Hi everyone,
This website is great!
My friend and I are from a predominantly black neighborhood in New Jersey. We have NEVER been out of the country and have a very small scope and view of the world. Now in our late 20s, we have decided to spend two weeks in Madrid, studying Spanish in a language school, exploring Madrid and expanding our minds on another country.Although we are excited, we are a bit nervous because we are two African American women travelling alone..and with no travel abroad experience....and I must add we don't speak spanish very well AT ALL.
We will be unable to "blend" in with the locals and will truly be seen as tourists. Is there anyone who could just give us a heads up on what to expect? What are the views of Spaniards towards African American woman? Are there some areas of Madrid that we should just NOT go to?
Any info or experiences shared would be greatly appreciated!

also, we are still trying to decide on schools..Can anyone recommend a school other than elemadrid (too expensive for us) and don quijote. We are looking at Academica Contacto, Quercus, or Instituto Hernan Cortes.

Hey jerzeegirl (love the screen name ), welcome to our little Spain loving family and a HUGE congrats on your choice for your first trip out of the U.S. of A

There is a very interesting thread on this board entitled "Racism in Spain???", you should get a lot out of it. Click HERE to check it out.

quote:

"We will be unable to "blend" in with the locals and will truly be seen as tourists."

This is not necessarily true as most Black people here are not African Americans but rather Africans or Cubans. In my opinion, the Spaniards do not really even notice the black women here and they certainly do not single them out nor think they are tourists.

There will always be those ignorant/racist ones but they are pretty harmless, the worst you could possibly get is an insult or two. If you do, just shake it off and ENJOY YOURSELF!!!

Sadly, due to the high unemployment here and lack of opportunity here, many of the African women who come to Madrid from Africa illegally wind up in the horrible prostitution rings (mafias). Most often, they are forced to prostitute themselves to pay back their "passage" from Africa to Europe (Spain is their door to Europe). This is not only true for Africans but for Latin Americans and other peoples as well.

quote:

also, we are still trying to decide on schools..Can anyone recommend a school other than elemadrid (too expensive for us) and don quijote. We are looking at Academica Contacto, Quercus, or Instituto Hernan Cortes.

Try www.linguamadrid.com on for size, it is a smaller school in the Puerta del Sol (ideal location) and has a great price/qaulity relationship.

I also have experience with Instituto Hernan Cortes, a good school but not very centally located.

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. All in all, you are about to embark on a wonderful journey, HAVE A BALL!!!

Hey there, Jersey girls! I wouldn't worry about "blending in" in Madrid - everyone comes in all shades of the spectrum there because immigrants from all over the Spanish - speaking world come to the city to seek their fortunes - you will look a lot less conspicuous than your average white American tourist, believe me!

As to schools, one I found which seems a pretty good deal is Mester - they have a range of levels, accommodation etc.

Good luck - you'll wish you were staying for more than two weeks though!

Thanks jer and adrian!
Your information has helped us out a bit. Just reading the different posts on this site has gotten me pumped and ready to go..unfortunately, we are not going until the end of june!
I have checked out the Lingua website and am about to go to Mester.
Jer, if we do go through LinguaMadrid, can you recommend any hostals near by. (We NEED...I can not stress how much we NEED...air conditioning) Unfortunately, most of the accommodations offered by the language schools do not have air (apts, homestays, and residencias)
Oh, and is that a bad thing that instituto hernan cortes is not centrally located?

Hi again jerzeegirl, so glad you are getting psyched for the trip of a lifetime

If you do choose linguamadrid, there are tons of Hostels nearby that are nice and affordable but unfortunatley, many of the lower priced hostels here will not have AC.

AC usually brings a hostel up to hotel category and hence prices go uuuuuuppppp!!!

Heck, most Spanish homes do not even have AC.

I do not know how sensitive you gals are to heat but I think you will be fine at the end of June w/out AC. If it were July or August I would tell you to get the AC but June is bearable.

What is your nightly budget for a hostel???
I assume you 2 will be sharing a double room???

quote:

"Oh, and is that a bad thing that instituto hernan cortes is not centrally located?"

That is relative and depends on you. Personally, I have always prefered to study Spanish in the heart of old Madrid whenever possible.

I have been to Instituto Hern�n Cort�s and it is not MY style but you can get there by taking either the Metro (one line change) or a Bus (no changes needed) from Puerta del Sol and then walking about 10-15 minutes from the bus stop or Metro station exit. The bus is quicker as it is direct.

Saludos,
jer...

Oh, we are VERY SENSITIVE to heat...well, just for sleeping! Personally, I have nightmares if it is too hot. We are figuring we won't be in our room very often but the times that we are in there to get some sleep, we would like to be comfortable.
And when I say we are leaving at the end of June, I REALLY mean the end of June! Our flight leaves the 28th and we get into Madrid on the 29th. So we are there from then until July 12th...during high heat, right?!
We will be sharing a double room...preferably with seperate beds. And I think we could swing up to 50 american dollars a night...maybe a tiny bit more if we decide to go with linguamadrid...which seems to be very cheap. Am I asking for too much from a hostal for that price?

Hi jerzeegirl, I can now proudly recommend a hostel to you.

HOSTAL CRUZ SOL

I quote from the "ROOMS PAGE" of their website...

quote:

"* air conditioning and heat."

A double room is 48.08 Euros/night according to their website Double check with them to be sure that will be the price this summer and also get e-mail confirmation (in writing) that they really do have AC and that it WORKS). 48 Euros is about $52 right now but could be more if the dollar keeps taking a nose dive as it has lately.

This hostel is located right smack dab in the beautiful Plaza de Santa Cruz...

CLICK HERE FOR MY PATENTED PANORAMIC.

It is about 200 feet from the Plaza Mayor and 300 from the Puerta del Sol (less than 5 minute walk from linguamadrid).

The hostel is VERY nice and is usually booked solid so if you decide on it, make reservations EARLY.

The owner knows who I am (his name is Francisco) as I have delivered many the cell phone to clients there so if he gives ya a hard time, tell him that Jeremy from multimadrid.com is gonna go smack him around a bit

I will post more options here as I find nice, inexpensive hostels with AC.

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. I think we got a bit off the topic of African American women in Spain

Hey! I am an African American woman and I want to know some things about Spain (housing and schools) in addition to our treatment so it kind of goes with the theme of African American women in Spain!

Thanks for your help though....I guess I will move my next post on housing or schools in the right area.

Sorry 'bout that!

That's cool Happens all the time, topics always branck out to other areas.

Saludos,
jer...

Just a note about hostal cruzsol. I stayed there at the end of July two summers ago, and they do have really good air conditioning. I was actually surprised at how well it worked. Also, the people who ran the desk were nice and spoke a few languages including english. It was also very clean. The best part though, is the hostels proximity to all points of interest in Madrid. You'll be right in the middle of the city, so its a really good spot. Hope this helps!

I go to an academy called Eurpean Centre. I go for 2 hours a day Monday to Thurs and 1 hour of conversation on Friday. It is super cheap!!! 80 a month, yes a month! But if you want more intensive, I think they only do it in the summer. There is no air conditioning though. Their phone number is 91 593 1514. They are located between metros San Bernardo and Arguelles. I am very happy with my teacher, and the beginner class students say they like their teacher too.

Dear Jerzeegirl, I understand your concerns. I have several African American girlfriends and when we start telling stories of all the different things that keep happening to us in Spain the conversation always has one thing in common: the disrespect we recieve from most of the spanish men espically the older ones. My girlfriends have met with some rasism but what you will mostly feel is distance and sexism. The majority of the people who will befriend you will be expats. Come and have a good time, travel around and meet people from all over the world. The experience of being here will nuify anything that you were told or percieved.
Hope to see you soon.

Forgive my ignorance...but what is an "expat" I keep seeing that term on this website. I have no clue...can someone help me out?

Thanks for the information,Bangkok. Now when you say disrespect from the men, what kind of disrespect are we talking about? Foul language, fondling...what? Nothing violent, I hope?! And how do you deal with it?

And will we be one of five African American women in Madrid or is there a good sized presence?

Hey Jer,
your lovely hostal you recommended was BOOKED! UGH!

Any others in mind...oops! I forgot to post in the other area...will do now!

Hi Jerzeegirl,

Welcome to the board/family!, Upon reading this thread, it occurred to me to make a couple of comments from the “Spanish point of view”. One thing you shouldn’t expect from the Spaniards you’ll meet is to be referred to, if ever you need to be referred to in that way , as ‘afro-americanas’, that’s the equivalent term to the English African Americans. Political correctness is quite an American concept, or at least, in the rest of the world we don’t take it to the same extremes as in the US. What I mean to say is, you’re probably going to be considered blacks, but please don’t take it as an offence at all (unless it clearly IS an offence, then as Jer said, just ignore the ignorants because they’d probably be expecting you to react!), for us it’s just no big deal, we call white people white, so we don’t see the problem with calling black people black.
I’m really glad to hear you’re going to be travelling abroad for the first time, and I congratulate you; since I find there are few experiences in life that can be as open-minding(can you say that?) and exciting as learning on a first-hand basis about different cultures and ways of life. I agree with the previous posters, if you maintain a positive attitude about it, this trip could be even a life-changing (for the better! ) opportunity.
On a final note, if ever you get exhausted of having to practise Spanish all the time, or just want help understanding, or handling a possible situation caused by a little bit of a culture shock, please feel free to get in touch; that might give us an excuse to organize another one of our get-togethers, he, he, he! :cheers:

"Expats"(it must come from expatriates) are foreigners that live, for a significant amount of time I guess, and for whatever reason: work, studies, madness( )....in another country, in Spain in this case, such as Jer, Bangkok/Jill, Sedusa/Tevia, MadridInsider/Rocco, Candela/Candice,....


�Saludos!

Hey jerzeegirl, pim hit the nail on the head with her definition of "expat".

Yikers on that Hostal Cruz Sol being booked solid!!! Guess the word got out about their great AC.

amapola612, thanks tons for your review of the Cruz Sol, great to have first hand accounts from those who actually stayed there. I see a LOT of hostels and hotels in Madrid but I do not sleep there so it is not a complete experience for me and guest feedback is invaluable.

quote:

And will we be one of five African American women in Madrid or is there a good sized presence?

No, there are plenty of balck women here and don't worry, you will not stand out. They will probably not even pay any attention to ya.

As pim said, do not take it the wrong way but the Spaniards will refer to you as "negra" (black girl or women). It is not derrogatory (unless used in a bad context) but is simply the way the Spanish refer to balck peeps here.

Saludos,
jer...