Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Last Wednesday, Dad and Patrick went to school with me. We started out the morning getting on a very full city bus and rode the 15 minutes to school. Dad could not believe that the bus driver kept letting people on the bus when we were already packed like sardines but that's how they do it here. They must not follow the maximum capacity rules. Dad and Patrick met all of my professors since I had all 4 of my classes. It was fun to see how much English the professors would speak to them since we have only heard them talk in Spanish. After school, we went to one of the most fancy restaurants in Caceres. It was called El Figon. The waiter even carried around a little white towel just to show you how nice it was. Dad and I tried the salmon and it was amazing! I really don't like fish that much but it was sooo good! Melted in my mouth. After the restaurant, we went and spent a couple hours at the hotel and then Dad and I walked to the bus station and bought bus tickets for our trip back to Madrid. At 6pm, we met up with my host mom and host sister Clara and the two of them took us through the Parte Antigua-Old part-of the city and explained the history. I translated. It was fun! Later, we met up with Cory, Lizzy, Courtney, Casey, and Bev to go to Ash Wednesday Mass. Receiving ashes was a little different than in the US because we bent our head down they just sprinkled some in our hair. They said something about converting yourself. The priest's homily was really good, and it was the first time I could actually get something out of a homily! We went to eat supper at El Montaito which is one of our favorite tapas restaurants and then to La Habana where I bought dad a Desperado beer. First time I've ever done that!

On Thursday, Dad and Patrick slept in while I went to classes. We had lunch and then made our way to the bus station. We got into Madrid at about 7:30pm. We took the metro to our hotel area and Dad almost got pick-pocketed. One guy was holding up part of his suitcase and another was trying to open the pocket of his jacket. Luckily, Dad dropped the suitcase on the accomplice and nothing was taken. Close call! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went to meet Claire for supper. She is another student in my program who had an unfortunate situation getting on a flight since she forgot her passport and was stuck in Madrid. We went out to eat and then went back to the hotel to sleep.

On Friday, we got up, ate breakfast, and went to the Prado Museum. We saw the paintings by El Greco, Goya, and Velazquez as well as other Spanish artists. I was very excited to see the painting called Las Meninas by Velazquez because it was something I had learned about in my high school Spanish class. It was cool! We spent about 3 hours at the Prado and that was about all the art we could take in for a while. We probably only saw about half of what was there! We ate lunch at a restaurant near the Prado. They seated us in a room of all English speaking people. The Spanish speaking people sat downstairs and people who spoke other languages sat upstairs...interesting concept. After lunch, we went to La Reina Sofia which is a modern art museum. We saw paintings by Dali and Picasso-including Guernica which is his most famous painting. It was huge!!! After about 2 hours there we had really had all the art we could take in for one day. We met up with Alex, another student from my program who was in Madrid for the weekend, and went to the Plaza Mayor. Unfortunately it was raining, but it was probably the coolest Plaza Mayor I have seen. It was completely surrounded by buildings. We went with Alex so she could find a hostel and then the four of us went to supper at a tapas bar. This was Dad and Patrick's last Spanish meal, so we made sure to get their favorites. We went out for ice cream and called it a night.

On Saturday, we got up early to get to the airport by 9am. We had a really nice taxi driver who told us his whole life story about driving a taxi and tending to his farm and his family, etc. His name was Ignacio. At the airport, we had breakfast and said goodbye. I really really enjoyed having them visit! I went to the bus station and got on my bus back to Caceres. I arrived here around 4pm and spent the rest of yesterday doing homework. I'm trying to get ahead since I will be going to Ireland from Friday-Tuesday.

Today, I went to Mass at a new church with Casey. We went to the ninos (kids) Mass, thinking that it might have some people there our age, but I guess not. Oh well it was lots of fun! And crazy!!! Kids were talking out loud like the whole time and the priest was very cool and read the Gospel reading using voices for Jesus and Satan. In a way it was like a school Mass at Sacred Heart because the priest asked the kids lots of questions. But it was very chaotic. All the kids would run up to answer the questions so that they could talk into the microphone. They were so cute though!! I spent the rest of today doing homework and planning trips. Also, as of note, Spain does not have their Daylight Savings Time until the end of March so from now til then, I am only 6 hours ahead of Iowa time. Off to bed!