I was a total snob today. It was the first day of my advance level Spanish classes, and before we were sorted into our groups and given our books and all that, we were taken on a tour of Madrid. OMG.
This was excruciating for me for three reasons: 1) I’ve lived in Madrid for two years, 2) The average age was 18, 3) It was 8:30AM!
I just didn’t know how to get out of it without being openly considered an anti-social snob. So I went with it. I was still a snob though.
So here we are, a group of 30 foreigners – extremely evident as we carried around our bright red folders with “WELCOME TO SPAIN” written over them in large fluorescent yellow letters – walking around Madrid city centre for about 90 minutes. I wanted to die. I hate feeling like a tourist in general, let alone in a city I’ve lived in for almost 2 years.
Anyway, to reduce the pain, I befriended a lovely English lady (perhaps the only other “adult”), who works at the Ministry of Defence in the UK. Interesting woman, and she let me rant, so we both laughed most of the way. Then I took her for a much needed cafe con leche at the grimiest old-man bar I could find in the centre – in other words, a cafe with the BEST possible coffee, and then, thank God, it was time to get back to the centre and get on with business.
I’m doing 4 hours a day intensive Spanish at level C2 (the highest level) for the next 3 months. My teachers are two really cool young madrileños, and I have only one classmate — a Turkish interpreter, also very cool. So other than the tourist walk, my first session today was great. I have 7 weeks of normal class followed by 4 weeks of preparation for the DELE avanzado on November 21.
I really enjoy language study, so I’m quite thrilled about it all. Day one and we already have a lot of homework. Shockingly, I really don’t mind! Ask me in a month, perhaps I’ll feel differently.
When I move to back Dubai, I’m sooo going to take Arabic.