Random happenings

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, I've been busy with midterms. Last week I had 3 midterms on Wednesday, 1 on Thursday and my last one was today. I think they went decently well. I know I got a 100 on my Theology midterm which makes me happy. School here is different. I am finished with my homework every day before I even go home. It's weird. And they don't really have a lot of tests. Which makes me nervous because that means I need to do well on the few I have. I think I prefer a lot of little grades, it takes off a little bit of pressure. But that's life. It is what it is. (See friends- I'm less uptight, although grades still freak me out a ton and are very important).

But this past weekend was fun because our friends Katie and Heather (who we visited in London last weekend) came with their friend Kayla to visit us. It was fun showing them around Madrid. Also it was carnival and there were a ton of strange/cool costumes and acts running around Madrid. And it was nice to have a weekend where we weren't traveling. As much as I love seeing all these places, traveling can take a lot out of a girl! I am still exhausted. But we basically showed them the main tourist points (and not so tourist points) of Madrid.

After picking them up at the airport and bringing them to their hostel, we headed out in search of food. We went to sol because that's the central part of Madrid. We ate a generic sandwich shop, then walked all over sol. We started at La Plaza Mayor, where we saw some Spanish boys singing. We stopped to watch them because they were actually pretty good and they gave us flowers. :) Then we walked in and out of touristy shops where I bought some gifts (still have a long way to go with those, but I'm making my way through my list). We then went and got some yummy nutella crepes and met up with Becca and Hannah. We then walked over to look at the palace and the palace gardens. We showed our new friends our favorite rope park by our apartment, then went back for a little nap before dinner/going out.

Plaza Mayor with bubbles!

Singing

Flowers

We met up with Katie, Heather and Kayla for dinner. We went back to sol to walk around and figure out where we wanted to eat. We ended up at Meg's and my favorite local bar (which turned out to not be so local because I saw someone from school there) for dinner and drinks. I attempted to order a pitcher but didn't know what the word for it was. The waiter tried to tell me it was broken, which really confused me because I'm not really sure how their pitchers were broken. Regardless, we ended up with 4 ginormous glasses of sangria instead. It's okay, they were good. We all got dinner and enjoyed a leisurely meal because we had time to kill until we were meeting up with Hannah, Becca and Maureen to go to a club. I ordered a mojito when I was done with my sangria, and there was literally a whole mint plant in it. It was extremely overwhelming. I literally pulled a chunk of mint the size of my fist out of the glass and there was still more. It was good once I wasn't dying of a mint overdose. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw them making these pretty blue drinks at the bar and were all wondering what they were. We were about to ask when suddenly they stopped at the table, threw out some coasters and set the drinks down in front of us and said "on the house!" And then they took our picture to put on their facebook page. So that was a little exciting I guess. Then we headed out to go meet Hannah, Becca and Maureen at Joy (popular club in Madrid). We actually got in free early, but they couldn't so they ended up somewhere else. But since Madrilenans don't go out until the wee hours of the morning, we got bored and left early. I know it's lame, but one of these days I will stay out later than 2 I promise. I will pull an all nighter at least once.

Going out

Sangria

Blue drinks

Me and Meg

Saturday was another fun filled day. We went out to lunch at some random restaurant, then we went on another cable car ride, so they could experience Madrid in a different way. It was fun and I don't know why but I find the ride kind of soothing (I know I'm a weirdo). After that, we went to Sol for some chocolate and churros. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well so I went back to take a little rest while they went to Retiro Park. I met up with them later and we got dessert (I got dinner) at this place called Cafe y Te. It was nice to just sit, relax and talk until they had to leave. We said our good byes and headed home because they left really early Sunday morning.

Palace/Cathedral from cable car

River from cable car

carnival performer

Sunday, I worked on my spanish presentation that I had today (which I think I did really well on) and just lounged about. Today I had a long day of classes and now I'm planning all my hostel stuff for our spring break trip to Italy! I am very excited about that. This week I don't have classes on Thursday or Friday, and Megan and I are having a long weekend in the Canary Islands! I am super excited for some fun in the sun and I hope can get my tan on. I haven't gotten that much color here yet, but I want that to change soon (it's warming up). Then my cousin Rob is going to be here next week so I just have a lot to look forward to. I am excited for everything. And yeah that's about it. Before I wrap it up I'd just like to say thank you so much to everyone who reads this, turns out there's more of you than I ever thought there would be. Feel free to leave comments.

All my love,

Ash