Tufts Blogs

Last year, I spent my spring semester studying abroad with the Tufts in Madrid program. I always knew that I wanted to study abroad, and I decided to go to Madrid because I wanted to improve my Spanish and experience life in a big city. Here’s what a typical week looked like for me in Madrid:

Monday

Every Monday, I took the metro to the Universidad Complutense de Madrid campus, where I took an art history class. In the class, we learned about famous paintings at the Museo del Prado, Spain’s main national art museum. Although the class was taught completely in Spanish, it was part of the “Reunidas” program, which is designed for North American exchange students. I had fun meeting students from other colleges in this class. 

After class, I immediately went to my internship at the nonprofit Provivenda, where I taught English classes to native Spanish speakers. I love languages, so getting to look at English from the perspective of non-native speaker was really cool.

I then headed out to get a late lunch before going back to my host family’s apartment. And yes, they did serve dinner at 9pm. Although it took time, I learned to enjoy eating a late dinner. We often watched TV after dinner, which is how I was introduced to La Revuelta, my favorite Spanish talk show.

Tuesday

I always went to my art history class in the morning. Afterwards, I often spent some time studying in the Complu’s library with friends from class. Then, we’d get lunch at one of the university’s dining halls. I had an $11 stipend to spend on lunch each day, which didn’t seem like much at first, but I quickly realized that food in Spain is very affordable. At the dining hall, I could get a whole meal for only $6.

My friends and I would then take the bus back to La Sede, which is what we called the Tufts in Madrid program center. I had an advanced Spanish grammar class there. Along with advanced grammar forms, we learned about Spanish slang, culture, and contemporary history. Everything we learned about was incredibly relevant to navigating daily life in Spain. 

Wednesday

My first class of the day was a literature class at La Sede. In this class, we studied poems and short stories from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries. La Sede is in a great neighborhood with lots of shopping, restaurants, and beautiful architecture, so I often would spend a bit of time exploring the area after class.

In the afternoon, I took the bus to the Museo del Prado. As part of the art history class I took, we had a two-hour tour at the museum each week, where we got to see the works we were learning about in person. I loved becoming familiar with the museum and getting the chance to talk with people in my class.

Thursday

I had my literature class again in the morning at La Sede. Since I had a couple of hours until my next class, I usually took a yoga class at a studio in the Salamanca neighborhood. The class was basically free, since I used my stipend for extracurricular activities to pay for it. Taking a yoga class in Spanish was definitely a fun challenge, since all the yoga-related vocabulary was completely new to me. 

Friday

We had no program classes on Friday, so I often spent my three-day weekends traveling. I had a great time exploring different cities in Spain, and I even took a couple of trips to different European countries!