Rosales
One piece of advice that I would offer to students preparing to study abroad is to carefully select where they will live. Depending on their goals, their immediate daily environment can make all the difference. Some live in residence halls with other Americans, some live with local host families. I lived in a student residence called Residencia Estudiantes Rosales, but we just called it Rosales.
Rosales was comprised of two dozen people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-seven. Meals were included and the rooms were nice, but the best part of living at Rosales was that I was the only American. Many of the residents were from Spain, while others were from Peru, Colombia, Vienna, Paris, Hong Kong, and Italy. Lunch and dinner were my daily Spanish and global studies classes. At the beginning of my stay, I struggled to form sentences and had immense difficulty understanding people. I was the often only person in the room who spoke English. I can’t explain the confusion that occurs when eight people around you are yelling over each other at rap-like speed in a language that you don’t speak. Regardless of the difficulty, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn. My remarkably patient friends helped with my Spanish and loved teaching me about their home countries.
In the same building as Rosales there was a café. It was small and had blue walls. Blanca, one of the people who cooked our lunches and dinners, would work the café each day. A good day for the café was one or two patrons. I sat in the café to do work and practice Spanish with Blanca and her son Antuan. He was ten years old and beginning to learn English in school. He spoke better English than his mother, who didn’t know a word other than a few bad ones. Antuan and I would quiz each other on animal names, body parts, and colors.
Another incredible quality about Rosales is the location. Not only was I a short walk from my University, but I was also situated in the heart of the city. In central Madrid, Rosales stands just a few blocks away from the Royal Palace of Madrid and Plaza de España, a large square featuring beautiful monuments that pay homage to Spanish literature. It is also a two-minute walk from my favorite spot in the city, Temple de Debod, a large park that is centered around an ancient Egyptian temple. This park had playgrounds for kids, walkways shrouded in tall trees, and the best view of the sunset in the city. Every day, people crowd the park on picnic blankets and listen to musicians play as the sun goes down over the mountains bordering Madrid.
The photo below was taken at one of my last meals in the residence. I made sure to wear my KU shirt for the photo too. I am so grateful to have lived in this residence as it represented precisely why I studied abroad in the first place: to learn Spanish, be immersed in the heart of a city, enrich my understanding of the world, and make friends from across the globe. For those interested in studying abroad, consider your goals and how the location and demographics of potential residences fit in with those goals. It makes all the difference.
[Sam Weintraub, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Spring 2023]
