My first week/weekend in Madrid!

Rest of the week went very smoothly as the haze of homesickness began to clear…

I found out I will only be tutoring the girls two days every week—and one of those days, we work on their English homework from school—so not a whole lot of lesson planning going on.

Lets go over my eating habits, shall we? First of all, the Gomez’s (my family) leaves out both a basket of fruit, and a basket of bread on their kitchen table ALL DAY LONG. Can you guess which basket I pick from the most? I bet Grandma and Grandpa can…

Also, so mom knows my obsession with cereal—I have literally eaten it for every meal of the day a couple of times at home. I get here and take Granny’s advice to eat yogurt every day, but I have been craving cereal so much! I found a box in the cupboard that says “Cereales.” Naturally, I translate this as cereal. However, this type of cereal comes in the form of a round “biscuit,” with chocolate pieces all throughout…sound familiar? Yes, I have literally been crushing up cookies, and pouring straight cream, (they only drink Vitamin A&D milk in this house), over them, while convincing myself this is healthy. It wasn’t until yesterday, when I was munching on some for lunch after breakfasting on them as well, when Maria goes “can you give me some of those cookies?” that I finally had to come to terms that this was nothing like Kashi cereal.

Long story about cookies, sorry.

One other food experience, well three. Megan—I HAVE HAD PAELLA! I thought about you during every bite. Also, tapas = everything I could have hoped and dreamed. My British friends and I, (literally, I am the one American girl in our group of five), went to a really authentic tapas place last night. Potato wedges in a tomato spicy sauce, prawn croquettes, mushroom sauce, and calamari, to name a few. YUM.

And today, ANDY, I ate the most delicious churro ever! Tommy, you would have gone nuts. At this place, I forget what it was called, but it was basically a chocolate restaurant. You order a cup of pure, melted chocolate and a PLATTER of churros, and go to town. I might go there every day.

So, news beyond food. Well wait one more thing, I eat ham every day, sometimes twice a day. Adios cholesterol concern! There is just no way you can avoid it—you HAVE to eat ham or the Spanish spit on you!

Okay okay. So I joined this site called conversation exchange. It’s for anywhere all over the world, but basically you make a profile stating you want to learn Spanish, and then someone in Madrid will contact you stating they want to learn English—all free! Might be a little fishy—I will only meet people during the day, in a very public place to ensure safety—but I am very excited!

I will hopefully start Spanishes classes the beginning of February, and until then, I’m going to be as big of a tourist as possible in Madrid so that I can get it out of my system and feel more like a inhabitant of the city.

As mentioned above, have met some “lovely” British girls who insist my American accent is really very strong. They imitated it for me and it sounds awful—I hope we Americans really don’t sound like the way they made me sound. Lucy lives down the street from me and we get along well. She is sweet, funny, and a really good listener. We are planning a trip to Seville—southern Spain—for this coming weekend J. Tomorrow, we will go on the 3 ½ hour walking tour of Madrid. Andy and I learned together in Chicago that a city tour is probably the most helpful way to really get to know a city, so I researched and found a free one!

Different things:

1)    Uggs are HUGE! Ugh! I thought they were on their way out, so I didn’t even think to bring them, but all of the fashionistas have them!

2)    I know you all know this, but it is still fascinating to experience—everyone stays up—doing stuff—until 1:00 A.M.! I got back last night exhausted from the city and the house was buzzing. The 12-year-old, Alicia, plops down on my bed when I walk in and starts chatting about this and that. Crazy.

3)    My girls go to a French school, I found out. Thus, not only are they fluent in Spanish and English, but French as well. This, the mother tells me, is very typical for students in Madrid. I feel slightly dumb, and I can feel the girls glare at me as I close myself into my room to read, facebook, and watch T.V. while they study their little tails off.

Adios! Love you and miss you. Hope everyone is doing well, and please don’t feel the least bit guilty if you skimmed this—very long. Pictures below :)

Mary

Kristen—no plaintains or bibliotque, yet. I’ll let you know as soon as each of these are experienced. I did have fun telling my British friends your passion for afternoon tea, and they were very impressed.

Kate—Alicia likes to sleep, movies, arts and crafts, food, rugby, painting, dresses, high shoes, music, shopping, pictures, Kiaora, and bath. She does not like reading, studying, (great), getting bored, being sick, teeth, sparragus, to throw up, shower, or museums.  Maria likes her family, Kiaora, computer, clothes, music, basketball, holydays, tenis, sleeping, green, mac. She does not like tattoos, books, spinach, art, lies, allergies, or PSP. 

 Muy bonita casa, si?

 Some famous futbol player lives here...nope, don't know his name.

 First Spanish churro-ey-yi-yi!

 Sol--the EXACT center of Spain, (get it?? sol/soul???)

 Buenas nochos!

 MEGANNN! You are the seafood to my Paella.

 New Bri'ish! friends. Laura, Lucy, Me. They totally rolled their eyes at me when I yelled "bri'ish!"

 When you walk around Madrid at night, there are men promoting their bars who persuade you to come in the bars for free shots--I was persuaded.

My street!! Calle del Sotillo (So-tee-yo)