First goal reached

Atocha the main railway station in Madrid

Now I can say that I have reached my first goal. I joined the Spanish floorball team UHK Madrid. In the the training there have been ten A team players and five women and five B team players. A team is training on the other half and women and B team on the other half. We are training one hour on Mondays and two hours on Fridays. Playing will cost 70e for the first month and 20e for the next months.

Spanish people advised me not to forget my back bag to train because then police will come after me. They said that someone will call to police because they are afraid of the ETAs bomb what exploded in the train in Madrid.

Impressions from the lesson

Now I can tell first impressions from the lessons. In spain students fill class from the front so It is totally different than in Finland. In Finland seats on the back are always taken first. Echo in the class makes listening harder and echo combained with more noisy students and language what I don't understand perfectly makes it even harder. In Finland there is always some panels on the roof to prevent from echo but here I haven't seen anything. I had one lesson where profesor did not arrive and no one who was there did not have any idea why profesor did not arrive. I heard that during first weeks it is normal that profesor does not arrive without announcing his absence.

Studies started

This week started the studies of business. On Monday I had still language studies so I did not go the lessons. Today and yesterday I attended some lessons. I am not sure yet which courses I actually will choose but I will have at least 5 different courses in the first semester. That means about 20 hours of lessons every week. First lessons have been just introduction the subject and classes have ended in an hour.

Yesterday I found players to make team for football and volleyball mixed in universitys internal league. I also started to look for new flat and I hope that I will find something closer to my faculty.

La noche en blanco

Francesc, Laura, Coni, Iñaki and I in La noche en blanco

On Saturday night in Madrid was arranged event called La noche en blanco. Event offered culture in different forms. Museums were open for free, live music, performers on the street and etc. Center was closed for the cars and streets were full of people. Lines to the museums were so long that we decided not to visit them. Building were lightened nicely and looked beautiful in the night. Photos of the buildings were not good because of the darkness.

Bulls

Cows running in the street before the bull

Bull in the arena

Today I went with Jesus and his friends to see bulls in one village. First Cows and bulls ran in the street with people and after running in the street people were teasing bull in the arena. People with most courage were waiting bull to attack in the middle of arena and others were in the sides of arena. When bull attacked people jumped safe over the fence. People in the side stole too much bulls attention. Danger made watching exciting. Any people was not hurt but bull broke its horn. It was interesting to see this Spanish event.

In the evening there is Noche Blanca in Madrid and I will meet Spanish people who I got to know in Joensuu.

Weather changed

Picture from the law faculty

It seems that the weather have changed permanently to cold. First weeks were always hot almost 40 degrees. Suddenly weather changed much colder. Now it is only 20 degrees. I could say that weather changed from too hot to cold. I preferred the hot weather.

Exam period for the Spanish is over so now library is quite empty. Spanish have a habit to reserve their seats when they go take a break from studying. They leave their notes to the table and go have brake of several hours. I could understand reserving seat for 30 minutes but reserving seat to several hours is odd.

Floorball

On Monday evening I went to the first floorball training in Madrid. Going by train from Alcalá to Atocha in Madrid takes 35 minutes. Then I should add also time what takes to walk to the train station of Alcalá and from Atocha to the sports center. Travelling to one way takes then about 50 minutes. I did not take my stick from Finland so I had to borrow stick. Stick was too short but I was happy to be able to play. Level of the floorball was higher than I expected. Playing was much more organized than playing with the university students and skill level was also good. I will have next training on Friday.

Nature in Spain

Marta and the brown nature

River in Alcalá

Park in Alcalá

Yesterday I went for a walk with Marta to see the river Henares. River is in the side of the city so we could see how nature is here. Grass on the ground is brown and trees are green. Therefore landscape is not green like in Finland and water in the river looked quite dirty.

In Spain people are afraid of stealing. For example Spanish do not leave bikes to the steets, you can not take back bag inside the supermarket and there are alarms in the vodka bottles. On the contrary in the bars and restaurants you always drink and eat first before paying. It seems that they are not afraid at all that someone would leave without paying.

Party in a flat

Yesterday we had first party in a flat. There was event created in a facebook but flat was not full of people. I think there was about thirty people so much less people than in the flat parties in Joensuu. I guess we will see bigger parties in the flats later on.

I feel like I need more routines to do here. Especially I am missing doing sports regurarly but that should change soon. On Monday I will finalize my learning agreement and then I will know how my first semester will be. My business studies will start 21st of September. Tonight I will go watch match of Real Madrid to a bar with Spanish guys.

One week in Spain

Statue in the Plaza Cervantes in the center of Alcalá

The wolf of Alcalá

I am writing this blog post in the library which is open 24 hours during the exam period. I will get new flatmate on next saturday. She is Italian girl who my Romanian flatmate have met before. I have met here Spanish people which is great and not only Erasmus students. Tutors have introduced me to their friends who have been really kind for me. Therefore I have not been only with other Erasmus students. Seeing Spanish people really helps me to practice spanish because with other Erasmus students language changes easily to English. I think that I have been speaking here English and Spanish fifty-fifty.

Language studies started

Today started two week language course what we are going to have before the studies of our faculty. We will have four hours lessons from 16 to 20, which is quite different time than I am used to. We will have two hours grammar studies and two hours oral studies each day. Oral classes were more fun because we could participate much more. Students were divided to different groups by their level of Spanish. Teachers spoke only Spanish in the class and I was able to understand almost everything. I am happy to see that I understand.

I am planning to make volleyball team for some kind of universitys league. Also joining some student football could be nice. I should visit the sports center and ask more about possibilities in sports.

Traffic in Alcalá

In Spain cars do not have to be 5 meters from the zebra road like in Finland.

Alcalás streets are full of cars and it looks that there is never free parking space. Cars drive through the yellow/red lights but it does not feel dangerous. Sometimes cars have to stop to the middle of crossroads to let people walk who have green light. Drivers let people cross the road and even stop to let people cross the road when there is no traffic lights. I have heard sirens every day but I have not seen accidents. Walking streets are narrow so it would be hard ride a bicycle on walking street if there is people. I am hoping to find place where they rent bikes for free but so far I have not found it. So much more walking here than I am used to.

First party

My tutor Ana

Yesterday night we had first party. It was arranged by Esn Alcalá in bar called Gabana and there was free sangria and beer from 22 to 24. Free drinks is something what you do not see in Finland. In the party I met Norbert, Julien and Marta from CE virtual language course. Earlier I have met also Przemyslaw.

On Monday we are starting language studies in different groups based on our current Spanish skills.

Alcalá

Living room

My room with balcony

I have found flat in Alcalá. We were planning to check out few flats but first one seemed good so I decided to take the first one. Rent is 230e + water + energy. Kitchen and Bathroom have been renovoted three years ago. Therefore those are in good condinition. There is four rooms in the flat but so far I have only one Romanian girl as a flatmate. Romanian girl smokes so I have to discuss with her about smoking inside. Thanks for the Carlos that I found this flat.

Yesterday I registered to the university. Today I got student card and later on today I am going to meet my tutor Ana.

Asiago-Milan-Madrid

I left Asiago on Sunday and travelled to Milan. On my way to Milan I met nice Italian girl in the train and we went to see Milan together. In the center there was annoying black people offering bracelets and seeds for birds. I had to refuse from their offers 5 times. H&M and other clothing shops in Milan looked more elegent than in Finland. In the evening Valentina finally came from her trip and we met in the railway station. I was really happy to see her.

On Monday I had first dificulties with travelling. I had bought train ticket to the airport the day before but in the morning I could not find the train I had planned to take. Therefore I took bus straight to the airport. Coni came to the airport pick me up. In the evening we went for a little walk in Las Rozas with her friends. I have been speaking only Spanish in Spain. I have asked translation for some words but I can already have conversation in Spanish. There is still much to improve.

Today I am going to Alcalà to take a look on shared flats with Coni. Yesterday we called to few landlords and they promised show us flats.