Studying Abroad in Madrid, Spain

My sophomore fall I decided to study abroad at NYU Madrid. It was an exciting, eye-opening, challenging but ultimately rewarding experience. Here is an overview of my time in Spain!

The Streets of Madrid

Housing

There are two housing options in Madrid: Dorm and Homestay.

I decided to say in the dorm because my spanish fluency was pretty basic and I wanted my own space. The dorm is called Claraval and is a mix of students from random universities, but it is mostly NYU Students. There are two RAs, who are Spanish students, in case you need them but they are not as involved as RAs in New York. Each person gets their own room and shares a bathroom and kitchen with one other NYU student. Be warned: there is no oven in the kitchen so be ready to make a lot of pasta. The dorm provides basic kitchen pots but we had to buy a knife and some cooking utensils. The best part of the dorm is that people come to clean once a week! You need to get your items off the counter and desk but they will wipe down your kitchen, clean the bathroom and change the bed sheets.

My super messy dorm room in Claraval

Most of the students I know who did homestay loved it! The two big upsides of homestay are that you get home cooked meals for dinner and you get to practice your Spanish with a real Spanish family. If I went back again, I would want to try homestay – I have heard of a few not-so-great homestay families but most are very nice and good cooks. If you want to immerse yourself in Spanish life and are ok with taking a risk, try a homestay!

Food

Spanish people love pork and potatoes. Jamon, dried and cured ham, is a big deal in Spain! You can get it just plain, like charcuterie, or cut up and mixed into things. Patatas Bravas is another popular dish: imagine Home Fries with a slightly spicy, ketchup-like sauce on top. A classic snack is the tortilla espanola, which is a potato and egg frittata served cold. The food in Spain is yummy, though it can be repetitive and get old by the end of the semester. Spaniards can’t handle their spice so don’t expect much heat during your time there.

The Spanish aren’t great at other cuisines. I had my fair share of bad foreign food (for example, sweet, not spicy, Indian food). One place that my friends and I did enjoy was Ramen Kagura in Centro. The line can be long but the ramen is pretty decent.

Drinks are awesome in Spain - particularly the wine. You have to pay for water at restaurants and the wine is often cheaper than water! A popular drink is ‘tinto de verano’ which is red wine mixed with soda. It is sweet, delicious and goes down easy on a hot summer day. Also, there is no drip coffee like in America - just espresso. A ‘café’ is just espresso and ‘café con leche’ is similar to a latte.

Beware, Spanish meal times are different from the US. Lunch is at 2 and usually a large meal. Dinner doesn't happen till 9 or 10 and is usually light. Personally, I liked the different eating times but I know some of my friends did not like the change.

Language

Everyone in Spanish grade schools take English but, surprisingly, very few people in Madrid can speak it. One of the challenges of studying abroad in Madrid is the language barrier. You will have to use your Spanish. While it can be a pain at first, it forced me to actually practice and get quite good at Spanish. Madrileños (the people of Madrid) are super nice and as long as you try to speak Spanish, they will try to help you. As hard as it can be, immersing yourself in the language is the best way to learn it! Don’t worry if you don’t know any Spanish going in - I know many people who got by on the Spanish they teach you during the orientation week.

Classes

There are no MCC classes offered in Madrid, but you can still study abroad there and graduate on time if you save your electives to use there. Everyone is required to take Spanish, so you can use that for your foreign language requirement. I only took 3 classes: Intensive Spanish, Madrid Stories and Art and Social Movements in Spain.

Madrid Stories was a documentary-making class. It is taught by an Emmy-award winning duo that really do care about their students. You form groups of 3-4 students and make a short documentary about a topic you choose. This class can be frustrating and a lot of work, but it is a great way to get to know the city. Plus, you walk away with a short film to add to your portfolio. If you have an interest in film or storytelling, I highly recommend this class. No prior experience is required - seriously, most people had never held a real camera before.

Art and Social Movements in Spain was a class about modern art in Spain. I took it because Steinhardt counted it as an Expressive Cultures course. This class was pretty easy and only met once a week. NYU even took us on a weekend trip to Barcelona to see the art we were studying!

Some other cool classes are the Prado Class, where you go to the Prado museum in Madrid every week for class. This one is cool because you can actually see the art you are learning about in one of the most famous museums in the world. I know people who spoke Spanish enjoyed the Cervantes class, which is taught in spanish. Many people also took the Cultures and Context class to fulfill the requirement and everyone I talked to thought it was fine for fulfilling the requirement.

To Do

While everyone loves to travel on the weekends, there is lots to do in Madrid itself. From chilling in Retiro Park to exploring the El Rastro flea market on weekends, the city is alive and full of fun. Nightlife is also very important. Talk to the RAs about local clubs to go to because Kapital and Joy are full of Americans (though still very fun). Since dinner is so late, nightlife is also super late. Clubs don't open till 1am and usually aren't lit until 2 or 3 am. The party goes until 6am, just in time for the metro to open!

Retiro Park in Madrid

Traveling is also a great thing to do on weekends. While everyone wants to see Paris and Italy, I enjoyed traveling around Spain on the weekends too. Buses can be cheap and you can still use your Spanish. I recommend checking out the Alhambra in Granada, Sevilla, Barcelona, Grazalema, and Cuenca. You also get to go on a trip with NYU, which can actually be pretty fun! NYU pays for most of it and you actually get to learn things since professors lead tours on the trip.

The Alcazar in Seville, where they filmed Game of Thrones

The biggest issue were the pickpocketers - most people had at least one thing stolen from them. Never put your phone in an unzipped pocket and keep your bag close to you, even in restaurants. Don’t put your phone on the table at a restaurant because it can be gone in a moment. One guy had his whole backpack stolen and many people lose their phones. Regularly backup you photos, so that if you phone is stollen, you still have all your study abroad photos. Thankfully, I never lost anything, but it is easier than you might think to get pickpocketed.

Overall

Life in Spain is definitely different from the US, but not that different. I found it to be a good balance of familiar and unfamiliar. Be prepared for less diversity than NYC and a very European point of view. The people are nice, the city is safe (just be mindful of the pickpocketers) and the NYU program is well run. Just because there are no MCC classes, does not mean that MCC majors can’t go there. I had a great time in Spain and think you could too!