It's been awhile...

Only 3 and a half weeks left! Therefore I thought I should squeeze in another post or two, especially since I've been delinquent ever since spring break. So, here are some highlights and thoughts.

Two weekends ago Eric and Papa visited! The weather did its part and showered us (figuratively) with sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for sunbathing in el Parque de Retiro, the largest and most popular (and manicured) park in central Madrid. I even got a bit of a tan in the little time we spent there! We stayed in Madrid for 3 days before heading to Barcelona, which was absolutely beautiful and had lots and lots of delicious food. I really enjoyed the tapas-style lunch; it was a delicious change of pace, since mostly my lunch consists of homemade sandwiches. After 3 days in gorgeous Barcelona [of whose metro system I'm a huge fan], we came back to Madrid for a final night and went out to dinner at a restaurant called Bazaar, with my friend Paige's family. It was absolutely delicious, although not traditionally Spanish. [Although at this point in my trip, I'm starting to view that as a pretty good thing].

It's kind of unfortunate that at this stage in my stay I still didn't have anywhere in particular that I wanted to show off about "my city". I know I've traveled a lot and there's only so much to see in Madrid, but I regretted that I've spent so much time at school, traveling and at home that I didn't know "the best restaurant in town", but I was excited that their being here allowed for a lot of exploring that I hadn't really done since the first few weeks when I arrived. Also, the beautiful weather that's finally peaking through certainly increases my motivation to walk around aimlessly!

Anyway, after a fun week, they left on Monday morning, and very greedily, they seem to have taken the good weather with them! It's been showering (literally, with rain) ever since. (Today's looking up, though...).

So that also kind of killed my plans for my "first exciting weekend in Madrid in nine whole weeks!", in which I was going to explore! and eat out! and do lots of other unspecified Spanish things! But... I didn't really want to wander around anywhere with the spitting/pouring rain.

But on Sunday, Paige and I went to see Alice in Wonderland (or, Alicia en el Pais de Maravillas)! Spanish theaters are a bit different, since when you buy your ticket you also pick your seat, like a real theater. Upside: Ordering your ticket in advance means you don't have to show up 30 minutes in advance to get the good seat. Downside: Americans (me) forget that Spanish theaters act in this way, and when we try to buy seats 5 hours before the movie, we get seats in the second row! It actually wasn't that bad, though, once I got used to looking up. It was however, the only cinema in Madrid to screen the movie both in English and in 3D, so the crowd was mostly inevitable.

Other random things... I have 19 pages of papers due in about 2 or so weeks. All of a sudden my classes want to pretend they're real! And assign work! (Okay, so I got two of the assignments more like 2 weeks ago... but still.) I've also gotten back into running after getting my running shoes two weeks ago, and it's a lot different now that the weather's a bit warmer. Before, the only runners were die-hard athletic men who looked at women exercising as if we were aliens. However they have since been replaced by older men who probably needed to jump on the exercise bandwagon several years ago, younger average guys, and even some other girls! (Besides my roommate!) And, yes, the cute guys who now play tennis in the middle of the park don't hurt either...

I'm enjoying my time here, but nevertheless I'm still excited to come home in three weeks! I really am getting excited for drip-coffee and cottage cheese. I know the second craving sounds strange, but after looking all semester and failing... I've come to really want it!