Madrid again :)

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Hola a todos! Sorry my blogs are so disconnected--its been a busy week! I promise I will try to get pictures up soon.. they just take a long time to load! Hope all is well, besos! (kisses !!)

Día 6- May 19, 2008
What a day… I am writing this after the fact, because I did not get back to Pilar’s until 6 AM… yes, you read that correctly… I stayed out until 6 in the morning!! Today started with school, of course, and I had two of my first big presentations. In 311 I presented about Francisco Franco (the Spanish dictator) and in 266 I presented about ocelots (jungle cats). Both seemed to go well, and I managed to speak without completely staring at my notes the entire time, so I think I did okay. Then, after school, we went to VIPS for lunch, then explored and shopped around for the afternoon (Pilar told us we shouldn’t return home before 530, because Thursdays are the day when the cleaning lady comes, and we don’t want to be in her way). We ended up exploring a bit and went to the Parque de Retiro, the largest park in Madrid. It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York—this beautiful large, green park is kind of like an oasis in the middle of crazy, bustling Madrid. It has a large, beautiful lake in the middle, completely with row boats and fountains, and there is beautiful stone work all over the place. It is also peppered with playgrounds, so we went and swang and climbed on the jungle gyms a bit. Then we came home and changed and got ready for the cena de bienvenida—welcome dinner! We went to this restaurant called Paea Real, and they served paea, a traditional Spanish dish. It came on these HUGE round metal plates (about 2 feet in diameter) and it was an orange-ish yellow rice (with a very rich, yummy flavor) mixed in with peas, shrimp, chicken, and clams. It was sooo yummy  Kim and I were a little late, but we didn’t miss much. Oh and I tried Sangria!! Sooo good! It’s like wine for beginners, haha… then afterwards, we headed over to a bar to wait for my friend, Borja. Borja is one of the boys I traded numbers with a few days ago, and he had called me in the afternoon to make plans to show us a club tonight. We ended up hanging out in this bar called El Otro Bar for a few hours, we all just hung out and talked. A group of English guys on a bachelor party came in, and we talked for a bit, and the groom bought me a rose…. Sounds like a bad omen to me!! Haha anyways… then we finally met up with Borja and some of his friends, and we went to another bar (I can’t remember the name) We all chatted a lot and I met even more Spanish boys (who are all SO cute, and so charming!!  ) We hung out and had a great time, but Borja kept insisting that we couldn’t go to Pacha (the swanky club he got us on the “list” in) until 2:30!!! I thought he was being ridiculous, but he was right—people don’t go out here until 2 or 3 AM!!! We all went over together, and I had been talking with this really cool Spaniard named Archie (who actually grew up in London, but is full blooded Spanish and lives here now) and he brought us all up to this VIP lounge where they served us champagne! Then we went down to the dance floor and had a BLAST!! We finally left the club around 530 (it was STILL totally bumping in there!) and grabbed some snacks, and took a cab home, arriving around 6 AM!!! I heard the nightlife here was crazy, but I had NO idea!! Viva Madrid!!! I love it here!!!
Día 7- May 30th 2008-
Today was a slow day… needless to say, I had to sleep a LOT to be able to function properly, after staying out till 6 AM… I slept till 1 PM, then got up and had a quick lunch, showered, etc. Then Kim and I took the metro to Sol to go shopping, and I got two cute pairs of pants (one pair of black skinny jeans, an done pair of nice dark jeans, for only 50 euro for both) and a pair of long black leggings to layer and keep warm. It is STILL rainy and cold here, which I was TOTALLY unprepared for… I only have one cardigan, one blazer, and a sweatshirt—I heard it was hot here, and it has rained just about every day, and quite a bit each day. Thankfully the new jeans I got should come in handy for the rain, and for going out at night. We headed back kind of early, and threw together an impromptu day trip for tomorrow. We decided we wanted to go to Avila, so Kim and I single-handedly organized the entire trip, train tickets and all, and set up a meeting place for anyone else who wanted to join us. I thought about going out again, but I was still pretty tired, and didn’t want to be sluggish for tomorrow’s trip, so I stayed in for the night and finally watched my Grey’s Anatomy finale—it was sooooo good! It was seriously epic. I went to bed with a smile on my face (not that I haven’t everyday for the past two weeks, I have !!) Oh I almost forgot! Tonight for dinner Pilar served us an omelet and an orange (a little weird… no??? haha)… there are some pretty interesting different concepts about food here… hahahaha…oh! And laundry! We finally asked her to do our laundry (she insisted on taking care of it) so of course I needed to wash all of my sweatshirts and my two pairs of jeans that I have been LIVING in for two weeks… she gave us this special bag for our “delicates,” and once the laundry was done, she came into my room and began to nonchalantly lay out some wet underwear on the heater right next to my computer (She doesn’t own a drier). I told her that I thought they were Kim’s, but she brushed it off, saying that it would all end up drying anyway. The way it ended up, she layed out ALL of Kim’s underwear on my heater, my underwear on Kim’s heater, and the extras, including bras, all over the bathroom! I understand not wanting to hang up our delicates for all to see on clotheslines, but all over the house?? Hahaha it was so strange! Anwyays.. I am excited for tomorrow…. Viva Madrid!

Día 8- May 31, 2008- Today we saw Avila—sooo pretty! The day got off to a scary start, once Kim and I got to Chamartin (the train station in Madrid) we actually had a lot of problems finding where the sold tickets. I got lost, and when I went to the help desk, they guy shook his head and told me he only spoke ITALIAN… seriously? Haha it was pretty ridiculous… we finally figured out the tickets, and bought round trip tickets for only 15 euro! Good deal! We ended up with a group of about 13, and we arrived in Avila around 12:30. The clouds loomed over all morning, and we knew it was going to be wet, but it ended up raining quite a bit (and, thanks to my EXPERT planning skills, all of my jackets were still wet from laundry, so I was enjoying this lovely weather in a pleasantly damp blazer!! Haha). But nevertheless, Avila was awesome. According to my guide book, Avila is the most well-preserved walled city in the world—it has this enormous wall (10 feet thick, 30 feet high at its highest point) that wraps around the entire city. It was a medieval provincial city, and has a spectacular cathedral and lots of old, pretty buildings separated by narrow, quaint cobblestone streets. It was so pretty! On one hand, it was like stepping back in time, but yet a lot of the stores inside were VERY modern, so it was strange. We were all pretty hungry, and we tried to hunt down a good restaurant but got impatient and ended up at a pretty crummy one. I WAY overpaid for my food—I got a combo plate that came with a hamburger, fries, sausage, and empanadas. My hamburger was a really poor choice of meat laying pathetically on a bun- no lettuce, tomato, NOTHING.. and my sausages were creepy looking and tasted like greasy, bland slim jims… I guess it was a cultural experience though??  Haha then we moved on a walked over to the walls, climbed them, and walked almost all the way around the city (the entire wall is only 1.2 miles long). There were a lot of little towers and sections with pretty views, I tried to take lots of pictures but it was difficult. The walls were pretty impressive, considering they were built in 1085—they were will standing and didn’t look to be crumbling or dilapidated. We wanted to go inside the cathedral, but they wanted to charge us, so we just took pictures outside. Then we wandered some more, and ended up resting at a chocolateria, where we all bought a ton of candy that looked WAY better than it tasted… I tried marzipan (which is so cute, but wayyy to sweet) but my dessert that I bought was some kind of weird marshmallow crème thing that was less than delicious… We continued to meander, saw another cathedral where Sain Vincent was buried, and meandered through the modern part of town back to the train station. We wanted to try to catch an earlier train back, but it wasn’t possible, so we headed over to a bar to relax a bit and have a coke. On our way back, we went to another candy store and got some candy that Pilar had recommended to us. They are a candy called “Yemas”, and Avila is famous for this type of candy, which apparently is traditionally made by nuns (who knew?). I really really liked it, it was these small yellowish chewy balls lightly dusted with powdered sugar, it tasted just like the filling of lemon bars without the crust. Then we took the train home (just an hour and a half) and took the metro back to Pilar’s, where we had spaghetti (finally, normal, good food!! ) Then, much to my dismay, Pilar explained to us that Yemas is just an egg yolk chalked full of sugar (raw…). I felt a little queezy, but I guess I would still eat it, cuz it was so yummy!  A big part of our group went out to this Tapas festival, but Kim and I had spent to much money and wanted to just eat with Pilar. We wanted to meet up later, so I called Kristen and Kim and I met up with her and her friend Lizzie at a bar called Kyoto at around 1230. We hung out for a while and chatted, and headed over to Pacha (the big club from Thursday—yet again, we got put on a special VIP list and got let in free of charge… I guess it pays off to be blond?? Haha) around 2 AM. I’ve got to admit, I didn’t believe people when they told me that people don’t go out before 2, but they were right. The club was practically empty when we got there! We hung out and walked around a little, and things picked up pretty quickly. I guess during the day Lizzie had made some friends with some French guys, and they invited her to meet up with them tonight. We hung out with them for a bit, but then we went back to the regular part of the dance floor and danced the night away! We stayed until 4 AM and Kim and I took a cab home… I don’t know if I would be able to survive here, this lifestyle is so over the top! I am preeeeeeeeeeettty tired, time for some shuteye… viva Madrid!!! 

Día 9- June 1st, 2008- Slow day today. Kim and I slept in till about 9:30, then rolled out of bed to go to the Rastro! We have been hearing about the Rastro all week, and we finally got to see it for ourselves! It was pretty cool, it’s this huge open air market that they have in the center of Madrid every Sunday. There are sooo many people there, its like a giant flea market. It kind of reminded me a bit of Mexico, but had some nicer stuff and was HUGE…. It smelled kind of funny, and it was that kind of uncomfortable type of crowded where you can’t even move because there are so many people, but I enjoyed it! I bought two pairs of shoes ( a pair of brown leather heels and a pair of grey flats) and six scarves (a variety of pretty shades of blues, greens, and silver) for only 25 euro!! I know, I have a problem with impulse buying… but it was all so cheap! Kim and I could only stand about two hours of it though, and started to feel claustrophobic so we headed home on the metro. We were both kinda tired, and had lunch (a Spanish omelet.. remember the glorified potato omelet?? Haha yeah we were a little less than excited) and I went to work on homework, but I was SO distracted. I face booked a bit, and got to catch up with some friends from home, and bought some music on I tunes. We are trying to get a group together to take a weekend trip to Valencia next weekend, and I spent most of my afternoon in frustration trying to get people to make decisions and start planning. I’m not sure what’s going to happen yet, but we have tentative plans to go next weekend. I got to videophone my parents again tonight, only the second time since I’ve been here, so that was nice to catch up a bit! For dinner tonight, Pilar made us, get this, green beans. It was just this big glass pie plate of green beans, with a few pieces of ham (really yummy ham, but not much) scattered on top. And not just any type of green beans, those bland, tasteless, brownish yellow type of green beans that come from a can, with no sauce or anything. And to garnish? She put down some vinegar, a bottle of ketchup, and a bottle of MAYONNAISE in case we wanted to jazz it up!! Hahahaha I had to try so hard not to laugh. She means well, and I don’t mean to complain, it just cracks me up how different meals and food concepts are here. Like, if you go to a restaurant, they put mayo down on the table just as if it were ketchup—people put it on EVERYTHING… anyways, I’m a little hungry, it think I need to start sneaking in snacks to supplement my meals… haha.. anyways… I did a bit more homework, but now I’m pretty tired so I think ill head to bed… Viva Madrid!

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