From Madrid to Valladolid

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Buenas Tardes amigos,

Another weekend came and went here in Spain. I traveled to Valladolid (Northwest about 3 hours from Madrid) to visit some friends from AIESEC. I didn't really know what to expect because Valladolid is much smaller than Madrid, but it did used to be the capital of Spain so it has a lot of beautiful buildings and palaces. I wasn't about to turn down an invitation to stay in the apartment with three wonderful ladies, so i bought my bus ticket and was on my way.

Once I got there Filio (greek friend from AIESEC) picked me up at the station and we went directly to campo grande (huuuuge park) and met up with her other roommate from Syndey who was really fun and nice as well. I wasn't really planning on sightseeing right away but it was ok because I only had a small bag and my purse, good thing I didn't take a carry-on-size wheeler suitcase, would've been a little awkward in the park...

It was nice because this was the last week that the girls will be in Valladolid, so they were really wanting to see all the places that they had yet to see, and were all-for taking touristy pictures.

Saturday night I met the other roommate and her boyfriend and we went out to the local bar "Michigan's" to watch the USA play Ghana in the world cup on TV. The girls frequent this place often and the owner, Vincente, knows them all by name! I was a newbie and obviously foreign as well so he had a lot of questions for me but was really friendly. His twin daughters were running around as well and I helped one of them figure out a problem that she had been having with her iphone.

After a glass of wine, I told Vincente and his wife that I'm from WI, which is a neighbor of Michigan (name of the bar) so we were technically neighbors--they liked this-- later Vincente came over with an old dollar bill and a poker chip from Vegas that he had up on the wall with a bunch of other foreign currency. I told him it was cool and I would hold it for good luck during the futbol game...too bad we lost to Ghana.

Saturday night after the game was a good example of young nightlife in Spain---dancing, wine, sangria, meeting new people, and eventually in the wee hours of the morning, sleeping. I had so much fun but I don't know how they do it, this was the first time that I had stayed out with friends on a weekend and the sun came up before we went home. Viva Espana!

This week I'm working seriously on the external communications plan for my internship because I have about 4 weeks left in Spain to finish the project. My mom is coming on Thurs morning (woot woot!) and we're going to tour around Madrid for a few hours, and then get ready for our flight to Santiago de Compostela and later to the beaches of A Coruna! more to come on that later.

I met another girl from the states (Kansas) who is in Madrid for the summer working as an au pair, it's nice to have another friendly native english speaker around, and we'll be going to Pamplona and Valencia together representing America! Maybe we'll paint flags on our faces... maybe not, because we'll be in Pamplona for the running of the bulls and I dont want to end up with a horn to the jaw.

That's all for now, enjoy the pictures of Valladolid!
Besos,

C

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