only five students in this class also (the other is international Finance).
Wednesday night Ana made us this soup which was mashed up vegetables. It was very similar to the consistency of baby food, but it was very good. Main course was a very flavorful pan fried, flat beef piece with home fries on the side. Ana seems to like me very much because I make sure there are no leftovers and that i always have seconds. She makes fun of Dean because he doesn't eat as fast as me. Dessert was a strawberry and milk drink.
That night we went out again to "Calle Mayor", another main street of Madrid and walked around to see the sights and architecture. It will be hard to describe everything I saw so once i figure out how to post pictures you'll be able to see everything. We met up with some friends, (tommy, kendall and Mike) we met at orientation and met at an American Bar/ Hole in the wall. looked like the inside of a garage covered in American regalia. Americans were playing beer pong and the bartenders were really nice. (they liked dean because he was good at spanish and gave us free sangria) Met a lot more people who were studying abroad and from my school.
Thursday (Today): Classes today were Spanish, global econ, and International business. Didnt go to Spanish because I am 96% sure that im going to drop it, just waiting on the approval of my advisor at Duquesne to give me the go-ahead.( Its duquesne policy that I have to take a language while abroad, but i wrote a pretty convincing email and she likes me so I hope she will do it.) The other classes were cool, really like my econ teacher, young and down to earth.
Showed Ana my photo flip book. She saw it on the desk and insisted that I show it to her. She said I had a beautiful family and Dog. After showing her the picture of the tapped maple tree, she understood what my maple syrup gift was from.
Dinner tonight was Ana's homemade mozzarella sticks with ham chunks inside. ( Madrilenos really love Ham, We see pig legs everywhere, from inside houses to dance clubs, even went inside the "Museum Of Ham" with pig legs covering all four walls.) The soup was lentil soup with sausage pieces, though she was ardent in saying that it was not soup at all. (Again, it was either cooked with huge grizzly bacon pieces or slabs of lard, either way, it made the soup ten times more flavorful than any lentil soup I have ever had before, (<--thats a tip Mom). Ana again was pleased with my eating. Made fun of Dean for being a slow eater. Had "leche con Fresas" smoothy for dessert again. She said she would make a homemade pizza for us tomo so Im pretty excited. I can honestly say that since the first night, the dinners keep on getting better and better. I steal bread pieces from dinner so I can have something to snack on when I get hungry after dinner.
Tonight Me and Dean met up with a bunch of people at Dubliners, an Irish pub known for its American patrons. Even the tenders were Irish here. from here we walked to a dance club called "Joy". It was student night so we got to go in free of charge. Very cool inside. Met a lot of people that i recognized from my classes. Making a lot of friends! We didnt leave until the metro opened up again because we didnt want to shell out sheckles for a cab. Dont want to tell you what time we got back, but we stayed until the club closed in the morning. Starting to turn into typical Madrid dwellers.
Now im here. heard the states are covered in snow, it was 60 degrees today in Madrid. So glad i didnt bring my ski jacket. Go 'Cuse!
Cheers from Madrid!
"El Gato"
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