¡EJ in España!

Real sleepy, real ready to party

Friday, March 9th was a very important day this semester for a few reasons: 1. it marked the halfway point of my semester in Spain, 2. EJ arrived in Madrid to visit me for his spring break! and 3. (maybe even most importantly) I got some peanut butter, almonds, and a new camelbak hand delievered to me.

I woke up on Friday morning so excited to rush to the airport and meet EJ as soon as he got off his flight. After a nice love actually-esque moment in the airport (kidding..) we hopped on the metro and dropped his luggage off at his hostel. I was so excited to see him and show him around Madrid, and I think he just felt like a zombie as I took him all over to visit some of my favorite places in Madrid like the Palace and the Plaza de Oriente, as well as the Parque del Oeste. His hostel was relatively close to my apartment, but required a walk through an "interesting" street of Madrid. Calle fuencarral, commonly known as hooker street, is full of tattoo parlors, sex shops, and "ladies" in very high heels flanking the sides of the streets at all hours of the day and night looking for business. I'm sure he has a couple stories for you if you ask him. Friday night my roommates and I took him out to a few bars for some drinks to celebrate his arrival! We ended up staying up pretty late, but had a great time, even despite the jet lag.

Ew, snow!

Healthy grains granola--the key to a good hike

Saturday morning, we hopped on a random bus with no real directions or idea of where we were going to head to the mountains to the northwest of Madrid and a town called Cercedilla for hiking! We didn't know what to expect at all, and after a bit of wandering around the town of Cercedilla, we finally found the national park and had an awesome time hiking. It was so nice to get out of the city for a while and have fun in the mountains. We had stopped at the grocery store before we left for a very well balanced picnic of water, a loaf of pan integral (wheat bread), healthy grains (see picture), and some spanish starburst called cubitos. We were hiking for a while until we got high enough to see snow and as we climbed even higher and noticed that the hikers we were coming across looked very well prepared, and we realized that we had out-hiked our sneakers and t-shirts.

Finally near the top of the mountain!

Saturday night we had a nice steak dinner courtesy of the Campbell parents (thanks for that!), and just had a nice relaxing night. Sunday morning we went to the Atlético Madrid soccer game against Granada. After a wild goose chase circling aroudn the stadium to find the proper place to pick up our tickets, we finally got the tickets and went into the stadium. Though I had already been to a Real Madrid game, I really liked the Atlético Madrid game because the fans seemed much more rowdy and their chants were really fun to sing along with. True to Spanish sporting event form, everyone was wearing scarves despite the fact that it was extremely sunny and very hot (I loved it! Let's just say that EJ had to buy some aloe the next day..). At halftime, people brought out the packed sandwiches again and ate lunch in between halves. Atlético won 2-0 with a great goal in the middle of the game and a really exciting goal in the 90th minute to seal the deal! After the game, we called my roommates and met them at El Tigre (the restaurant with really big mojitos and lots of free food) for lunch. A few mojitos later and lots of food later, we took a walk around the Plaza del Oriente and the Palace before going to mass in the Cathedral that evening. 

"Atleti, Atleti, Atlético de Madrid! Ganando, ganando..."

A view of the altar at the Cathedral;
I love bright colored patterns on the ceiling

After mass, we just hung out for a little bit at his hostel, and then went to sleep (Sunday is a school night after all). It's crazy to think how quickly every day has gone already while EJ has been here--I can't believe the first weekend is already over and I have to go to school (and take 2 tests) in the next 4 days! We'll see how that goes later this week...

Rachel

PS. my sincerest apologies about the very very very late updates, I've been so busy!