So, the orientation. It was on October 19th - 20th and it took place in El Escorial, which is a little town northwest of Madrid. The town is gorgeous. The narrow streets are built on hills and the buildings are typical beautiful European. It is in the mountains and in the morning the fog sits in the belly of the town. There is a huge monastery overlooking Madrid. The hostel was at the top of the town and we could see everything, the view was amazing. It is basically the San Francisco of Madrid. It made me feel right at home.
On Saturday morning I woke up and caught the bus with two other AFSers to the Moncloa station in Madrid. From there we hopped on another bus to El Escorial. We walked up several hill-streets with all our bags and arrived at the hostel. This one was a lot cleaner than the last one. We hung out with each other and did activities all day. The activities were actually not that bad this time and I think it had something to do with the fact that we didn't spend an hour discussing our feelings after each one. We were supposed to go see the monastery at 6 o'clock but it started raining, so we waited and had snacks instead. Let me just say, the AFS volunteers know how to hook it up. The only time I ever have nutella here is at the orientations. We had a bunch of free time and half-activities until we finally went out at 9 o'clock. It was still raining a little bit but it wasn't too bad, just freaking cold. We walked down into the heart of the town and then saw the monastery. It was closed so we didn't get to go inside, but we did take a lot of pictures, so close enough. Afterwards we went to this cute little cafe and Angie and I ordered waters, but realized that they weren't free like they are in the States when the waiter gave us these super fancy water bottles. He avoided us when we tried to talk to him and then was rude when we asked if it was possible to send them back. It ended up costing close to $8.
We made our way back to the hostel by ourselves, and not suprisingly, got lost a few times. I spent the night hanging out with several AFSers in one of their rooms. We were finally told to go to bed at .....3 am? Again, a change from the American orientation, when the curfew was 10 pm.
The next day we had a few activities before the families showed up for the luncheon. My host mom was the only one to show up for me, and I didn't even realize she had come until we were halfway through eating. We had lunch at the hostel. It didn't much sense to make all the families come up to El Escorial to eat bad hostel food. But my guess is that the luncheon wasn't for the students, but for the families, so they could all talk and compare their experiences with each other about us, the students.
This orientation was a lot more laid back than the one before it. The volunteers were a lot more comfortable with us and the atmosphere was just a lot more relaxed. Last time, the AFSers didn't really know each other so a lot of the orientation was about becoming friends and creating bonds, but this time the bonds and friendships were already there so we kind of just hung out. We were just friends spending two days together.
Overall, this orientation was a lot better than the last one and I enjoyed it a lot more. Our next one is in February, I think. Muy lejos.
Well, thanks for reading and pictures below!
Adios,
Sam
Selfie with the monastery. Seriously considering making a "Selfies in Spain" Facebook album hahah
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