The First Week

Bright buildings. Windy narrow streets. Grathias.

Reflecting on my first week living in Madrid, I feel at a loss of grasping where the time has gone. It seems like just moments ago I landed at 8am in the airport and was so confused as to why the Spanish sun had not yet risen. It also seems like just moments ago I was in the cab, leaving the mountains and outskirts of Madrid to enter the heart of the city, Plaza del Sol, to find my apartment and slowly start to settle in. But indeed this was last Wednesday morning, and since then, I have done my best to start to immerse myself in this beautiful city.

That first day here in Madrid, my main task was settling into my apartment, which meant finding a nearby plaza’s Bazar to find everything I would possibly need for a price under either 5 or 10 euros. Because the store was owned by a Chinese family, I found myself flashing back to activities in my high school Spanish class, where when I did not know the specific vocab word, I would have to describe the word using other vocab words I did know. Surprisingly, I was able to communicate in Spanish with the elderly Chinese woman and soon found everything I needed. Luckily that evening after my first day of walking and shopping, my jetlag was not too rough and I slept through the whole night—perhaps my body was still confused whether I was supposed to be on Chicago-time (7 hours behind) or Israel-time (1 hour ahead).

To say I have done a lot of walking during my time here thus far would be an under-statement. The second day here, my friend Rachel and I walked over 20,000 steps and well over 10 miles across the city, including our morning run around our neighborhood. We found ourselves exploring the Palacio Royal, which is the winter palace for the royal family, and the adjacent magnificent church. This will be the first of many magnificent churches I see, I suppose. Unfortunately, the royal family was not in the palace that day, as a certain flag was not up. We also explored the older part of the city near the Palace, and I couldn’t help but feel mesmerized by the pink, yellow, and blue colored buildings with such intricate details and sculptures on the walls.

Friday marked the first day of orientation for all international exchange students studying at Comillas for the semester, which included various presentations from the administration, national police, and an American faculty member sharing about the university, safety, and tips for living in the city. Following orientation and a brief siesta (nap), I joined a complementary tour of the city, which took us around the part of the city where the Palacio is located to learn about the history. Learning the history of this city was quite interesting, and I hope to study this further to better understand the drama that unfolded around the royal families as well as the Spanish Inquisition.

My Blog is called Ruach because I seek to find spirit around me. Although I have slowly picked up on the Spanish culture around me, such as the fact that everything is closed during the siesta in the late afternoon, I also seek to find spirit from relationships I build with locals. Friday evening I joined good American friends in a different Madrid neighborhood for a Shabbat Reform service and dinner. As I rode the Metro, I realized that I had absolutely no schema for what to expect from this experience—making this experience all the more beautiful.

The service and dinner were held in a local community center that also served as some sort of art museum/exhibit. The service and dinner included a small community of Spanish Jews, perhaps fifteen or so, who were mostly older adults and one family. The service was very special … the new melodies I learned, the booklet I followed along with in Spanish and Hebrew, the Spanish sermon I tried to understand. It was actually quite surreal that there I was welcoming in Shabbat with a Spanish Jewish community when just a week earlier I was in Jerusalem welcoming in Shabbat with Jewish and non-Jewish college student leaders on my Israel advocacy trip. The vegetarian dinner after the service was just as special. We unfolded tables to set up a long table in the center of the room, and before me lots and lots of food made its way out of grocery bags—the container of hummus reminded me of my previous week in Israel. I met one girl from California who was spending her gap year between high school and college working as an au pair for a Spanish family for the past few months, and for the next few months she would travel across Europe and then Israel for her first time. I sat next to one boy who just turned 13, a year older than my little brother. I did my absolute best to understand his Spanish, though I will admit that sometimes I found myself nodding and saying certain filler words when I wasn’t really sure what he was saying. When I would ask him to repeat himself slower, it seemed as if he said the same thing but faster. Hopefully in time, my ability to understand the heavy Spanish accent as well as my ability to improve my own Spanish accent will improve. We talked about books, travel, America, and school. Then, at the end of dinner, I taught him a few words in Hebrew—excellent (mit-zoo-yan), right (nah-chone), and really (bi-emmet).

This past weekend has been nice and low-key. After all of the exploring and walking and observing, I feel a bit swamped and tired. Tomorrow (Monday) I will have another orientation for school, where I will receive some sort of ID card as a student here and go on a tour around the university campus. Though in all honestly, it seems as if the ‘campus’ is really just a single building where all of my classes will be. The first day of classes is Wednesday, which means that I will only have one day of classes this week because my classes are on Tuesday and Thursday. Because most of my exploring around this city has been with friends, perhaps Wednesday I will to do some wandering around by myself. My first day-trip will most likely be next weekend, and I hope to plan some trips around Europe in the next month or so. Most of all, I really hope to go hiking next weekend to have some fresh air—it’s been quite difficult going on urban runs in my neighborhood when passing all the smokers. I miss fresh air.

On a final note, friends and family, please be in touch if you have any questions or want to learn more about certain experiences. Most importantly, if you have any recommendations for trips I can take around Europe (including any skiing recommendations), do reach out.

Ciao,

HB