WW Around the World - Madrid, Spain

Hello everyone! I'm Barbara, a rising sophomore (does that mean I'll be a sophomore in the fall? I don't know, my English skills have been dropping remarkably rapidly after two weeks -- the other day I said 'the grand majority' instead of the 'the great majority' because the phrase, in Spansh, is 'la gran mayoría') in Wharton! I'm in Madrid for 7 weeks this summer, and thus far, I have really enjoyed it.

I studied Spanish for 7 years before coming here, and this past year, took Business Spanish at Penn to meet my requisite 5 semesters of college Spanish ("or equivalent") in order to be accepted to my program. The program that I'm in is run through Boston University. It involves an internship component in the morning and a class in the afternoon.

The organization that I work for is called Mundo Cooperante, a non-profit that helps women and children in impoverished countries in various aspects of their lives. It has a number of projects in different countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. I really enjoy my work thus far, and the office really tries to incorporate me as one of the staff (it isn't hard, there's only 6 employees!). Plus, it's always great to know that in some small way, when I leave every day, I've done something to help their cause.

The class I'm taking is called Contemporary Spain and covers the historical, political, and social elements of Spain in the last century. It's pretty interesting, but no word if I'll get credit for it at Penn yet... :-)

This weekend, my program and I traveled to Sevilla. A couple friends and I went to a flamenco show, which was amazing. I also had some gazpacho, an Andulucian specialty.

Life in Madrid has also been exciting. I live in a penthouse apartment with my señora, her husband, and for another couple of weeks, two girls from Appalachian State who are also here on a summer study abroad. The food is always great at my house -- I'm always disappointed when I have to bag a lunch instead of eat it at home because I'm usually missing something tasty (also notable: lunch is the most important meal of the day in Spain).

Speaking of lunch, I better get back home soon. I don't have wireless in my homestay so I'm in an internet café. This afternoon, I'm going to the Prado -- something I definitely couldn't say if I was spending my summer back home in Arizona!! I'll write more about my life... sometime later. I also need to take a picture of me in a cool place in my WW hat. Cool places in Madrid aren't hard to come by so expect that sometime soon too. Hope you all are having excellent summers wherever you are!