It's always exciting to move into a new room (especially as a student). Who will you live with? What will they be like? Will you fit in? I asked myself the same questions as I moved to Madrid for my semester abroad here. But even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined how I was greeted. This was, namely, with a simple "Salut! Ça va?" It was at that point that I realized that after years of having learned Spanish, I was now living in an apartment with only French housemates. I guess that's how fate plays tricks on you.
Ever since, my kitchen has filled with my French housemates, and their French friends, whose French friends also joined. Also the people I meet during Erasmus events don't quite contribute to my 'Spanish experience'. Talking to Argentinian, Belgian, Brazilian, Polish, and Swedish Erasmus exchange students (alphabetically listed for convenience), I am truly learning about the whole world but Spain. I am told that this is the 'Erasmus Exchange Experience' - everyone is open to meeting new people, making new friends, and discovering new cultures. Though, I must say, while the way I am living my life now doesn't compare to what I imagined living in Madrid to be like - surrounded by Spanish, people, and culture - I am truly living the Madrid experience.
It was already on the first day that I noticed the great number of rainbow flags hanging off the balconies. This spirit of accepting, if not embracing diversity seems to be the pulse of Madrid. It may be the neighborhood that I chose to live in - Leganés, the barrio where all evil supposedly lives - but when I walk along the street to get lunch, I encounter one gay couple after a Senegalese man wearing traditional clothing after another individual just being themselves. And I smile at the Argentinian and Belgian and Brazilian and Polish and Swedish friends I made after a few days, as well as at my all-French household - the true Madrid experience could not have been any different than this jumble of cultures. Of ideas and experiences. And it is at these moments that I realize that the thing to admire about Madrid is not just its paella.
Jesler van Houdt