Exchange in Madrid

I’m doing my 3B semester of school as an exchange term in Madrid. I have a lot of related thoughts.

Overall thoughts: def nice to be away from everything to avoid hiveminding and think independently for a bit, but def miss the energy behind working on your dreams. Study abroad is def more tailored for people who are looking to enjoy youth in a different perspective than I am. This is a great place to go if you are looking to party and decompress—the culture is lax, and that’s what everyone else is here to do.

In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t do it, but it’s definitely nice to “throw a monkey wrench” into your life sometimes.

Exchange was also a bit strategic. This is the semester when all past learning in engineering finally comes together. Networks, controls, concurrency—it’s the core of CS but also required a lot of confusing bottom up knowledge to be able to tackle. This is the first time that I feel like I am learning “top down”.

I noticed this when I was in Japan as well: it’s easy to get caught up in low ROI games when physically in Waterloo. A lot of the assignments aren’t worth doing, some things aren’t worth learning, best grades aren’t worth getting. Here, school is definitely easier, so I feel like I can focus on learning the things that really matter to me.

I’m a little glad I did exchange because I now know what I want. I don’t want to graduate and then backpack for months. I love walkable cities that are convenient. I want other people grinding with me. Madrid taught me all this and more.

Tips for Madrid

Food

• Dominos all you can eat and drink for 6 euros
  • get low cheese so you can easily down two pizzas
• Doner places are also really quick and cheap
• Groceries from Mercadona
  • Protein milk here is really good
• Milk here is UTM, meaning it doesn’t go bad for 3 months as long as it isn’t opened. Can buy in bulk.
• Dia has super cheap pastries

Travels

Book flight tickets early