El Camino de Santiago

This past week was Spring break, or “Semana Santa” as a Spaniard might call it, and Laurel and Torey and I chose to spend it walking. We considered going to the Spanish islands or doing a Europe tour, but something inspired us to walk about 125 km in 5 days instead. It was amazing! We did what is called the Camino de Santiago, which is basically a really old/traditionally Spanish pilgrimage (now it is less of a religious thing and more of an outdoor adventure for a lot of people), starting in several Spanish cities and ending in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. There are several routes, or “caminos,” and we did the Camino Ingles because it’s the shortest and we had less than a week, but some routes last up to 32 days! Each route is different in terms of scenery and terrain, but all finish in Santiago and all have hostels/albergues designed specifically for pilgrims along the way. All are also marked with the blue and yellow shell, the symbol of the Camino, to keep pilgrims on track. 

It was absolutely beautiful and we lucked out with the weather SO MUCH. It’s the rainiest zone in all of Spain, and it rained once for like less than an hour, so that was incredible. We walked through cities, towns, forests, beaches, and lots and lots of fields for 5 days before finally arriving to Santiago and ran into plenty of adventures/obstacles on the way. Pilgirms typically wake up at about 5 to leave the albergue and be on their merry way, but we decided 10 was a more appealing time to leave, meaning we never made it on time to the albergues because everyone else got there five hours earlier. COOL. So we stayed in some pretty weird plan B options, including the upstairs of a bar that rented rooms, a woman’s second house, and more! 

Another part of the Camino is that every walker carries with them a booklet which is to be stamped at various points along the way, which gives it a kind of scavenger-hunt-ish vibe. The goal is to get two per day which kind of proves the distance a pilgrim has walked (you need to walk at least 100km to recieve the Compostela). And we received that Compostela! Overall, it was a super cool experience and it showed me how much we take advantage of cars. Walking for so long kind of gives you time to think and reflect and be all philosophical and stuff (that is, when I wasn't singing), and I think we all learned a lot and grew from it. It also kind of teaches you to rely on others because we had NO IDEA what we were doing, so you just have to get out there and ask for help in Spanish and ask for water in Spanish and ask what the heck to do if there are no rooms left in the albergue in Spanish, to name a few examples. Though I wasn’t afraid to ask for help/directions before, now I am DEFINITELY not! 

Below I included some pics in an attempt to trick you all into thinking I’m athletic. (See me climbing a mountain on all fours with a heavy backpack, for example). There were also plenty of cows to see, so I hope you enjoy the one model cow I chose to include in my blog post. The shell thing is the marker I mentioned before, and the picture of the three of us shows the glory of us arriving at our destination! SIN DOLOR NO HAY GLORIA, am i right?! 

During my accidental two month blog hiatus, lots of things have happened-- my brother came to Madrid to visit, I started classes, I became fluent in Spanish, and I went and I went to Africa! The part about becoming fluent in Spanish was a joke. 

But in all seriousness, these past few weeks have been amazing and I've crammed in a lot. Liam decided (after a lot of pressure from me) to take a spontaneous trip to Spain and came and stayed with my host family, which was super cool and fun and weird. We did all of the typical Madrid touristy things (which taught me how little I really know about the city I’ve been living in since September), went to the rivals game between Real Madrid and Atleti (I didn’t put the picture up because we both look ugly), and we ate delicious Spanish food. It was cool for him to be able to get to meet my Spanish family and put faces to my names and crazy stories. 

Then came the trip to Morocco, where, as you can see, I was selected to be dressed as a married Bereber woman. The picture above where I’m not decked out in my typical head to toe GAP clothes, but rather the straw hat and white dress shows what Berebers (who live in the mountains) wear into town to show that they are OFF LIMITS. It’s a really good thing I wasn’t born bereber because the outfit somehow makes me look ever paler than I actually am, a quality that even strangers have been commenting on lately. If I had a dollar for every time a stranger told me “estas muy blanquita!” (you are so white!) in the past few weeks, I’d have 3 dollars- which doesn’t add up to that much money, but like... it’s a lot of times to be called pale by people you don’t know. Back to the point, Morocco was super interesting and eye opening. I’ve never been to a place that is so culturally different than what I am used to. The biggest difference I noticed was that women do not go out to eat in Morocco, and if they do, they go to separate, smaller restaurants. So when we went out to eat or passed by cafes, it was 100 percent men. I also rode a camel and saw where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, so that was pretty exciting! I also learned that I HATE bargaining and it makes me want to cry, and since bargaining is the way of life in Morocco, I was sad a lot and generally avoided purchasing anything. 

Besides Morocco, I’ve traveled to lots of Spanish cities-- Merida, Trujillo, Caceres, and Sevilla, and I loved every one of them! Tomorrow I head off to my pilgrimage-- El Camino de Santiago. Laurel, Torey, and I will walk from Ferrol, Galicia to Santiago de Compostela (about 125 kilometers) in 6 days! Wish us luck :) I’m sure I’ll have plenty of interesting stories to tell about the people I meet! 

Concrete proof of the power of procrastination: I haven’t posted in well over a month, but as soon as I have a midterm, sharing these photos becomes quite urgent. These are some highlights of the past few weeks, I’ll elaborate when I’m done with my test- 3 down, 1 to go! 

From 02/02

This weekend was amazing! Saturday was Torey’s birthday, and I started it off with a bang teaching English bright and early that morning. But later, it got better- we went to Santiago Bernabeu to see Real Madrid beat Real Sociedad 4-1 and IT SNOWED! Magic. Also, we got interviewed for TV! A girl approached us and asked if we would like to answer a few questions for her. I told her our English was better than our Spanish, and she said “that’s perfect! It’s an English news station!” So that worked out nicely. We had to sum up in one word what Real Madrid means to us, so we chose the three most cliché answers out there—tradition, passion, and family. She was definitely unimpressed, but we were pumped! At the end of the game, we were taking various pictures to kill time before Torey’s SURPRISE PARTY that she still didn’t know about, and made some friends because they photobombed us. We told them it was Torey’s birthday and they immediately picked her up for-he’s-a-jolly-good-fellow style and pretended they were going to throw her off the balcony. I would say that wasn’t her favorite part of her birthday. She scares easily. We still had like an hour and a half before we were allowed to be at Torey’s house, so it was time for some major stalling. I told our new friends we had to go and whispered to one of them that it was because we had a surprise for Torey, and I was sure I said it too loud and she heard me. So I owned it and told her I did in fact have a surprise for her, telling her I was about to take her to do something she had never done before. Obviously I didn’t really have a plan, so I had to think of something quickly. Laurel and I walked sketchily behind her thinking fast, and decided to take her to a bar where they supposedly have good patatas bravas, these yummy spicy potato things in a secret sauce. BUT, we couldn’t go on the most logical metro there because all of the party guests were waiting there to meet Torey’s host mom for the surprise party. I led us to an incredibly illogical metro to take to this bar, telling Torey she just had to trust me. We eventually got to the bar, and I ordered the famous potatoes and brought them to her and she disappointedly asked “is this my surprise?” “YUP!” I said, owning it. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOU’RE WELCOME FOR THE KILLER SURPRISE OF A SMALL PLATE OF POTATOES THAT ARE TOO SPICY FOR YOU TO EAT!” Side note, Torey is a supertaster and therefore is a real baby about spicy things. She was nice about it, but was definitely underwhelmed by her big surprise- oh, little did she know. We left the bar and Laurel and I told Torey we were coming to her house, but naturally hadn’t thought of an explanation. JUST TRUST US was the gist of what we came up with. Somehow, she miraculously didn’t expect it at all and was genuinely surprised at her surprise party, so Laurel and I felt pretty good about ourselves.

Written approximately 2.5 weeks ago and never posted... 

This week has been a little more low-key because 100% of my friends (aka Laurel and Torey) have been working on a job application for the summer. They also sometimes run, which frankly, I have no interest in either. So I’ve spent a lot of my time watching Parks and Rec, The Interview, The Pregnancy Pact, and other high-brow shows and films of that nature. I have also taken more than one before-lunchtime-nap, which is a very foreign concept to Spanish people because siesta takes place around 5 and only at around 5.

I did squeeze in a couple cool things though! Friday night, we went to a Flamenco show. While I’m not necessarily a fan of these shows, their passion and talent are undeniable. Later that night, we went to a bar and happened to run into a girl from St. Lawrence, so that was cool and weird. Turns out, I’m now teaching English to her host brother from years ago- small world! Other major accomplishments from this week include: FINALLY learning the difference between “llevar” and “traer” (to take and to bring, but they’re much less interchangeable than they are in English), finding potential hostels for Dublin and Barcelona, and convincing my brother to come visit me here! I managed to find us tickets to the Real Madrid/Atletico de Madrid game, so that will be amazing to see. My host mom is already talking about the huge paella she’s going to make for him to try, as well as all of the other foods he loves. In hindsight, I should have lied about his favorite foods and replaced them with mine so she would cook all MY faves for a week straight. I also went to Parque Retiro one day and an old man offered me his three dogs, saying he didn’t want them anymore. So that was cool. My host mom is lucky I didn’t come home with them.

This weekend should be a good one! It’s Torey’s birthday on Saturday, and we are going to the Real Madrid vs. Real Sociedad game as well as probably doing our favorite thing in Spain, getting fro yo. You could say we’re seriously taking advantage of our time here.

Internships and nuevos amigos

Hiii, I’m mad at myself for not writing more frequently this semester. As always, tons of weird/uncomfortable/embarrassing things have happened to me, but I can’t remember them because I’ve been too lazy to tumble! I’m currently sitting in the break room at my internship where I teach English at an integration school. It’s going really well, but it’s definitely a new experience, to put it nicely. The kids are super nice in general, with some very definite exceptions who I won’t get into too much on here because this is the internet and nothing I say is private, as I learned today in a police lecture I went to this morning. The administration brings the police to the school every once in a while because the kids think they’re tough guys, so the cops come and warn them about the dangers of living the thug life. Today’s session was about cyber bullying- it was scheduled during a period in which I normally teach, but we figured we’d go and just have class as soon as the lecture was over. But in order to avoid the torture of having to hear me speak, the kids decided to ask every question ever about everything ever after the speech was over. When I ask them if they have any questions after I teach them something, all I get is “do you have a boyfriend?” or silence. But when the cop presents about bullying and the students know they have class afterwards, they suddenly want to know when and where exactly the cops tend to eat dinner, how many push-ups exactly one must do to become a policeman, and if judo is an acceptable and legal form of self-defense. It is, if you were wondering.

Besides that, I haven’t been up to anything too new or interesting. We’ve been going to the movies more because we’re sick of not being fluent fluent in Spanish, so that’s cool I guess. I’ve also been hanging out with my best Spanish friends a lot lately, aka my host mom’s grandchildren who are all 5 years old or younger. But we did manage to make not 1, not 2, but THREE real Spanish friends this weekend. And even better than that, they have ALL graduated elementary school and are actually like our age, so that’s a distinct change of pace for me when it comes to friends—it’ll take some getting used to. Turns out you don’t talk to 23 year olds like you talk to 2 year olds. They probably find it condescending and generally weird.

What else? I booked my flight to Barcelona, so I’m super pumped about that! And this time, we are going to book our hostels earlier than the week before, so we don’t accidentally end up sleeping in the red light district again, as fun and exciting as that was for us. Next stop is Ireland, so I can learn a bit more about Michael Collins’ roots (shoutout to you, dad).

I’m going to really try to write once a week from now on, so you all can look forward to more essay length blog posts to scroll past without reading! Fun! 

I wrote this post 3 weeks ago and forgot to post it.

Since I got back to Spain, things have been… hectic, but that’s nothing new I suppose. I came back from the airport to a house full of grandchildren and spent New Year’s Eve at my host sister’s house. The tradition in Spain is to eat 1 grape with each “campanada,” which is basically the ringing of a clock that sounds in La Puerta del Sol. I knew that eventually, 12 grapes were eaten, but I assumed the clock would sound every minute during the last 12 minutes of the year. When 11:48 struck and we weren’t chowing down on the grapes just yet, that’s when I realized I was wrong. It is not the twelve minutes, but rather the last 12 seconds, meaning we all had to eat 12 grapes within 12 seconds- it’s even harder than it sounds, especially considering that Spain doesn’t cram all of their foods with chemicals like the good old USA does, so each grape has three BIG seeds in it. 3x12= 36 if I’m not mistaken, so yeah. That’s a lot of seeds. Now that the grape rant is over, I’ll move on.

After that, I went to a bar in my neighborhood with one of my host brothers where we met up with the other one and all of their friends. Generally these events are pretty awkward for me because they involve me walking into a room of a group of 30-35 year old guys that are all best friends and that are all Spanish. I usually just stand their awkwardly and smile as the amigos chuckle about inside jokes from years ago, but this time for whatever reason, I actually talked to people! Maybe those grapes brought out my inner Spaniard, because it actually was pretty fun! One guy told me that my accent is horrible, but way less horrible than most accents he hears, so I felt relatively accomplished. Around 3 AM, guess who busts into the bar, my host mom and Torey’s host parents! I was lol’ing all alone about that because I knew my parents probably would be snoozing before midnight (shoutout to you guys). Ana (Torey’s host mom) announced to the bar that we were all invited to her house for churros and chocolate at 5:10 AM, which seemed an oddly precise time to be, but that’s beside the point I suppose. I couldn’t believe that either because I was pretty sleepy myself, and couldn’t believe how hard these Spanish senior citizens can party. Torey’s host dad said something along the lines of “I don’t want to be rude, but I’m gonna kick you all out at 7 because I want to be in bed at a reasonable hour!” and I was all “You’re like 63! WTF?! How are you doing this?!” I made it to bed by 7:30 only to wake up a few hours later to spend New Year’s Day again at my host sister’s house for a HUGE lunch. I tried caviar and felt so fancy. That day, I also met up with Torey’s family and it was so nice and we went to a beautiful restaurant with exposed brick on the walls, my fave. Torey’s dad wanted a dessert coffee at a Churrería we went to, which really confused the guy working there. I explained to him that he wanted something sweeter than ordinary coffee, and the guy told me they didn’t have it. So, I proposed that he mix the chocolate for the churros with the coffee, and he was in absolute awe. The thought had never crossed his mind, and he made one for Torey’s dad and one for himself and loved it. He had me write down my name so I could name the drink after me and put it on the menu. It is now known as “café Maggie.”

Then I went on a field trip to the mountains with my host brother and all of the kiddos, AKA my best friends here in Spain, none of whom are over the age of 7. We climbed and jumped and played hide and seek and found some ice in the river, which was very, very exciting to us. When your best friends are 5, you start to appreciate these sorts of things. Later that night, A BABY WAS BORN! Which meant I got to hang with my boy Adrian, the three year old, who was TICKED his days as an only child were over. He eventually got over it because he got distracted by Peter Pan, or Pedro Pan, as I imagine it is called in Spain.

Whoever makes our schedule decided to be incredibly generous and give us ONE day off for thanksgiving break, so we decided to take a quick trip to Italy! But before that, my host mom was super cute and made me a thanksgiving feast before sending me off! It was her first thanksgiving, so she asked me what typical thanksgiving things we should do, but I spared her from the cheesy "let's tell each other what we're thankful for" conversation and instead, I'm pretty sure we talked about the Kardashians. 

Milan was great, despite the rain! Everyone told us we were crazy for choosing Milan over other Italian cities, and they're probably right, but it was 40 euros and we still loved it! The food and the scenery were amazing, and we had a great time! Except for the stinker that wanted me to pay him 20 euros for the photo Laurel took of him throwing pigeons at me. That was less great and I'm still convinced I could have bird flu, but I'm telling myself I would have started showing symptoms by now. 

Hi, sorry it's been so long! I've ACTUALLY been doing lots of schoolwork lately, the poor blog has been a bit neglected. I traveled the past 2 weekends to Belgium (Ghent and Brussels) and then to Milan! 

The trip to Brussels started out a little bit rough-- it almost seemed like the trip wasn't meant to be! But it turned out to be amazing. The cities were beautiful and the food, though insanely unhealthy, was fab. But before it got good, I: 

-lost my metro card

-had my computer crash while giving a presentation in class

-was late for my ride due to Spanish mis-communications

-forgot my memory chip for my camera (bought a new one, that's where the pics came from)

-left my iphone in the airport charging cause I'm a big dummie 

-and finally, got the WORST bloody nose on the bus from the airport to the city center, had no tissues, and was surrounded by Germans. Silly me forgot to look up "excuse me, do you have any tissues?" in German before I left, so I just sad there, alone and ticked, cupping my hands under my nose. Luckily, after a few minutes, I heard the two girls behind me speaking Spanish, so I asked them and they provided. All's well that ends well I guess!  

I decided to forget my first world probs and enjoy Belgium, and it was so fun. The first night, we shared a hostel room with two pleasant Mexicans who are also studying in Spain and were eating delicious looking dessert waffles. The next morning, we left for the day trip to Ghent, aka "Fairy Land" as we liked to call it, which was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! We got back to Brussels that night and explored that night with a group of Greeks we made friends with because we were both lost. Laurel told them it was my birthday because of the bad day I was having, so they got the whole bar to sing to me. 

The next day, we explored Brussels and ate Belgian waffles and french fries! Soooo good. 

Tour guide: What's your name?

Me: Maggie

Tour guide: Well, Maggie- La Alhambra is going to change your life. 

The second leg of our excursion was a trip to Granada, including a visit to La Alhambra which may or may not be one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. I keep saying that, and I don't know why I don't just look it up to verify, but either way, it was absolutely gorgeous and might be my favorite place I've been ever. The gardens, the mountain views, the weather, and the history were all amazing. I couldn't get enough, and often was trailing behind the group staring at the landscape. It's a good thing the guide decided to learn my name earlier, because he had to keep saying "Maggie, we're moving on, Maggie, to the right!" He told us that about 20 minutes from La Alhambra, there is a ski mountain that is high enough to still have snow in May, but is pleasantly warm at the same time. Its proximity to the coast makes it possible to ski in the morning, swim in the Mediterranean in the afternoon, and hop the ferry to have a quick dinner in Africa, ALL IN ONE DAY.  I plan on doing that one day with that huge chunk of money I made this summer at camp. 

After leaving La Alhambra, we finally found the flamenco show we had searched for the night before. Flamenco is definitely an acquired taste, and as my host mother said, you have to understand it to appreciate it. Being a professional dancer myself, it did come as a surprise to me that I didn't understand it, but it was still super interesting and I'm glad I went! It was a really great little taste of southern Spanish culture. 

The pictures above are from the Cordoba portion of this weekend's program excursion to Cordoba and Granada, two cities in Southern Spain. The trip was fab, and included many hours on a cramped bus full of sick people, a cockroach INFESTATION in our hotel room (well there was one that we know of, but that was one too many), a trip to a mosque turned cathedral (how's that for an authentic and concrete representation of the Muslim-Christian conflict and power struggle that characterizes Spain's history, am I right?!), a failed hour long search to find flamenco in the pouring rain, and some yummy tapas. The city has an "urbanizacion loca," as our tour guide said- it's full of crazy short alleys, narrow passages, and roads that seem to lead to nowhere in particular, but it was so pretty! 

Hi, I'm back! I've been really busy pretending to be studying for midterms, which is why it's been so long since I've last posted. In the past couple weeks, I've been living la vida loca as always, including:

-a trip to Galicia on the famous Camino de Santiago (Santiago de Compostela) 

-the largest lunch anyone has ever had

-lying about being Phil Collins' niece and therefore having my picture taken by several 16 year olds and about 12 new instagram followers who think I am famous (no one give them the link to this blog, my fame will be DESTROYED and they'll see me for the phoney I really am) 

-and my host brothers' birthday! that was not a typo, they are twins

And today, I hung out with my mom's friend from college and 2 new friends, Harry and Lilly. They are weimaraners, but they had to leave the hangout sesh early because they were grumpy after not having eaten in a few hours. I feel you, Harry and Lilly. I feel you. 

In the photos, you can see me with the extended host fam on Javi and QuiQue's birthday, some pics from the Galicia excursion, me and my host mom, and a view from Retiro Park. 

Oh! I almost forgot I bought a ticket to go to Belgium, so November's agenda is looking pretty exciting! I'll make trips to the south of Spain, to Italy, and to Belgium all in one month!

This week includes 4 exams and an essay, wish me luck! Also, the toilet here broke, so wish me luck with that as well. There is currently a bucket in the bathroom that my host mom put there, but I'm unclear on what exactly I am to do should I need to pee. The study abroad life is even more glam than I expected. 

I've found that historically, a good way for one to feel better about him or herself is to take passport photos. I am no exception to this wide sweeping trend. Today, I had to go to an appointment for my extended visa with the above photo among other things. The conversation with the man there went a little something like this (I've translated it from Spanish to English to be courteous and also to show off):

Him- Hello! 

Me- Hi! 

Him- How are y- oh my god! did someone come into the photo booth and scare you while you were taking this picture? (shows it to the man at the desk next to him, man next to him laughs)

Me- ha, ha, no. But I didn't think I could smile!

Him- and look at you now! You look like your eyes are about to fall out of your head! 

Me- uhhh... sorry?

Him- Don't be sorry, that was a compliment! 

Me- Oh! then uhh... thank you! 

Him- it's rude not to accept compliments in Spain! 

So as you can see, my appointment went quite well, and I learned a lot! Yay! 

Holaaaa, I'm back! The past week or so have been quite Spanish, I would say. I have:

         -cooked paella with my host mom

         -eaten the aforementioned paella while speaking Spanish 

         -ran with a bull (well, a cow... a small cow) 

         -gotten together with the SLU group for tapas

         -made some Spanish friends, or at least I like to think so (if you don't 

           believe me, take a look at my facebook friend list) 

         -napped a lot 

Also, I promise I do lots of homework, Mom and Dad. I just don't write about that because it would bore the 9 people that look at this blog. In fact, I have still never finished my homework because there is so much of it. You're glad to hear that, right? 

What else... Oh! I went back to visit my host family in Segovia and go to another outdoor town concert/party with them. I understood my host dad from there slightly better, so that was a good feeling! I also went on some bumper cars. The next day was a Capea with students from the Colegio Mayor, which is basically like a small bull fight minus the bull and minus the fight. There is a ring with a cow in it and people run from said cow. Some people are too brave and get hit and trampled (I will not mention any names) It's funner than it sounds, and I felt pretty brave going in the ring with it! 

This weekend is another group excursion- we are going to Galicia, where my host mom here grew up! It will be cool to see where she's from, and she always says it's like the Ireland of Spain, so that will be fun to explore! 

Oh, and tonight is my first night of BASKETBALL PRACTICE! Lol at that. Hopefully my weeks training with the 8 year old boys at summer camp will pay off. I'm preparing being bombarded with compliments about my fancy footwork and endless slam dunks. I'll keep y'all posted. 

Hi, it's been a while! I'm back from pretending to do homework all the time. Besides never being able to finish my endless readings, I've been keeping busy in Madrid. In the past week or so, I've been keeping busy exploring Madrid! 

Laurel, Torey, and I went to the top of El Circulo de las Bellas Artes one day recently to see the view of the city, and it was amazing despite not receiving the refund we thought we'd get from the SLU program for cultural reimbursement. Apparently, views are not culture. Oh well, definitely worth it! 

Besides that, Laurel and I met up with Sarah, a fellow SLU student who is abroad in Denmark and came to visit Madrid for the week! Laurel and I felt pretty cool kind of knowing our way around the city and showing her things. We went to Retiro and boated a bit, and then treated Sarah to her first ever Sangria. 

Friday night, a few girls from the program and I went out with my host brother. It was really good for us because it forced us to speak Spanish the whole night, instead of our usual few sentences we utter so we can tell ourselves we practiced Spanish. It was pretty fun, even though he judged us for not wanting to stay out until 6am. I am not yet Spanish enough to live that lifestyle. 

The next night, I went to my host sister's house to celebrate her boyfriend's birthday! It was a bit uncomfortable to say the least, but oddly fun at the same time. I was pretty much the only one there under 30, but on the other hand, there was guacamole AND a bulldog, so I was in my element. One particularly drunk woman at the party kept saying things to me that didn't really make sense (see "particularly drunk"), and I politely laughed and gave her short answers, not really knowing how to respond to her in Spanish. My host brother then introduced me to her as his "American sister," and she shouted in English "Oh, I'm so glad you're American! It makes so much sense now- I just thought you were socially awkward and weird!" So it's nice to know that that's what Spanish people think of me. Turns out, she is Spanish but lived in NYC for about 10 years, so is fluent in English and wanted to talk to me the whole night about every aspect of her life, from her favorite designer, to her worries about her fiances ex- girlfriends.  She took particular offense to the fact that I have never been to an IKEA and also fed me a lot of cheese. So that was a fun night! We didn't leave until about 3am, and the next morning bright and early was a bike race throughout Madrid! Since my host nephew was coming and is 6 years old, I assumed it was a short leisurely ride through the park. Turns out, we biked about 30K, doing a lap of most of Madrid. I am so sore and have a bruise on my butt (TMI? sorry) from the bike that was too tall for me, but it was so cool to see so much of the city! I usually take the metro which shockingly doesn't offer the most beautiful of views... or smells. 

This weekend marked 2 weeks in Madrid and 5 in Spain! I'm definitely starting to understand more, and don't have to focus quite as hard as I did in the beginning on following conversations. Highlights of the weekend included (in no particular order, and as a warning, all of these highlights will probably be food related):  Number 1: finding a store called Taste of America, where I bought the delicious laffy taffy pictured above. It also has things like peanut butter, goldfish, chips, and Arizona Iced Tea. I will be doing my best to pretend the store does not exist. Number 2: Finding the large cookie also pictured above in Torey's hands. Number 3: Finding the nachos also conveniently pictured above. Number 4: meeting up with Juan, my host brother from Segovia- I could definitely understand him more easily than I could when I lived in his house, so I must have made some progress! (woah, that highlight wasn't even food related)! 

Today, I went to a baptism just outside of Madrid with my host family. I got to hold a baby, pet a boxer, and sample not one, not two, but THREE types of paella, so I was rather pleased. I made friends with all of the toddlers at the after party (though that's probably not the term for the family gathering after a baptism), so I feel as though I've accomplished a lot today. The bad part was that petting the boxer confirmed my fear that I am probably allergic to dogs. I spent a good portion of the party sitting alone with tears coming out of my red and puffy and itchy eyes. But I wasn't gonna just not pet the dog... that would be silly.