The WIP program includes a homestay for a few weeks at the start of the program as you get settled into Madrid. My homestay was with a señora and I also shared the homestay with another girl from the program. We each had our own room which was nice. I thought staying with a señora that knew everything about the city was great while I was getting adjusted because she was a resource for anything I wanted to know, whether it was suggestions for restaurants or day trips outside of Madrid, or just talking about her life in Madrid as many of the older madrileños have interesting stories from when Franco was dictator and other events that have happened in recent Spanish history. In the homestay, our senora made us breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was a little less than what I am used to in the U.S., but very typical for Spain. We usually had two pieces of toast and a piece of fruit like an apple or banana. For dinner, we had a variety of dishes and way more food than at breakfast. The dishes weren’t authentic Spanish food, but I think that it was intended to be more basic so that everyone would eat it. We had things like spaghetti, soups, meatballs, hamburgers, and chicken. We also always had some kind of fruit and bread with dinner. The señora also does laundry and mine tidied up my room every day. My room was a decent size and also in an apartment as that’s the type of accommodation most people have in the city. It was also close to a metro stop, which was a huge bonus. Overall, I really enjoyed my homestay, but I like to cook my own food so that was one of my big reasons for looking for an apartment to move to once the homestay time was up.
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