And finally...vamos a Madrid!

I arrived Wednesday night in Madrid and could not have been more excited to see Megan, my friend from USC who I stayed with. We headed back to her apartment to eat dinner and go out. Madrid is known for their night life, and it is definitely something I wanted to experience while I was there. Spain also seems to run on its own time schedule. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, which is eaten around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Most restaurants have what's called "Menu del Día." You get two courses, plus a dessert and a drink, all for one price. It is such a great idea and the US needs to get on it stat. Dinner is a lighter meal eaten around 9 or 10 in the evening. Then they go out to clubs around 2am...which is a bit late in my opinion.

On Thursday, my first full day in Madrid, I went on a class field trip. Megan's Spanish Culture class was taking a trip to the Reina Sofia museum, and her professor said I could come with them. I honestly don't think he realized I wasn't one of his students. Her professor clearly loved art; he practically skipped through the museum telling us all about the Picassos and Dalís there. The class is in Spanish, and I was excited at just how much I could understand, considering I've been away from Spanish for a few months now. It also didn't take long for me to start thinking in Spanish, something else I was excited about. After almost two hours in the museum, he let us go and I experienced my first Menu del Día at an Italian restaurant. We then walked up Paseo del Prado and Megan pointed out all the other museums on the street.

We next headed to Parque del Retiro, which is basically Madrid's version of Central Park in New York City. It was a gorgeous day, and we just strolled, people watching and seeing all the flowers beginning to bloom. 

We then headed to Sol, the shopping center of Madrid. On our way, we stumbled across a protest. We couldn't figure out exactly what it was for, but it had something to do with the high unemployment rate in Spain. Sol itself is very cool. There are street "performers" there who look like they're floating; we couldn't figure out how they do it. I didn't get a picture of one, but if you google "Madrid floating man," you'll see what I'm talking about. We also stumbled across the Madrid Premiere of Divergent in Sol. We waited around for a little while to try to see some famous people, but all we saw were Spanish celebrities who we didn't recognize (even though the crowd certainly went crazy for some of them). I'm sure the actual stars of the movie were there, we just got too hungry to wait around for them. 

On Friday, Megan took me to a restaurant by her apartment that serves some pretty amazing Spanish food (and we enjoyed Menu del Día again). We then went to el Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). It was gorgeous (like everything in Europe pretty much). We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was clear that it was Spanish due to the bright colors everywhere! 

We met up with Megan's French friends later that night, but didn't go out with them because we knew we had a long day on Saturday. They insisted we all speak Spanish since we were in Spain, and I was happy to have another opportunity to practice.

On Saturday, we went to Capea. Megan's buddy from CUNEF (her school) told her about it. Basically, we paid 30 euros for the bus ride there and back, all you can eat and drink, and some great entertainment. We rode almost an hour out of the city to the middle of nowhere. They had potato salad, pasta salad, different meats (chicken, hamburgers, mini hot dogs) that you could put in the hundreds, if not thousands, of baguettes they had. Everyone who goes is also able to try their luck in the ring with a young bull, which was still pretty strong (we saw it knock some people over). They guys were definitely braver, but a few girls went in the ring as well. 

The cape is a lot heavier than it looks!

On Sunday morning, we got up and went to El Rastro, a market set up in town every Sunday morning. It had really cute stuff for pretty cheap, and I was bummed that I was only traveling with my backpack and couldn't fit much in it! I did get a cute brown leather purse though for 12 euros. Megan got a nice new leather jacket and a super cute dress. After, we went to Cien Montaditos to eat, another great part of Spain. Apparently there are chains in New York, Washington D.C., and Miami. They run a deal on Wednesdays and Sundays where everything on the menu is one euro; tapas, drinks, everything except salads. It was delicious and I want to open one in Columbia. 

After being in the very touristy cities of London and Paris, Madrid was like a breath of fresh air due to the fact that it is not a very touristy city at all. Megan described it as an international city, as opposed to a touristy city, since it is the business center of Spain (Barcelona is apparently much more touristy, mainly because it's right on the water). I could also understand almost everything everyone said to me. People in Madrid speak the purest form of Spanish, so it is easier for Spanish to understand than, for example, Latin American Spanish. Unless we were with the other USC students, we spoke Spanish to literally everyone.

On the flight from Madrid to Basel, we flew right over Geneva. The pilot announced that we could see Lake Geneva out the left side of the plane, and Mont Blanc out the right (my window!). I couldn't get a picture of Lake Geneva, but here's Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps (technically it's in France but it's right on the Swiss/Italian border). 

I had one class over Spring Break, which lasted two days. The second half of the semester started today, and with it I began a new class. I only have four classes left the rest of the year out of the seven I signed up for. I leave Friday to meet up in Rome with my USC friend and sorority sister Shannon for Easter, and am so excited to see her!

So long for now!