%*&?ç%&*%!!$£&* - DAY

ok, today was definitely a freaking day. really. here in short why:

- 2 exams - both really random and i had to invent stuff (hopefully i will pass them)
- i just got to know that I failed one of the exams (the prof told us that he didn't care whether we are native or not. he expects everything perfectly explained in the best Spanish ever. vale...puto....)
- this means i have to take another class in Geneva (which makes it not easier to pass all the exams including final exams in June.)
- no, it's not over. so far, these were all more or less my faults. but now comes something which is really not our fault. actually to get our marks we have to get a paper signed by the prof and three different secretariats - per faculty we are in. (this is a very different story than what they told us in the beginning how it works) anyways, this we can only do once they have our marks, which is not before next week. BUT, we all have to go back because university starts the week after and i am going to IPM.

WHY....????? I hate these days......

And just to top everything, when I went to the shop to get a bottle of wine (a reason for drinking can always be found...) this bottle was 3 times as expensive as written on it on the shelf but the queue so long that I really didn't want to go back and get another bottle....

Ok, tomorrow everything is going to be better, at least I hope so.

Birthday in the sun

I just had to share this. Usually my birthday is in the coldest time of the year. I mean it's January. So when I was born there was loads of snow. This year I was celebrating my birthday in Madrid and was actually sitting outside in the park in the sun, in a T-Shirt. Here pics to prove it :)
Thanks again for the cake =)

And here specially for Nadine, so you know what I was "singing" the whole time:

Herbie Hancock, I thought it was you....

Half time over

Everything is soo fast. I am now nearly 3 months in Madrid, which means, more than half of the time I will spend here. If I think back, it seems such a short time that I am here. But this is normal I guess. There have been many great moments so far. Travelling around in Spain to Salamanca, Cordoba, Toledo and Sevilla, all the people I got to know. Ira, the German gang from university, the mc, Spanish aiesecers and many more. I guess I have never been out so much as here. Ok, I am not going to clubs so often, but going for a drink or so seems to belong to the programme here. These are always the best moments of the day. Chilling, chatting and so on. I also really got used to the rhythm here, and it's actually getting difficult to go to sleep earlier than 3 am. Never mind, I’ll get used to the Swiss timing soon enough.
There have also been some challenges here for sure, finding a flat, my flatmate, dealing with the banks or just generally not always being able to express myself that well in Spanish and now sitting in the library and writing papers. So what, everyone has to do this, and at least I can do these here. Madrid, the place I still can go for something to eat after 10 pm, where there are sooo many people in the streets (even though the shops are closed) wearing wigs just because it's Christmastime and where they are having the ugliest Christmas lights I’ve seen (just for your information. Christmas lights in Spain use up as much electricity as a 50.000 people town in a year), but so what, that's Madrid. Sometimes you don't have to ask and just accept and enjoy it. And that's definitely what I do here.
¿Buenas, nos vemos en Madrid, no?

Sevilla

These days I am a bit lazy to update my blog. Updates will follow, but so far I'll just put some impressions from Sevilla, one of the most beautiful cities I have visited so far.

Champions League - Real vs. Olympiacos

This Wednesday we went to the Champions League Match between Real Madrid and Olympiacos Piräus in the Bernabeu stadium here in Madrid. Even though I am not this big football fan, but this is just a thing you have to do if you go to a football-crazy city as Madrid is. Even though the atmosphere was quite good; I was surprised that there was not more cheering. But maybe this has to do with the fact that Real anyways thought that they will win, what they finally did, 4:2. Here you have some impressions of the match. But in TV this is really different than if you are in a stadium with 80.000 other people and you are so high up that you nearly can't read the numbers on the back. Hehe. We will definitely go again to the next CL match in December.

Córdoba

Thanks to an invitation of my gene van flatmate Miriam, I could spend an amazing weekend in Cordoba in Andalusia, which is in the south of Spain. It was already great for the weather, as we could enjoy temperatures around 28 degrees, and this in mid October.
On Friday we went to a wedding of a friend of Miriam, which took place in the Alcazar (a former castle), which is surrounded, by a huge park. This gave me the possibility to have an insight to a Spanish wedding, where many people were crying, screaming ¡Viva! During the ceremony, the woman dressed in colourful dresses and all men with the obligatory sunglasses. It was definitively a very lively ceremony and I understand why there are so many people marrying in this city. (We saw about 10 other marriages).

The castle in which the wedding took place and Miriam and me ready for the ceremony.


The rest of the weekend we spent walking around in the small alleys of the city, discovering nice places far from the other tourists, drinking "Tindo de Verano" (my new favourite drink - basically just red wine with sparkling water) and chatting for hours.



On Friday we also went to the Cathedral of Cordoba, which is actually a mix between a mosque and a cathedral. It was first built as a church but when the Arabs arrived in the south of Spain, they transformed it into a Mosque. After the defeat of the Arabs in Spain, they transformed the building once again, this time back into a cathedral. The impressing thing is that they did not destroy the Arab construction, as this was done so many times, but they actually just built the cathedral in the middle of the Arab building. So you can see very catholic constructions, with all the gold and crosses everywhere in the same building, just some meters away from Arab influenced ornaments.

Some impressions from the Cathedral:

Madrid is great

This is just going to be a very short post whose main message should be positive. I know in the last few posts I was very negative. I was stressed because of not having a flat to live in, then about all the insecurities with the university and also because I did not have Internet at home.
Now all this worked out. I have Internet, thanks to Juan, I am getting used to the comunication style of my flatmate, I did my inscription for university, paid the fee and also got the confirmation from HEI. Today I also handed in my first paper in Spanish, had a presentation in one of the courses and generally feel like things work out.
Now I can dedicate my time again to going out, eating tapas, chatting for hours with Ira and Sarah, working on AIESEC stuff (which can be fun, really, I mean why would I do it otherwise), learning about Real Madrid to be prepared for the next Champions League match which we will hopefully watch in the Bernabeu Stadium, pick topics for my papers, try to speak more Spanish, maybe even do some exercises, right sports wouldn't be too bad, but maybe also cook again this really tasty "Rösti with Zürigeschnetzeltem" as we did last Saturday, get to know the best clubs in town, even better bars, do some shopping (if I have enough money), travel around Spain or at least in the region of Madrid, finish "kite runner" and start "don Quijote", watch "Cheroes" (Heroes but pronounced in Spanish), getting to know more people and places, short, to enjoy life.
Madrid is great.

Am I being too picky?

This is quite a weird story and I really don’t know what to think of it. Let’s start with the beginning. I just moved flat two days ago. I now live with a maybe 35 years old Spanish woman in this flat I was talking about some days ago. When I moved in, one of the first things I did was testing internet. But it did not work with the password she gave me. Never mind, I left for a weekend and thought that this would work out. Hoping to get internet as soon as possible as I am, you could actually say, addicted or rather dependent on internet. I need it for working for university and AIESEC, to communicate with my friends and family, to get information and to have some divertissement. Anyways, when I came home tonight, quite tired (as my classes lasted until 9.30 PM) and a little sick my flatmate asked me again if it worked now the internet. I tried it once (rather 100 times) again and it still did not work as my computer told me the password is invalid. She then called the company and was talking with them for 20 minutes. I did not understand everything they were talking about, but basically the outcome was that this very password worked for the person that was here before and if it did not for me then this is kind of my problem. They told me that this company usually has problems with Mac and that this is just the way it is. Which is a very good explanation for someone that spells wireless wrong when writing down things, which they told her on the phone. Anyways. I called Juan from the Spanish MC who really knows about computers. He offered me that I should send him the data of the router and that that he would try to find out some stuff. So far so good. Now came the point that irritated me. I told her and asked to note me down the data of the router. But she refused for security reasons and told me things like the password are only for her and me and for no one else. Wow, how nice is that, shows that she really trusts me. But I could not say much, was just speechless and being a little sick did not help me finding the good answer for this. I then took the paper with me that had my notes I made during the phone call, which had also her notes including her IP number or something like that. When I was than in my bed reading a bit, she came to ask me for the sheet so I thought that she wanted to copy something or anything like that. But no, she actually RIPPED OFF the part where she wrote things on and gave me back the part with my notes. Now I really don’t know what to think about this. I really think that she is very rude and I am really pissed of this. It’s not about the internet anymore but I can really not accept this kind of treatment. Or am I now unfair? Am I just being very picky on small things or am I kind of right? What should I do? What would you do in my place?

Spanish University culture

Here things are going fine. I am still waiting for university to start. I mean there is no problem for me not to go there, obviously. But still, it's weird if the purpose you went somewhere is still not there. Classes were supposed to start yesterday, but there was some saints’ day, so everything closed. Today there were no classes either, no clue why. Maybe they will start tomorrow, maybe not =) Anyways, Spanish bureaucracy is actually exactly the way you imagine it. I was prepared for that and actually positively surprised today as we only had to ask 5 people in the vicerectorate to get to the person that knew something about our "alumno visitante" (visiting student) program.
So we'll go to the nice and sooo close uni again tomorrow. (It's somewhere in the outskirts of Madrid, and you actually cross fields, or stuff that looks like that, on the 15 minutes bus ride from the terminal Metro station to uni.) And yes, it's true, the do all smoke inside the building (there are actually signs saying that this is forbidden, but this seems not to trouble anyone too much) and they were all drinking beer in the university canteen this morning. (Ok, it was already half past eleven, so this should be ok, no...) Hehe. I guess we Swiss need to jump a bit over our shadows and try to integrate. We are working on it; especially on the drinking part, not that early but tinto de verano and cerveza are definitely nice. =)

Choices

The last few days I spent looking for a flat. I was imagining something like the flat in Auberge Espagnole, few people from different countries, always something going on etc. I mean something really cool. Unfortunately most of the students here looking for a flat must have seen this film as well. So whenever I went to visit one of these cool places, I was maybe number 25. That came to visit this same flat on this day. The weird thing is, that the people renting the flats do not even take note or ask you anything special. They just show you the rooms, tell you what the price is and then that they will call me tomorrow if I was selected. Now I really don't get how they will select the best person if they do not have any measurable etc. (Which can only be the appearance of the person, as they don't ask anything). Anyways, they are probably waiting for the person that gives them this "feeling".
Obviously I was not really motivated anymore going to this kind of flat. I mean I can spend my time better than travelling for 45 minutes to a place that I visit for 5 minutes and where I am told that they'll call me.

Yesterday evening I went to this flat just 2 Minutes away from the MC flat and in a quite good area, I mean one of those where you can still walk back after going out and where the next Metro is just some minutes away. Anyways, I went there and was received by a woman of maybe 35 years in a very small but neat place. The room is ok, small but has everything you need. Same for the flat. There is Internet (maybe the most important thing of all) a kitchen, small salon and a bathroom.

Now came the difficult part of it. Do I take it? I mean this was one of the flats that you can actually get. But then all these thoughts of this really cool place with loads of fun people to hang around. Should I keep searching for a flat? Will I maybe find the thing I am looking for? Or should I just take this one and be glad that I don't have to search anymore....
This morning I went there and paid the caution. Even though I just fund out that I have to wait another week until I can move in. This means I have to ask the MC people if it is ok if I stay here in their place for another week. Anyways, I paid it. The money is gone, and I could still change if I found something incredible (just have to tell her like 10 days before or so) and anyways, as I know me I will be either in my room doing stuff on the computer or anywhere in the city. But, the doubts remain... Should I ... Could I... Would it be better if...?

When it comes to choices I am usually quite bad. Actually I make my decisions very quickly but then I am one of the people that want to "keep the door open" for any other opportunity that might appear. Who know MBTI knows that this is typically "P".
But now I closed the door as I paid the money. Or.... (As I was walking back from paying I was already thinking about the excuse I could use to get my money back in case I would find something else, better, cooler whatever) Really, I will probably never change.

first days in spain and the hassle to find a nice room

i finally arrived in Madrid, where I was recieved very nicely by the spanish MC people. So now I can stay in their place for the first few days, be in their office and try to speak spanish with them. This is really nice, as I need Internet all the times to organize all these very anoying things such as a flat, spanish classes, my university classes and so on. This actually means that I did not have that much time so far to have a look around the city and enjoy the nice weather.
Anyways, tonight we are going out with some of the interns and other AIESEC people. But before I still need to go and have a look at the next flat. Actually I never thought that it's so anoying to look for a flat. So let me tell you some things about my experiences with flats.
1. They are all very expensive.
2. Even if you check online and contact the ad that just went online 10 minutes ago, you can be sure that there were already 30 other persons that had a look at this offer before you.
3. If you call them or send a mail you can be sure that they don't pick up the phone.
4. Even if you visit a room for 450 Euros, it might be very small, not having windows etc.
So the thing we learn from this is. Quantity is more important than quality in that case as you can not check quality anyways.
So I keep on checking all these nice websites as segundamano, loquo, idealista and all the others.
So I need to leave. don't want to be late for the next visit in a flat. And I will keep you updated on what is happening here.