{"id":35432,"date":"2017-07-14T02:57:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T02:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/blog\/stepping-into-a-madrid-summer-internship\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:28:39","slug":"stepping-into-a-madrid-summer-internship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/blog\/stepping-into-a-madrid-summer-internship\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping into a Madrid Summer Internship"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><em>Vimbai Mufunde from the University of Essex shares her first of impressions of her Madrid summer internship as one of Absolute&#8217;s Intern Heroes<\/em><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have never experienced love at first sight before but with Madrid, it was different. As a South London girl, I&#8217;m no stranger to a big city but the spirit of the Madrile\u00f1os is unique to Madrid alone. Although I approached Madrid <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with some skepticism due to the ongoing competition of beauty with Barcelona, Madrid is indeed in a league of its own.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the shock of driving on the opposite side of the road came the astonishment at the impeccable architecture across the entire city. You&#8217;d think that at some point you&#8217;d see somewhere that&#8217;s not stunning in Madrid, but you would be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrong<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. With the likes of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gran V\u00eda, Palacio de Cristale, Palacio Real de Madrid, Plaza Ciebeles to Plaza Mayor <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">there is no end to the beauty of the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-25745\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/3850360\/Imported_Blog_Media\/image2-6-e1500000260900-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Madrid summer internship\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image2-6-e1500000260900-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image2-6-e1500000260900-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image2-6-e1500000260900-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image2-6-e1500000260900-700x933.jpg 700w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image2-6-e1500000260900.jpg 1512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Beautiful architecture along Gran Via<\/em><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But on the other hand, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">los costumbres espanoles <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are polar opposite to those of\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gran Bretana. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t be alarmed if upon meeting someone you\u2019re greeted with two <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">besos <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and an <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abrazo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because it\u2019s what they do here. The trick is not accidentally kissing someone when moving from one cheek to the other. It\u2019s a lot harder than it looks especially coming from a city where making eye contact is looked down upon. Nevertheless, my favourite Spanish custom is hands down the love of food I share with the Madrile\u00f1os. Whilst there isn&#8217;t an abundance <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of chicken available as I\u2019m used to, trying out native Spanish food has left me with a constant craving for gazpacho and empanadas. You will never <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">morir de hambre<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Madrid!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The atmosphere of Madrid is quite odd upon first impressions too. Everyone goes about their day so softly and gently as if without a care in the world. \u2018<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No pasa nada\u2019 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is probably the most used phrase in the morning along with \u2018<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">no te preocupes\u2019. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both which are incredibly refreshing to hear when used to the hustle and bustle of London Town. This unrushed atmosphere continues on throughout the whole day as it is almost unheard of to start dinner before 9pm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My first impressions of Madrid are definitely one of unfamiliarity. But this is a sense of unfamiliarity that I am more than willing to get the hang of.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-25744\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/3850360\/Imported_Blog_Media\/image3-4-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Madrid summer internship\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image3-4-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image3-4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image3-4-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image3-4-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image3-4-700x525.jpg 700w, https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image3-4.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Ready for your life-changing internship? <a href=\"https:\/\/info.absoluteinternship.com\/apply-now\">Apply here!<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vimbai Mufunde from the University of Essex shares her first of impressions of her Madrid summer internship as one of Absolute&#8217;s Intern Heroes I have never experienced love at first&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[721],"tags":[],"table_tags":[],"class_list":["post-35432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-madrid-internships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35432"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/absoluteinternship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=35432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}