Before coming to Spain, I had heard a lot from people about how public transportation is a lot better here, and that was one of the biggest differences that they had said. After being here for about a week, I can see why they mentioned it so much. Madrid has an extensive system of buses and metros that trace all over the city, and they are very easy to use after about a day of learning. My first day I tried to take the bus to my orientation about 30 minutes away. I used Google Maps to find the station, but there were two right across the street from each other and I didn’t know which to use. I just picked one, and then the bus I thought I needed came to the other one. So I switched, and then the bus that I actually needed came to the first one, and I missed it. So I switched again, and about 15 minutes had passed now, so I was already late. I finally got on the bus, and I was so happy to have figured it out. When it came to my stop, the bus driver just didn’t stop and went driving on past. I hadn’t realized there were small buttons all over the bus to push to request a stop. I got off at the next stop, and it added about 20 minutes to my already late ETA. Eventually I made it to my orientation, and this was after an eight hour flight that I hadn’t slept on, so it felt like three straight days of being awake. Overall, I learned a lot about the city’s transportation, but also how to troubleshoot on my own when I am tired. Madrid’s public transportation is amazing, but when people say that, they don’t include the learning period when you have to adapt to another country’s system. Study abroad can be romanticized, but a lot of it is trial and error and learning, which is also amazing.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: IES Abroad: Engineering, Math and Science in Madrid