Saint Louis University - Madrid Campus (SLU)

The house that we got to live in was pretty nice. Zenaida, the woman who was in charge of looking after was really sweet, although she did get mad at us a lot. The only freaky thing is in the middle of the night one of the guys who works for the university would walk through the house to make sure everything was ok. He was really nice and cool, but footsteps in the middle of the night can be sort of freaky.

You need to go outside the university to speak Spanish, or you can opt to take a lot of courses in Spanish. Its easy to make friends outside the university though, so just go out to some local bars and meet some local spaniards. Metro stop Universidad...I think was the name I can't remember...anyways there's a bar over by the spanish universities and i can't recall the name...but if you just go to where all the spanish dorms are you end up there...CAMPUS that's the name. Big hang out for local Spanish students...SLU students never go there, but I did and its cool. The bartended makes this incredible lemon drink. Also, around September they'll be doing the freshman initiation ceremonies at their dorms and the upper classman make the freshman do stupid things. If you go to local parks during this time of year you'll see it. But be careful in that area while walking around dorms and high rise apartment buildings...people dump buckets of bleach out their windows onto the freshman below.

my first semester was at a 'girls dorm' which later closed down. the following semester i was at a university apartment, but the girls were not my type of crew...very 'fake'. my last year there i had my own apartment and it was great. 2 minutes from school. great neighborhood too. freedom.

Monday-2 4 1 at Chesterfields. Tuesday-Casa de Cerveza (Bilbao)all you can drink Wednesday-Bash/Barnon or whatever hip hop club is open Thursday-Cats, close to school Friday-either Velada, Kapital, Cool, or Joy. Saturday-one that you didn't go to on Friday. Sunday-Joy, pretty crazy still. Or any other night Las Huertas and Plaza Santa Ana cerca de Puerta del Sol. There's always a party there. ESPECIALLY around carnivales. For Salsa dancing check out Ramdall cerca de Plaza de Espana. Pacha is also an option but not one of my favorites. For fun craziness, check out the gay scene in Chueca. ALSO, keep track of the Fiestas en cada pueblo cerca de Madrid...like Majaronda and other places. Big carnivals outside the city that you can usually take a bus to. Outside Madrid, Fiestas Grandes in August in San Sebastian (Denostia) So much fun.

there are always ways to earn a few extra euros. teaching english or just doing intercambios is a good way. i did't really experience any financial surprises. if you budget, you'll survive. try to live with out american products, experience spain for their food as well. buying spanish alternatives to name brands saves $!