Host Fam-Bam, Autonoma, and more!

On Sunday, I met my host family! I have a host mother who lives by herself in an apartment in Salamanca, one of the barrios of Madrid (think like the Sacs 5th of Madrid. Super cool). I was uncomfortable at first but that was mostly because I didn't know if she liked me. When I mentioned that I was Dominican she and her son, Antonio -- who is really awesome and lives/works pretty close by and comes to visit, didn't seem as receptive as I thought they might be, given I am a native Spanish speaker and had a lot of the same interests. Things are much better now. She reminds me of a Spanish version of my grandmother. She feeds me in the same way but also has just as many rules, if not more. It's good though because we are getting along pretty well and we talk a lot about different things. She has also been giving me tips as to how to get around the neighborhood, which has been really helpful.

Today, we visited the university, Universidad de Autonoma en Madrid (or UAM, pronounced WAM!). It's built like a prison because the architect that built it designed prisons. It was during the time of the civil war, and the authorities wanted it to be riot proof. It made me laugh because Medford High was also built by a prison architect, is almost as if I have never left Medford! The campus is fairly easy to get around and really beautiful. The people seem really nice! I'll only be taking classes there once a week, it's a little bit of a trek to get there but it won't be that bad. This semester will be super relaxed, I'm taking 4 classes: Salud Laboral (Worker's Health), Sketchbook (drawing things around Madrid. I am super nervous but Kai says he is going to help me out :) ! ), Yoga, Salsa, and Imagining the America's (about the "discovering" of Latino America from the perspective of the Spanish...interesting.). 

It's been pretty hard being away from home so far. It's been getting much better though. I'm much more relaxed and open to the experience. I still miss home but I'm also feeling good about learning things here and coming home to lots of awesomeness. Zulayne and Sabrina have been super awesome and super supportive here, which I really appreciate. We hung out tonight after we finished picking classes. It's so great that we get along so well and can be really good friends :) We definitely had some really great convos/memories from tonight!

I'm excited to go to the museum tomorrow, lots of updates to come!

here is a video from our orientation: http://www.tufts-skidmore.es/archives/3268