Days 2-5

Tuesday we went to the Palacio Real, which is a castle with rooms that have been maintained and you can see them. It was really cool. A girl from Greek Camp is in Madrid through a different program (Georganne) and some other people from this program are friends with her, so we met her for dinner. After that, some of us went to San Gines Chocolateria, which is the same one that the big group of family that came in 2006 went to. We got Churros and Chocolate and I thought that it was delicious, but a few of my friends didn't really like it because the chocolate isn't that sweet.

So on Wednesday the group went to the Museo de Prado, which is a really big art museum that the family group that went to too. It was pretty cool again. After that Kelly (one of my roommates and the girl who was on my flight) and I went to go find the Biblioteca Nacional, but when we got there, all you could do was go in. There was a museum of archeology that we could have bought tickets for that was connected, but we didn't. We went out to dinner at the cutest restaurant where the owner and his kids worked. His son, Pepito, was about 12 and he knew a little English, so he helped us decipher the menu. I got these scrambled eggs with chicken, caramelized onions, peppers, and potatoes and it was fantastic, probably the best meal that we had in Madrid.

Thursday was awesome! The program took everyone to a really sweet city about an hour away from Madrid name Toledo. This city has such a cool history, which is completely evident still today. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all lived in this city pretty peacefully together for hundreds of years, which was a pretty rare phenomenon because usually when relgions clashed, wars/violence would result. So because of this cohabitation, there are many synagogues, mosques, and cathedrals all within this little city. The one cathedral in the center is beautiful, both inside and out. Some guy named Jose led us to a convent where we got to watch people work on crosses and jewelery and stuff in this little workshop. This city kind of reminds me of Santorini because of how cute and quaint it is, but it isn't all white and it has castles and stuff around it, so I suppose it is just the atmosphere and the beauty of the cities that is similar.

Today (Friday) after class (which I have everyday, but for lack of anything interesting, I haven't talked about it) we went to Ritero Park. This park is gorgeous! It has fountains and sculptures galore, and beautiful gardens throughout, but my favorite part was the large pond. It was so pretty, especially because it had this really amazing area to stand/sit with statues and stairs and columns AND you could rent little row boats to take out, which looked like so much fun, but we didn't have time to do that because we had to meet the rest of the program at El Congreso. The Congress was really pretty as well and the tour, which was in Spanish, was interesting until the very end where he was answering questions and he wasn't really talking to everyone anymore. Micaela, the student helper person, then took us all the people that showed up to the Congress out for ice cream because I think she was treating us for coming to the excursion.

Tonight is the last night in Madrid because we leave for Salamanca in the morning tomorrow. As fun and awesome as Madrid is, I am actually pretty excited to go to Salamanca and meet my host family (and I won't find out who they are or anything about them until I meet them tomorrow) because I know that I will be speaking way more Spanish with them than I am with my friends. Also, it will be nice to have all of my classes (this week was just a mini introduction into Living in Spain and we basically just went over vocab and stuff). Sometime next week, I will be taking a placement exam to put me in a level for the cursos internacionales at the University of Salamanca. These classes will be with students from all over the world, so depending on my level and stuff, I could be without any people from my program.

Well, that's all for now. Going to go out for the last time in Madrid!

So I am going to edit this post to mention where we went in Madrid. It was this crazy club called Kapital and it is so crazy because there are 7 stories to it, all of which are dances floors with bars on the sides. It was really awesome, and I don´t always enjoy clubs, but this one was really something. We left at midnight or so for the club (this is considered early by the rest of Spain) and we didn´t leave until 5 or some in the morning, and the club was still going strong. It was a 15 euro entrance fee, but it came with two drinks of my choice, so it was worth it.