Essential Tips for Studying and Living in Madrid: A Student's Guide (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hey guys, good afternoon. And I'm just gonna give you guys some tips before moving or studying abroad in Madrid. Alright guys, I'm recovering from a cold, so if I sound nasally, just bear with me. But for context, I attend the University of Carlos III. It's also known as UC3M, and I'm currently living in Madrid. My first tip is to live in the center instead of near the two campuses at school. The two campuses are called Hitafe and Leganes. It's about a 45-minute to 1-hour commute from the center. If you're living near school, there's really not much to do. There's no bars, there's no restaurants, there's no clubs. It's a ghost town. So even if you have a full schedule, still I would recommend living in the center. Now, where to live in the center? There's three main metro stations. It's Atocha, Gran Vía, and Sol. I live closest to Sol. I live in the La Latina-Lavapiés area. Personally, maybe I'm biased, but I like my neighborhood the most. I feel like it's a good mix of tourism and locals. There's so much to do. It's so easy to get to Sol, Atocha, or Gran Vía, which are the main stations. Another thing to know is that the metro stops working from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. That's why most people go clubbing until 6 a.m. Because if you try to go home at 3 or 4, you won't be able to, if you're not living in the center. But if you are living in the center, you can go home anytime you like. I would recommend investing in a fanny pack because there are a lot of pickpocketers. My second official tip for studying in Spain is to try to take half your classes async at your home university if they allow you to. At first, I was hesitant to take any async classes back home because I wanted to meet as many people as I could, but I was surprised to find that I can easily make friends with people at bars, at restaurants, anywhere really because people are so friendly here. So if you're worried about making friends and that's the reason you want to take more in-person classes, I would just say maybe reconsider because it really is easy to meet a lot of people outside of school. Also, not having to attend in-person classes allows a lot more flexibility for traveling. However, if you do want to make a lot more friends with students at the same university as you, I would recommend looking into this international program called Erasmus. The school hosts this and there are so many fun events. For the first month, for at least the spring semester, which was February, every single day there was a different event. They do day trips, they do karaoke nights, tapas tours, anything you could imagine. Super fun and super great way to meet other students on campus. My third tip is to travel. Travel as much as you can because it's relatively cheap. If you're not coming to Spain with anybody you know, but you do want to start booking just to save money on prices, I would recommend looking into this group called City Life or Smart Insiders. These organizations host trips to places like Italy, Portugal, Morocco, or all around Spain. Different trips will vary in price but I honestly think a group guided tour is really fun and could be worth it. Some other tips I would recommend is to start looking at your phone plan and your bank. Personally, I didn't register for a Spanish number, I just kept my old one because it was more convenient and it worked for me. I also didn't end up getting a Spanish bank and I just paid the conversion rates but I would consider the phone plan and the banking options if you're worried about that and get that situated before coming to Spain. Alright guys, that's the end of this video but if you want any more tips, make sure to just leave a comment below. Sorry this was such a short video but I'm going with City Life to Portugal tomorrow so I gotta go. Anyways guys, make sure to like and comment down below. I'll see you guys in the next video.