The Missing Days

Since I saw you last, I have gone dancing in Madrid, been to "el ratido", stayed up all night at the feria in tres cantos, saw fireworks that reminded me a lot of home, and stayed home with both eddie and lucia.  It's been pretty busy around here.  But then again, when has it not been busy!

Clubbing in Madrid was a blast.  Irene and I left for Madrid around 8pm.  First, we met a few of her friends, and then we ran to catch the train.  We just missed the 8:20 train, so we had to wait an extra 20 minutes to catch the next one.  For some reason, it always seems that when I meet new people, I am always the topic of conversation.  They ask how I like Spain, what is different, how I live in the U.S, and other things of that sort.  I guess I don't mind so much, because that means people are talking to me, and talking in English, which is nice.  The train finally arrived, and we got on, and rode the 25 minutes to Madrid, talking and laughing.  We met more friends in Madrid, and walked down the Grand Via at night, which was pretty cool.  The building in the picture below is the main building of the Grand Via, and very emblematic of the strip.

We went to the club, and started dancing.  I think all clubs are pretty much the same wherever you go, they all have overpriced drinks, packed dance floors, music that is so loud you can't hear the person next to you even if they are yelling, drinks spilled all over the floor making it sticky and gross, and don't forget the creepy guys, and the old guys.  I will admit that some things were different, like maybe the music, most I recognized, but some was in Spanish, and at this club around 2:30 a.m. there were scantily clad girls with sunglasses who began dancing on pedestals on the dance floor.  We had a great time though.  In this picture, it is me, Irene, Alvero, Cristina, and another girl, who is from Wisconsin, and I don't remember her name.  oops.

 
On a different day, we went to Madrid and just walked around.  We went to the royal palace, and saw that, and we just relaxed in front of it.  It was pretty hot that day.  It was nice to just sit in the shade and stop walking for a while.  Me in front of the royal palace.  It's enormous, and this is just a small part of it.

So, this past weekend was the feria, translated to be like a festival of the city.  There was a carnival and lots of tents, representing different political parties, and areas of Spain.  There were also a few stages, and a DJ.  All of the places that played music played it much too loud, so loud that one of the girls I know who lives a decent distance away, could not get to sleep because it was so loud.  They have such good food though.  That is definitely one thing I really like, the food.  The carnival was quite similar to ones in the U.S.  The rides were much more expensive to ride though, about 2 euros per ride, which translates to almost 3 dollars per ride.  The good thing is that the rides are much longer, and they usually get a balloon or hat with the ride.  So it's better.

One of the nights, I went out with Carmen and we went to one of the tents, from the north of Spain, a place called Asturias.  They have a very peculiar drink, natural cider, or "sidre" and you must pour it into a cup from up high, apparently to carbonate it.  I don't get it.  Usually, you just end up wasting a lot of it. They showed me how the people from Asturias traditionally pour the cider, and it turns out I am quite good at it.  I became the cider pour-er for the rest of the night.

 Hooray for natural cider at 3 in the morning!

The next night, I went out with Irene and a few of her friends.  We decided to stay out all night, literally. We danced for a while, and sat around and talked a lot.  This picture is of Enrique, Alvero, Gonzalo, me and Diego.

We went back to the zip-line and played on that for a while.  We also went to another part of the park and played on the swings, and merry-go-round.  We stayed there until the sun began to rise, and then at about 6:30 we left to go to the churreria.  I was pretty excited about that.  I love porras, the bigger version of churros.  Sadly, it wasn't quite open when we got there, and the boys pictured above needed to go home, so we walked o the train station which is close to the churreria.  We said goodbye to them, and then us girls headed back to the churreria for breakfast.  OM NOM NOM.  I got back to the house at around 8:30 in the morning, and only took a 2 hour nap in the morning, and then took a 3 hour siesta in the evening.

The next night, we went to the fireworks.  They were gorgeous.  They were coordinated with music which was a nice touch, but I would have to say that the Detroit fireworks are bigger and better.  The fireworks show didn't start until midnight, and I was supposed to be at home, with the kids in bed, but plans changed and we all stayed for the fireworks.  We didn't get home from the fireworks until about 1am, and the kids were in bed around 1:30.

Carmen and David decided that it was best for Eddie to stay home the next day, because waking him up for school at 8:30 am would not have been a good idea.  So i stayed home with both of the kids, which wasn't as bad as i thought it would be.  They were both very good, other than a minor incident when Eddie hit Lucia.  He was promptly put in the corner, and had to watch and Lucia and I had fun dancing.  He apologized, and tole me that he would not hit.

Today is not over yet, but Lucia and I have been playing in the house, and having a grand ol' time.  Thank goodness for the internet!