Travel to Toledo

Before I came to Spain I did some research, obviously. About schools, people, food, places etc. One to-do definitely stuck: travel. Everybody on any website or forum was advising people coming to Spain to travel as much as possible. Of course, it’s not so easy. You have to know where and when to go, traveling with company is always better and also, you have to afford it. The good thing about Madrid is that it is located in the heart of Spain, so you can go anywhere. 

As I found myself with an unannounced week vacation (there are many public holidays in Spain and the days in between official free days are sometimes also free and even have a name: puente. But more on that later), I decided I should at least take a day-trip to one of the small towns near Madrid. My options were: Segovia, El Escorial and Toledo. I chose the latter because… Well, because an opportunity arose. I didn’t want to travel alone so, again, I turned my eyes towards Couchsurfing. And what do you know? Some people there also wanted to have a trip in their free day to a place nearby. By the time I contacted them, Toledo was already decided. Plus, there was a guy living in Toledo willing to meet us all and give us the city tour. What more could you want? Every travel aspect already organized, more people as company and a tour guide! I also grabbed one of my classmates and off we went to Toledo the next day. 

It was wonderful. It’s a small medieval city, it’s full of history (which I forgot) and you can see everything in a day. It was nice and sunny when we went and we walked its narrow streets the whole day, seeing the famous Cathedral, the famous Jewish Neighborhood with its synagogues and other famous things, of course. But the thing I liked most was its whole vibe – a small, very relaxed old town. On second thought, maybe the thing I liked most was the company. Neither of us had any idea what it was about, except for our guide, who was great and very patient. He walked the whole town with us, showing and sharing everything he knew. He also took us to one of the best beer places I have been in Spain, Enebro. Their tapas are to kill for! Yeah, I think the company was what I liked most. It’s always important to travel with good people.

Featured on Hot Courses Abroad

Yay! Survival of the Student is featured on other sites. Check out Hot Courses Abroad, a great site for finding information on studying abroad, from universities' programmes, to scholarships, to university rankings and more. Everything you need! And also, shared experiences by other students. Like me.

My post on  Housing in Madrid, a little bit adapted, made it to their site, click, click! And as a tip for today: sometimes, all you have to do is retweet.

Study Abroad To Don't List

As I was browsing my +1's (I sometimes do that, as I use Google Plus' feature as a way of bookmarking things I like, although I doubt that is what they made it for), I found another article on studying abroad. This time it's about what not to do, as seen from an North-American perspective. It's written by Olivia Crandall and as it is again from Thought Catalog, you'll sense the same tone, which I personally love.

Mentionable excerpts:

Everyone is nervous, out of his or her element, and really eager to make new friends. The only difference is that in three months/one year you’ll be back at your state school in the U.S. and the majority of these relationships will be more fleeting than the Spanish past perfect subjunctive. So let your freak flag fly.

The real gems you want are Nyquil and deodorant. I can guarantee you will get sick, and not the “just a cold” kind either. It turns out chain smoking, clubbing until 6AM and spending your weekends jetting around the EU because “it’s so accessible” are not healthy habits.

Don’t fall in love. (...) You’re going home, and sooner than you think. You’ll be jaded and your bank account will be empty. You don’t need another thing to quietly weep over during your transatlantic flight.

Interview with Oana

We have our first interview! I want to thank Oana for being so nice to share her thoughts and opinions with me.

I would also like to say I'm sorry for the quality of this video, it deserved more. But you know, technology sometimes gets the best of us. Hopefully, I can learn from my mistakes and make and extraordinary, Academy Award for Best Visual Effects-worthy video next time.

Also, I think I was more nervous than the interviewee, so excuse my dog-balancing-his-head syndrome.

Nobody told me the tomatoes were bad

It’s going to happen in any country you go to. Whether you’re just one border away from home or continents away, you are going to miss the food you have been used to. It doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetarian or a vegan or a cannibal. You’ll find yourself asking: Dude, where's my food? Of course, unless you’re in some forgotten place in this world, you’ll manage to find basic ingredients for your favorite meals in the local supermarkets. But never all of them. Or the exact ones you’re looking for. Or the ones that taste like home. 

In Madrid I do miss some things from Romania, although I’m really not a big fan of traditional Romanian food. At first, it was hard enough to get by with the food by myself, thinking what I need and what goes were, what’s going to go bad in 2 days unless I freeze it and if I had to wash the rice or not. (Yeah, I didn’t know you have to wash the rice before cooking it. Now I do. Thank you, mom!) 

I had to use my memory and my imagination so I could adapt to grocery-shopping and cooking for one. So I failed at first, but got a bit better with time. I’m still not experimenting very local meals or ingredients, but at least I know what’s good and what’s not and what gets me through the week. Turkey is very popular, but chicken liver – not so much. I see sweets everywhere and people seem to like doughnuts very much – one of their traditional desserts is churros con chocolate and there is a Dunkin’ Coffee at every street corner. I know that the oranges and tangerines are very sweet and tasty, that you can find all types of lint around here and that there is almost no normal yogurt or good, simple, unsweetened drinkable dairy. I also know that 2 Thai chilies are too much for one meal. 

And that the tomatoes here are bad.