Adeline Meinert, ISA Madrid Spring 2025
This spring semester I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain. One of my goals for studying abroad was to really integrate myself into and learn about Spanish culture. My advisors and people I know who have studied abroad told me that one of the best ways to achieve this was by opting to live with a host family. Although I speak Spanish, the thought of living with a family I had never met before in an unfamiliar city was scary. After consideration, however, I decided to take this risk so I could fully immerse myself in the Spanish lifestyle.
Everyone’s host families can look different. My host family consisted of a host mother, father, brother, and sister. The sister was studying out of the country and the father traveled out-of-town for work, so it typically wound up being my host mother and brother, along with my roommate and me at home. My roommate was also American and studying abroad for the Spring semester. It was nice to share this new experience with someone and have a built-in friend, especially for late night snack-runs. We lived in a spacious one floor apartment and I couldn’t have asked for a better location: a charming neighborhood near Parque Retiro, Madrid’s central park.
My host family was welcoming and flexible, but there were adjustments to living with them. The first (and most common comment heard from Americans living in Spain) was meal times. We usually ate dinner around 9:30-10pm which is considerably later than the average dinner time in the U.S. Although I tend to stay up late, it took a while to adjust to eating my dinner right before going to bed. Another adjustment was getting comfortable with being a new person in their home. For me this meant getting outside of my comfort zone to connect with the family and not being afraid to ask questions about how to use an appliance or where something was. Finally, a big adjustment in comparison to my life at Pitt was my commute to school. In Madrid it took me 45 minutes and required transferring metro lines – much longer compared to my 15 minute walk from my apartment to classes at Pitt. Luckily, Madrid’s public transport system is awesome, making the commute very manageable.
Although I had to adapt to these differences, it was worth it for the many benefits of living with a host family. I came to Madrid knowing no one in my program, so living with a family provided a sense of comfort and an immediate connection to locals. They checked in on me and at home I had all the conveniences that student dorms do not always have such as a washing machine. My host family was also always open to answering my questions whether that be about the best way to get to a particular place or restaurant recommendations; cities in Spain that I should visit, or what to do on local holidays. These questions would turn into deeper conversations about the history of Spain, comparisons between life in the U.S. and Spain, and family anecdotes. These conversations taught me things about Spanish culture that I did not learn in the classroom.
Living with a host family is what I feel contributed to my deeper, more meaningful connection to Madrid. I am very glad I took the chance and selected a homestay.
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