SPAIN - MADRID

Before coming to Madrid, I talked with several people, how my exchange in Spain could be and what I should be expecting and what they said was that I will have the best time of my life and they really were right: Madrid is the perfect city to life your best life. As a person coming from a small village in Germany, my life completely changed since I am living in Madrid. Life here, in a city that never sleeps and where you can experience so much, learn something new every day and meet different people from all over the world couldn't be more different from my previous life in Germany.

For the first few weeks, I lived with a Spanish family in a beautiful old Spanish flat in the center of the city. On my first day, I arrived in the city at around 10 o'clock in the evening. That evening I got to know one of the biggest differences compared to Germany. As I was quite tired from the journey and ready to sleep, I wanted to go to bed straight away. But the very welcoming son of the family named José asked me if we wanted to have dinner together and go for a walk. At first, I was surprised, because in Germany the kitchens of the restaurants would already be closed at this time. But as I was happy to be accepted into the family straight away and had just arrived in Spain and was ready to experience new things, I of course agreed, and we still went out for dinner and drinks. When we left the house at about 8:30 pm and went to a restaurant, the streets and restaurants were full. We had a lot of fun that evening, met new people, had great conversations despite different mother tongues. I immediately felt comfortable and relieved to have such a great start in a new city.

In general people here in Madrid don't have dinner before 10 o'clock in the evening, you can have brunch until 6 pm and the clubs don't open before am. Everything generally begins much later. For me, Madrid is a city that "never sleeps". I have the feeling that the city is always busy. Also, few students choose courses that take place in the morning. I chose courses that start at 8:00 am three times a week. When I leave my apartment in the morning, there is little activity on the streets and the morning classes are much smaller than my afternoon classes. Another big difference that I noticed immediately is the cleanness of the city. People put a lot of importance on cleanness in Madrid. Little to no rubbish on the streets, clean floors and well-kept green spaces. After a few days, I also noticed the reason for this. The city streets are cleaned every night by cleaning staff. Even when I go to university in the morning, many people clean the entrances and walls of their houses with washing-up liquid, water and a mop. The rubbish collection also comes every night to pick up the rubbish and keep the streets clean. In addition, rubbish must not be taken out of the house before 8 pm. In contrast, Madrid does not attach any importance to waste separation. All kinds of waste are disposed of together, no matter whether plastic, paper or organic waste.

Overall, I have a very positive impression of the city so far, I am happy and feel at home. I have also met some great people so far. I get on particularly well with my two flat mates. Together we explore the city, go for walks every Sunday, watch flamenco shows and try new restaurants. I'm really looking forward to getting to know more cultural differences and exploring the city more and more every day. I also have the feeling that I have already made great personal progress and have learned many new things about myself and my personality