Hi! I’m Vera and I’m doing a 6-week exchange in Spain. Right now, I am staying in Madrid for four weeks for my internship. I arrived there on the 15th of March, two weeks ago.

My exchange in Madrid started smoothly. My flight arrived late in the evening at 11:00 p.m, but luckily I had a taxi arranged by the same company that found me a job here. When I arrived at my apartment, the owner was very friendly and gave me a quick tour of the place.

The next day was Sunday, so I didn’t have any work to do. I enjoyed my day by walking in Retiro Park. It is a large park located close to the city center. The climate here is much warmer, so many plants have already started blooming. The park was crowded with hundreds of people enjoying their weekend.

But the most surprising thing so far has been the prices at grocery stores. Seafood in Spain is very cheap! A kilogram of clams or mussels costs around 3–5 euros, and shrimp cost about 10 euros per kilogram.

Anyway, back to the lifestyle in Madrid. The city has a well-developed public transport system. Buying a transport pass for a month is very cheap, and it allows you to use any kind of public transport available in the city. The metro is huge and very efficient! My first cultural shock was how calm people are on the metro. I’m used to seeing people in big cities always in a rush, which often leads to jostling. But in Madrid, everyone seemed as relaxed as people in smaller towns (for reference, Madrid has a population of 3.47 million people). There are also many buses, but they tend to be slower due to road congestion.

My first workday was on Monday. The place where I’m working is a coworking space, and my role is designer. The owner is the only full-time worker there. He arrived a bit later than I did and began the day by talking to me for about 15 minutes and showing me around the office. It turned out that there was another exchange student who also started working that same day, but he is from Germany.

The first day felt really long. I received a simple task, which I completed fairly quickly. Unfortunately, my boss was preoccupied for the rest of the day, so I had to wait for him to check my assignment. In the evening, it turned out that he wouldn’t have any free time until the end of the day, so I was allowed to go home at 5 p.m. Even though the first day felt slightly disappointing, I received new tasks later on, and my work week became much more productive!

During these two weeks, I’ve also started exploring the city. At first, I was a bit worried about going on the exchange completely alone. I was afraid I wouldn’t find anyone to talk to. But people in Madrid turned out to be very friendly. It’s easy to make friends here. I’ve used app like Nomad Table and Meetup to find local events. For example, there are language exchange events in the evenings at local bars in the city center.