My first week

My first week in Madrid has been so busy. We started our 3-week intensive course on Tuesday. It is an hour of history and politics, an hour of art, and then two hours of grammar and composition. The three professors are wonderful and pretty easy to understand. The class is a lot of work though and on top of that we have been in charge of searching for a place to live in this giant city.
I lucked out with my apartment. I got a great price in an ideal location, and I found it only after 2 days of searching. Some people in my program are still dealing with rude landlords and hole-in-the-wall smelly apartments. My apartment in on the Plaza de San Bernardo, an area not only popular for students but also families. I live with 7 other girls, one American, 2 Spainards, anitalian and then other Europeans whom I haven´t met yet and our landlord wasn´t sure where they were from. I am actually sharing a room with the American, Tayrn, a girl from Madison. The best part about our room has to be the view. Two glass french doors open up to over look the plaza and it´s two huge fountains. It´s beautiful.
Other than class and apartment hunting I have been trying to get to some of the traditional tourist areas such as El Parque de Retiro, El Rastro (a massive flea market that streaches for miles), and the fresh food markets. The night life is amazing. Today I got home at 7:14 am from my night out on the town.
Well, I am off to run some erronds and go to a cafe with some friends. I will write more soon.