A long and necessary update:

Saludos de Madrid! I’ve been meaning to write and update this blog – so here it goes! Please feel free to skim I have the tendency to do blog posts in a stream-of consciousness style

**note on blog title: For those of you who may have forgotten, my last name is “Kiss” which is pronounced like quiche in Hungarian. Conveniently, quiche is one of my favorite dishes to cook and eat. Since my last name is pronounced like kiss in English, I thought it would be suitable to name my blog “Besos de España” (kisses from Spain). Also, besos is a very common goodbye in Spain – you say besos to almost everyone, and kiss everyone twice when you meet and say goodbye.

Pre-Arrival

First of all, let me begin by explaining what exactly I am doing in Madrid. The truth is, I’m not too positive about that myself. About a year ago I was in the midst of Fulbright applications – trying to finalize my project proposal and scrambling for affiliation in Spain. Affiliations are people, organizations, academics etc. that will vouch for your project and pledge to provide support/guidance. Through a professor in Granada, I was able to connect with another professor who agreed to provide academic affiliation. However, I felt that the nature of my interests would require organizational affiliation as well and I was not able to get that in time for handing in my application. So, last minute I switched to teaching because I felt like that would be a better option and was still flexible enough for me to pursue my research interests on the side.

Fast forward to April and I found out that I was awarded the fellowship! I later found out that I would be teaching “secundaria” (ages 12-18, though we don’t teach the 16-18 yr olds). My instituto is IES Maximo Trueba, located in Boadilla del Monte, about an hour outside of the city. I found out that my good friend Angie was also awarded a TA (Teaching Assistant) fellowship and we were both super excited.

This past summer was pretty busy with working at Changemakers (Hi everyone at Changemakers, I miss you all!), my graduation, my brother’s graduation, catching up with friends in DC and LV, and studying for the GREs. I was really lucky to stay with my Aunt in DC and enjoyed the numerous dog walks (Hi Agi and Spencer!) and spending time outside. I also went to the consulate to apply and pay for my visa, as well as booking flights/hostels etc. I stayed in DC until late August and had a great week with Tim (who was in Morocco this summer) before heading back to NJ for packing. My Mom was super patient and helpful with helping me figure out what I needed and how to fit it all in two suitcases. I was able to see my brother (who just started his freshman year at MIT) and Aunt before leaving.

It was an interesting summer – I met some great new people at Ashoka, caught up with old friends, while missing lots of people who weren’t in DC or Long Valley. The whole time I don’t think it really sank in that I would be abroad for a whole year, and to be honest I’m not sure it still has.

Traveling

My parents dropped me off at Newark airport on Thursday, Sept. 3^rd for a 5:30 pm flight. I met up with Angie at the gate (we were on the same flight) and it was great to see her and catch-up. We had a few hour layover in Copenhagen and then caught the second flight to Madrid. On the plane we met a really nice Canadian guy (who has lived quite the international life, including in Mexico, London, and now Copenhagen). We really enjoyed speaking with him and made plans to meet up the next day in Madrid.

Once arriving at the hostel, Angie and I went into super-speed mode. We had a lot to do – including getting SIM cards, abono metro passes, and of course the dreaded apartment. Thanks to Clayton’s Spanish friend, I had been religiously visiting idealista.org, an amazing apartment hunting website that makes craigslist look positively rudimentary (which it really is). Through the site I was able to connect with a lot of people and had about 6 apartment visits lined up. Angie also had a bunch lined up so we had quite the day planned after a day of traveling.

I won’t bore you with the details – but from Friday to Sunday we visited A LOT of places. Other than the stress and nervousness of trying to find something, it was actually a lot of fun and a good opportunity to explore the city. In the end I found a cute place in Alonso Martinez, which I’m sharing with 3 Spaniards (ages 21 – 26) who all seem very nice. Hugo is 26 and works for a style PR firm, and represents Levis. Sandra is 26 as well and works for the corporate side of Corte Ingles, a huge department store in Madrid. Andrea is Hugo’s younger sister (21) and an audio-visual university student. Angie also found one in Embajadores that is perfect for her commute.

As to be expected, there were some bumps in the road and some funny translation situations. However, over all I think we both did pretty well considering neither of us has really spoken Spanish in 2 years. One example is when my compañeros were showing me the piso I misunderstood and thought they were talking about the badae – but turns out they were talking about the Jacuzzi tub! During on of Angie’s apartment visits (Kyle and I tagged along) the girls were explaining a very complex situation where the apartment was supposed to house 3 people but they illegally were housing 4. She referred to the 4^th “illegal” roommate as “negra” (black – as in black market) and at first we thought that the problem was that the roommates were racist which was not the case. Anyway, as long as you have a sense of humor about it, it all works out!

Orientation

After spending the first few days in a hostel and apartment hunting, we packed up our stuff to go a Residencia which is where we would be attending the Fulbright orientation. I had already moved in most of my stuff to my new place and Angie moved in hers to her apartment the next day. Orientation was pretty busy, but a great opportunity to meet all the Fulbrighters. I mostly met TAs because they were in our sessions, but I also met some really interesting research Fulbrighters. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be joining the researchers, but I am also looking forward to the challenge of being a teaching assistant and I like the support that the TA provides. After I have a better idea of my schedule I’ll try to see what kind of other side projects/research I can do.

It was really great to hear from former TA’s, some of them are staying for a year longer which is an option available to everybody provided we do a good job. I had also heard a lot of the information from Adena, the fulbrighter who was at our school and she was incredibly helpful in preparing us.

Other than the sessions, we all would go out at night to explore different parts of Madrid and get to know each other. There were also a lot of TAs who won’t be in Madrid (there are programs in Valencia among other areas) so it was a good opportunity to get to know them as well. After a few busy days, it was nice to finally move in and unpack all of my stuff in my new piso.

Post Orientation

Since Orientation ended last Friday, I’ve just been relaxing, catching up with friends/family, and exploring the city with my new friends. I’ve been to lavapies, which is a really colorful section of Madrid known for its immigrant population and incredible Indian food. We’ve gone to a few places in Tribunal/Bilbao area, as well as Malasaña and my area. Last Saturday we ventured out to a town outside of Madrid, where a friend is living and teaching. It’s apparently the town’s biggest Fería of the year and it was a lot of fun. They had all kinds of music, free food, and we enjoyed hanging out and getting out of the city. We also enjoyed non-city prices, and getting tinto verano at reasonable prices

Us eating at the Feria

Strange Obama “yes we can” poster in Spanish phonetics (?) That’s our theory at least..

After the Feria, we came back into the city and walked around Retiro park for a bit. I’m a big fan of Retiro, and trying to take advantage of it as much as possible before the weather gets too cold. I walked to the park from my piso the other day and went running in the park while stopping at different areas to do some people watching. Today we’re going to have a little picnic at Retiro which should be fun.

While I’m liking Madrid, I have to be honest I’ve been more homesick than I had expected. I’ve been comparing Madrid a lot to Granada, which is really not fair since it’s a very different city and different circumstances. I’m hoping once things get busier, and I start school that the homesickness will subside. As Dylan, my best friend who lived in Madrid before told me, Madrid is not like Granada where its charm and beauty is immediately there upon arrival. He says that Madrid’s charms need more familiarity and it’s advice I’ve taken to heart. I’ll post later about the differences I’ve noticed.

Closing thoughts

Alright, I think that’s more than enough information for now! I apologize for the dry post, but I felt like a catch-up was necessary. I promise to provide more interesting anecdotal stories soon. I'm also hoping that I'll soon have a better idea of my teaching sched. so that I can start working on side research projects, volunteering for Ashoka Madrid, intercambios, taking classes or whatever works out. I'm trying to be flexible and really absorb the "no pasa nada" Spanish mentality.

I’m now off to get ready for today’s picnic at Retiro. I’ll try to be diligent with this blog and keep you all updated. I’ve looked back a few times at my blog I kept in Granada and I’m glad I kept up with it. I’ll try to do the same this time! All my love and best to everyone!

Besos,

Katica