So, first off I must confess I swear I must be STILL jet legged or something!  And I've been here for a week....what's up with that??  In class I feel exhausted...beyond the point where coffee even helps, and it stays that way until I get out at 1:00 (which makes sense since thats only 7:00 U.S. time), and also I feel way too energetic at night and I usually would start crashing by midnight on a school night....well I hope it goes away soon!  I'm sure the ridiculously loud people that hang out outside all hours of the night don't help it either :S

But on a more positive note, things are continuing to go really well with the people here.  I like that everyone gets along with each other and there's no clickiness, so you can just hang out with whoever and not feel like you're leaving out a certain group.  The amount of people is small enough that it feels tight knit but large enough that you have a variety of different types of people to spend time with.  As a matter of fact, tonight I believe I am hanging with my French roomies and I I think Alberto, David, and Cintia will be joining as well....or a combination of those people at least...lol.  Good thing I don't have to worry about sleeping through a class tomorrow!

I also had another surprise today: I walked into my classroom where all the students were talking before the professor came in, come to find out they were ALL speaking in ENGLISH..yes, that's right, my German, Italian, and Chinese classmates all are fluent in English...and apparently they're better at it than Spanish.  How boring and NOT challenging...lol.   We did however have some fun combining all our languages today and basically making up one big messed up cluster language.

After class, I went to watch the World Cup at a Mexican bar with two of my roommates (who coincidentally also happen to be mexican lol)...obviously Mexico was the highly rooted on team, and holy wow did the people in the pub get into the game!  They were cheering and yelling like CRAZY...more than I've ever seen in any sports bar during an important game, and there was a guy who would randomly get up on the bar and play triump songs on his trumpet while everyone else sang along.  It was really cool to see how excited and passionate people were about their home country playing their favorite sport.  The only downside is that it was really crowded, and everytime something exciting happened, literally everyone would start jumping up and down, which means my feet got stomped out by random people a LOT tonight :(  Oh well, it was worth it to watch the game!

Now that I've been here basically for a week, I decided its time to sort out some of the pros and cons of Madrid that I feel so far....plus I feel like it will be fun to look back at the list again at the end of the summer :)

PROS:

-Easy to meet people and very sociable

-Great public transportation...especially the metro

-Easy access to basically everything

-TONS of diversity, and there's a lot of cool little niches inside the city where different types of people live and where there's defined characteristics that are unique to the rest of the city

-A lot cleaner than most Spanish cities

-Stores are open a lot later as well...there's also less store closings for siesta time, and most stores are open on Sunday, which is rare for most Spanish cities)

-Extremely lively and full of a lot of happy, upbeat people (one of my favorite things about Spain)

-AMAZING architecture and the city looks even cooler at night

-The lively atmosphere makes you feel safe because you're always surrounded by people and the cops are always near...so even if its 5 in the morning, you can still feel totally worry free while walking alone back home :)

-AMAZING food, and if you go to the right places, you can get it for a pretty decent price...I also love that the tax is included and a good tip is like 50 cents...so basically you pay the price you see on the menu with out having to considering the 6% tax and the 20ish% tip

-Night clubs want visits from foreigners and Americans tend to be their number one target, so whenever you wander the street at night you basically get treated like a celebrity lol

-Always good cell phone service...haha

CONS:

-Soooo crowded sometimes...there's a ton of people packed into one population!

-In addition to that, there's people walking at all sorts of paces (people power walking to work, groups of people stopping in the middle of the street to talk, tourists wandering slowly and hogging up space, etc.) and basically no one considers the fact that they're sharing the walkways with everyone else.  I feel like people in America do a pretty good job of observing others around them and either moving to the side when they're in the way or not stepping literally RIGHT in front of them when they stop walking...but here everyone just walks as if they're the only ones on the street, and when you get a hundred some people like that all doing the same thing, it can be very frustrating to get places! For example, today I walked into a store and the group of three people right in front of me stopped to talk literally right in the door way...and people had to squeeze past them because they just stood there in the entry way blocking people from walking in...LAME.

-Lots of noise at all hours of the night

-A lot of people just assume you're a dumb or ignorant American and stereotype you...also on the pro-side however, sometimes people think its really exciting when they meet an American and get excited about talking with you!

.Americans are definitely stereotyped as the fast food, burger/pizza eating part of the Madrid population, and they think we are OBSESSED with these foods.  It can get really annoying when a outside restaurant worker finds you on the street , and then thinks they're helping you with choosing a restaurant by chasing you and letting you know that they sell lots of deep fried stuff at their place...

-A lot of street survey people on Calle Preciadas that stalk you, and you when you eat outside you may just get a homeless person at your table who starts begging you for money (sad truth but also very dangerous)

-People shoving flyers in your face from all directions as you walk down tha street

----Also, it REALLY bothers me when Americans go into a cafe/store and get mad when workers don't understand them when they speak English instead of Spanish to them.  Its THEIR country, and its not their fault you came to the country expecting that they would know your language...and its your fault that you failed to learn their language while knowlingly being aware of the fact that this is a Spanish (not English) native speaking country...and it looks really ignorant.  I'm not saying you shouldn't go to a country if you can't speak the language, but don't just assume that your country is so amazing that everyone wants and has to speak your language....NO ME GUSTA.