We just spent five glorious days in Madrid visiting our daughter Holly. She is with the GW University Study Abroad program – what an experience. She is living with a Spanish family and commuting to University of Madrid.

She is learning Spanish in a whole new way. She studied for years here, but so many practical situations come up when you live in Spain. You really make progress when, you are speaking Spanish all day long.

We enjoyed Madrid immensely. The Spanish people are out and about day and night. Madrid is such a lively city.

The Prado has a world class collection. The Reina Sofia has the very famous Guernica by Picasso.

We visited the city parks and the Plaza Mayor, the great square which historically had bull fight and trials by the Inquisition.

The Palacio Real (Royal Palace ) is still used on occasions today. Many rooms are open to the public including the lavishly decorated Throne Room. The porcelain room has walls and ceiling entirely covered in porcelain.

We met Holly’s host family and had lots of opportunities to speak Spanish. Holly told us that many of the kids learning Spanish from her program, had a hard time with the accent the first few weeks. In the US, most universities teach Spanish with a Latin American accent and the accent in Spain is very different. There are also many expressions that you cannot learn in a textbook. The kids are learning to speak Spanish like natives.