September 18-22

Hello again!
Well, since the last time I posted things are pretty much the same. I'm getting into a good routine now and we have picnics almost every night :) It’s very fun. Tonight we tried a new park too, Garcia Lorca. This one is a lot bigger and it was gorgeous, well what I saw of it because it was dark outside :) haha but it was still great! Another new thing we tried a few days ago was a teteria, a Moroccan tea place. It was so fun! haha we made friends with the guy that was working there too. He sat down with us and talked for a long time, he made fun of our Spanish and our accents haha but he was great. We plan to go back soon because he gives us free stuff!! And the tea is amazing!! The atmosphere is great too, low cushions and tables, tile on the walls, and Moroccan music. We think we will go there a lot when it gets colder. Not many places let you sit for a long time without buying much food, so we will spend lots of time in teterias once the parks get too cold :) Anyways, we sat and enjoyed that for a good two or three hours! haha Well, that was Thursday night...Friday I had a visit with my Art class. We went to a museum outside of the Alhambra. It was kind of cool but not at the same time :) It was nine in the morning on our day of no class...so no one was really that excited to wake up early (well early to college students, not for you Grandpa haha) on our day off. And then the museum just talked about the things that were in the palace itself or the things that Islamics used during that time period. So, I can't say it was my favorite part of Spain so far..but some things were still interesting. On Saturday I slept in!!! Yay..it’s always exciting when you don't have to wake up to the alarm :) But my host mom was at a wedding all day. They are such a big deal here. She wasn't even in the wedding and she went to have her nails done, hair done, and she brought a really fancy dress to wear! She left at nine a.m. and didn't come home until after I had left! (around 10:30 p.m.) But one of my friends, Megan, called me Saturday morning and told me she found a great market that was close to our houses. So we walked around there for a few hours. It was soo cool!! It was kind of like West Market during Tulip Time, only smaller :) There were lots of venders selling clothes, jewelry, purses, food, shoes, you name it! And it was all so cheap! haha Probably one of my favorite things, lots of sales, all in one spot! Dangerous! :) After that I spent the rest of the day doing homework and getting ready to leave. K so, we were planning on going to the beach on the Mediterranean this weekend, but decided to go to Madrid instead haha. So, on Friday night we decided we wanted to take the bus from Granada at 12:30 at night and ride to Madrid...get there at 5:30 a.m. and explore the city!!! It was a very spontaneous trip but I loved it!! Just the thing that I was hoping to do in another country :)

So...to go over what we did in Madrid, we all wrote down the things that happened :) There were so many funny and random things that happened so we decided to write them down as they happened so we wouldn't forget! So here is the synopsis that we came up with!!

We caught bus number 3 from Gran Vía (a street downtown Granada) to the station where we got the tickets printed off by the difficult man who didn’t really want to help us but eventually did. Then we walked to McDonald’s, we felt like such ridiculous Americans haha here we are with our backpacks, walking shoes, dressed like American's, and going into McDonald's! So much for trying to fit in :) We got cat called randomly by some guys driving in too haha. We waited in the ridiculous line for ice cream which was totally worth it! And Megan decided the bathrooms were super clean orange smelling and informed us we all had to check it out. haha I must admit it was a really nice McDonalds!! Meanwhile Elisabeth read from her travel guide and everyone else listened(ish) . Then on the way out the same guys yelled in the parking lot and were talking to Meg, Alex, and Liz, and then we went back to the bus station for our 5 hour bus ride with our mean bus driver. haha he was soo intense and mean!! He wouldn’t let us keep our bags on the floor and we thought he told us we couldn't sleep on the bus (come to find out the Spanish word for "sleep" and "to take off your shoes" are very similar haha) Well, regardless we tried to sleep anyways but then after we stopped for a rest stop he came back through and checked every seat/person. We were sleeping and all of a sudden he starts yelling at Alex, we still don't know what he said but something to the effect of “señorita! 50 euro! Zapatos!”. haha meaning she has to pay 50 Euros for taking off her shoes haha don't worry we didn't have to but it was still really funny :) After the ½ hour stop so the driver could smoke a lot and we slept a bit but still got off the bus super groggy. It was 5:30 a.m. in Madrid by this time!! haha We walked down the street the wrong way, then turned around and went the right way even though it didn’t seem like it because we were the only people on the street until we saw some boys who yelled at us. But we told them it was morning (well maybe we didn’t quite tell them, but we told them to ourselves) and we had crossed the street so we didn’t have to go right by them but that was a bad idea cause they just made fun of us more for doing so and we just kept on walking until we got to the park and sat on the steps and ate breakfast-ish. Then we wanted to find a café desperately! so we kept walking and we walked through the gate (although we almost didn’t but then Alex saved the day and made us). Two girls Lauren and Elisabeth got coffee while the rest of us tried to figure out where to go and what to do and such. However we were all watched by the two guys that were still drunk (in Spain students often go out dancing and partying until the morning, go out for breakfast and then go home and sleep haha) They turned out to be walking the same direction as us and started talking to us in English. We were not really responding at first but then they told us we had to see this one part of Madrid. "The most important part!" It was kilo metro zero in the Puerto del Sol from where all the roads in Spain are measured. They wanted to go to breakfast with us but we just left haha. Don't worry Dad and Mom...we were safe, no names, ages, or info was given out ;) haha We were in the middle of a big plaza, granted it was early in the morning (7) but it was safe. Then we all went to another cafe, cafeteria del Prado, were we had more coffee and then went to the Prado!!! It wasn't free (only after 5 on Sundays) but it was only 3 euro with the student discount. First the brochures were in French which was going to be interstate haha but then we got them in español. In the museum we saw Las Meninas, el 3 de mayo, a lot of Raphael, el Greco, and more!! It was amazing!! We didn't have lots of time (we had to do Madrid in 24 hours :) ) but it was still so cool to see so many famous paintings all at once! Next we went to the Plaza de Toros (the bull fighting ring in Madrid) which is a beautiful building in and of itself. As you may know the Davis Cup was taking place in Madrid this past weekend. So we thought "I wonder if we can get tickets?" well sure enough we could! And they were only 55 euro which is really not bad but it was raining a bunch so we decided to wait a bit before buying them. So we went to a café for lunch where there were other people who asked us to say something in English on a video for their friend haha. It stopped raining so we bought the tickets to see Nadal and Roddick play tennis in the Plaza de Toros!! We went in and waited in our seats which were thankfully covered for about an hour while it continued to rain but then IT STOPPED!! They had to get the court ready which took forever and involved scraping the water off the tarps then rolling up the tarps then putting more clay down then flattening it then wiping off the lines etc. etc. Then it began and Roddick started off really well and then as time went by he got more and more tired I think but it was still a good game (except for the set when Nadal won all of the games!) but it was amazing to get to see them play!! Roddick lost which was sad for us, but it may have been better because all of the fans were so excited and screaming. Plus if the US had won the next match between Querry and López would have mattered and we didn’t have time to stay for the whole thing but we would have really wanted to. There was a gross man next to us that was smoking cigars the whole time and sucking his thumb oddly enough and then picking his nose and eating it!!! haha They have strange people in every culture I have determined!! We only stayed for part of the next set then went to Palacio Real which was massive but not super impressive (we were “over sightseen” as Alex said Pilar’s the next morning). It was so pretty but I think it would have been better if we could go inside and see parts of it. Then we kept walking past the cathedral behind it and we were all really tempted to get massages by the Asian people haha. But we didn’t because we’d already spent a lot of dinero!! Next we went to Plaza Mayor which was really touristy and expensive but the gates all around it were really cool. I loved this one! Our tour guides, aka Liz and Elizabeth, informed us that there used to be bull fights, beheadings, and lots of other important events that took place in the middle of the plaza! It was so pretty and cool! Finally, we went back to Puerta del Sol for a while and had ice cream :) Then we took the metro back over to the bus station to take the bus back to Granada. We were really excited because we thought it was a different driver until we realized we were by the wrong bus and actually did have the same driver :( haha. We noticed he was wearing a cross necklace and thought that that should mean he was loving, but he definitely was not! Actually he must have had a good siesta or something because he was much more agreeable this time, which was great, even though this time we stopped twice so he could smoke. haha who knows...we finally made it back home almost exactly 24 hours after we left which was so weird! :) We all took cabs home and crawled into our beds for some much needed sleep! Overall, it was an amazing day! Lots of cool sights, walking, funny moments, sketchy people, great tennis, and good friends :)

K so sorry for the long detailed agenda :) but just in case you were wondering what I did this weekend :) haha

Well, I love you all!! Goodnight!
Erika