Recap of October

Hi everyone!

How have I already been here for two months? Crazy! I thought I should make a post to share all of the fun things I did in October. From starting Spanish class, to sharing North American traditions with my host family, to going on adventures, this month was packed with exciting things to document.

1. The start of Spanish Class

I started Spanish class at a local language school the first week of October.  I am doing an intensive course where I go Monday-Friday from 10:00-11:40. I started out in A1 and am now in A2, which means I'm still a beginner. I am loving it and have learned so much already. The classes really focus on conversation, which is perfect. There are people from all over the world in my class, so we always have a good time comparing differences between our home countries when answering questions. I hope to continue with it for the rest of my time here, so I'll be a pro when I get home! A cool feature of the school is they offer a small activity every Friday. We've gone to the Faro de Moncloa which offers a cool view of Madrid from above, as well as the Museo del Romanticismo, a museum decorated from the modern era.

Faro de Moncloa 

Museo del Romanticismo

Garden outside Museo del Romanticismo

2. A visit to the Thyssen Museum

I visited the Thyssen Museum at the beginning of the month, which means I've been to Madrid's three major museums now (The Reina Sofia and The Prado being the other two) and I will say that this one was my favourite yet! It has a good mix of modern and classic art for my liking. There was also an extremely terrifying exhibit that combined spiders and opera, and had me wandering around in the dark wondering if I was even meant to be in there.

Scary Exhibit

3. Adventure Trip to Cuenca

Jessica and I went to Cuenca on the first weekend of October with a group tour. It was around 2 hours away by bus, and there were so many trees on the way there, it reminded me of being in North Saskatchewan. We started the day outside of Cuenca where we spent the morning travelling down an insanely blue river by jumping off cliffs and sliding down natural waterslides. There were cliffs up to 7 feet high (hard for my Canadian brain to comprehend) so needless to say there was lots of screaming involved. It was amazing! Perhaps one of the highlights of my trip so far. The rest of the day was spent exploring Cuenca and the famous "hanging houses". These are buildings that stick out of the sides of the hills and are a wonder to look at. The view from the bridge was incredible! The town was very similar to Toledo, and it was lovely to walk among the streets and marvel at all the old buildings.

5. Thanksgiving, Pumpkin Carving, and Halloween

I introduced my host family to their first ever Thanksgiving, and we had a very nice dinner together! They had never tried mashed potatoes before (they really liked them), and we had some traditional Spanish food and dessert as well. It was great to be able to experience Thanksgiving even while away from home. My host kids had also never carved a pumpkin before, and we had a great time doing it together. Halloween is a recently adopted holiday in Spain, the older generation visits the graves of family members with flowers but the kids have started to dress up and go trick or treating in recent years. I went trick or treating with one of my host kids who had never been before. It was the warmest Halloween of my life at 20 degrees celsius, so no need for a huge coat to ruin the costume! It was a lot of fun to experience October's holidays in a different culture.


Well, there's my recap of the month. I explored a lot of Madrid and beyond, tried new things, made new friends, and can't wait to see what the next month has in store for me! Stay tuned to hear all about it.