My First Post...

Welcome! After nearly two weeks of settling into life in Spain, I finally have a chance to write my first entry in this blog, which I will try to update on a weekly basis. Seeing that this trip is my first time visiting Europe, I will generally stick to reporting and observations of Spanish society, politics, life, fashion, etc. I will make some commentaries on issues related to my research on the history of immigration law and the rights of undocumented immigrants to join labor unions.

Unfortunately, I broke my camera when I arrived to Madrid and dropped it off at Canon’s service center in Madrid to fix the camera. The company will return the camera within the next two weeks, so expect photos with entries in October.

Life in Madrid so Far

After arriving to Madrid on September 7th, I participated in a weeklong orientation session with the rest of the Fulbrighters studying and teaching in Spain. Currently, the program has hired 66 ETAs – English Teaching Assistants – to assist primary and secondary school teachers throughout the city and country with English classes. In addition to the teaching assistants, the Commission also awarded research grants to 22 postgraduate researchers. I fall into the latter category and will discuss my work later in my next post.

The orientation itself was mostly forgettable, save for a few choice comments from some of the speakers and a meeting with the American ambassador to Spain.

I can’t say the same about my first nights in Madrid.

While I will not divulge into details of my outings in the city - my friend’s pictures on Facebook serve as faithful documents of our adventures - I will note that the sheer number of people who congregate in public to socialize with each other stunned me. In barrios and zonas such as la Plaza Mayor, Gran Vía, La Latina, Palacio Real, and el Parque de Retiro, one will see young people, older people, couples, groups of various subcultures, and parents with children socializing on the streets of Madrid well into the night.

I’ve seen large numbers of people congregating in public spaces in the States. Still, the scale of Madrileno’s regular use of public space as a center of social activity easily surpasses Americans’ use of similar areas in urban areas throughout the United States.

It doesn’t hurt that I happen to live in the middle of one of Madrid’s main social centers, Plaza de Espana when making my observations. The area is home to Gran Vía, the Palacio Real/Palacio Reina Sophia II, the Catedral Nacional, the Senado, and the Cervantes Monument. In comparative terms, the area due east of me – Gran Vía - captures the look and vibe of Broadway/Times Square while the area due west of me – the Palacio Real, et al - mirrors the monumental splendor of the national mall in Washington.

My street sit comfortably between these two extremes, offering small convenience stores specializing in Chinese food, a hookah bar, some questionable ‘disco bars’ for men, a police station, and, most importantly, a guitar store, which will serve as a steady supplier of strings for my acoustic guitar. I am also within walking distance to Sol, the heart of the city and, literally, the country: a small plaque in the center of the plaza declares that the plaza is Kilometer 0, the center of Spain.

I am currently living with two French girls and an Italian guy, all students at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid– ‘El Complu’ – with the Erasmus program, which is a study abroad program for university students in the EU. It is not uncommon to hear four languages – Spanish, French, Italian, and English – spoken in my piso. All we need now is someone who speaks German to turn our piso into a miniature version of the EU. Unfortunately, we’re not taking applications at the moment. (Sorry Ms. Hollis)

About the Fulbright Program

I should note that universities in Europe modeled Erasmus after the Fulbright Program, which was founded in 1946 after Senator William J. Fulbright, D-AK, pushed legislation through the House and the Senate to create the program, which is funded by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The purpose of the program is to “increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills.”

In addition to granting scholarships to graduate students from other countries to study in the United States, the Fulbright program sends ETA and researchers to 152 countries worldwide. Each country generally has a local Fulbright commission or grant center that works with the Institute of International Education to manage the application, selection, and orientation process for Fulbright researchers and teachers.

The Spanish Fulbright Commission, which works with the Comisión de Intercambio Cultural, Educativo y Científico entre España y los Estados Unidos De América, is celebrating is 50th anniversary this year. Given the momentous occasion, it is very exciting to work with an organization that has promoted the development of intellectual curiosity in American students for 50 years. It should be a good year to conduct research in Spain.