Erasmus Diary Entry 1

It has been a week since we landed in Madrid and already this is shaping up to be one of the best decisions I ever made. In 7 short days we have made friends from all over the world, we have hung out with people from as far away as Japan and California and are already learning so much about various cultures. Our grasp of the Spanish language has already improved dramatically (to be fair anything is an improvement from the level I was at), and with a little help from O'Neills Irish Bar (hat tip to Mr. Mark Young) who have organised a "language exchange night" every Tuesday, we should be speaking the language to near perfection at the end of our stay here.

Within two days we had found an apartment to stay in. A nice four bedroom with a view of "Plaza De Toro". We had done a bit of research before coming here and previous Erasmus students told us to stay somewhere near the city as opposed to living nearer to college as it could get quite boring and we would spend our days going to the city anyway.

So, since we moved into our new apartment, the majority of our time has been taken up with trying to find a suitable supermarket for our weekly shopping. Needless to say the majority of our meals for the first few days were bought in a restaurant. But after a couple of days we found an Aldi just a few metro stops away, which means we won't starve! (always a bonus). 

So I would count our first week in Madrid as a success, we are managing to cook for ourselves, do the washing and even managed to meet Gary Cotterill outside the Bernabeau stadium on transfer deadline day, probably a more familiar name to those of you who watch Sky Sports regularly.

So for anyone considering doing the Erasmus programme in future, my advice for the first week is, expect to spend more on food the first few days, find a flat near the city centre and most of all, make friends! Without friends, homesickness will kick in very quick!

Hasta Luego!