Happy Spring!!

So it has not been the most eventful of weeks, but currently it is 55 degrees and sunny, so all is great!

Last Thursday, I went on a tapas crawl with the school. It was loads of fun. We got tapas at four different restaurants with some students from the Politechnica school (engineering students). I got to hang out with a bunch of people from school I didn't know well, and we all had a blast. Later that night, Jade and I went and had a chill night with Matt, one of the students from SU Madrid. We got hit on by some creepy Spanish guys, and I gave a fake name for the first time in my life. It was both hilarious and unnecessary, no harm no foul.

Friday, I spent the entire day writing my three 3-page essays for the Azahar seminar. I worked from about 10 am until 11:30 pm when I sent in my work. Not my best decision, but a fine display in my incomparable procrastination skillz.

Saturday, Jade and I went to Tomar Cafe, which is an adorable little venue with delicious iced coffee and too many hipster Americans. We then walked around Madrid for about two hours, which was really cool because we found out how close a bunch of our favorite spots are to each other.

Sunday we were supposed to go to a street market with Kayley, but it turned out to not be happening. We stumbled upon a little indoor craft show, and after walked around Madrid for a while.

Monday was a public holiday, so we didn't have school. Jade and I went to study Spanish in a cafe for a couple hours, in preparation for the midterm we had this morning.

So, not much happened in the past week. But that's okay, because I am going to LONDON tomorrow!!! Wahoo! I am so pumped! I may try to steal Marissa's laptop and write a post within the next 11 days, but no promises.

I fly into London tomorrow, we will be in Scotland the 29th through the 1st of April, and I fly back to Madrid the 2nd.

Oh, and an irrelevant side-note  I was bored in class today and started writing stories for my friends, which was loads of fun :) The one I wrote for Charity was about her and her little kittens, and then a witch tries to steal the kittens, but Christiano Rinaldo (the soccer player) rescues the kittens and he and Charity fall in love and get married. So, yeah. Made me laugh.

I am also recently obsessed with a new guy on YouTube  He goes by Ze Frank, and makes videos about animals called "True Facts" that are hilarious. He also does some more serious videos that are really interesting. www.youtube.com/zefrank1 if you wanna check him out. He studied neuroscience at Brown, so yeah, he's pretty legit.

Ok, that's all. Enjoy Spring, even if you are surrounded by snow.

Marissa in Madrid!!

It has been a bit since I posted anything and I have a ton of work and a quiz tomorrow, so now seemed like the perfect time.

The Weekend: Friday I went out with Jade and some Spanish people. It was fun, nothing major, we got home around 5:30 am. It seems like a waste to take the bus home at 5:30 since the metro opens at six, but we were tired and ready to go home, and our metro passes cover the buses too.

Saturday I went out with my friend Christina, who is in my biology class. We have gotten a closer in the last couple of weeks, so I finally have more than one friend (YAY!). She invited me out with some people from our program and a Spanish boy who she met at the cultural encounters night at the school. He also brought a group of his friends. It was a really great night. Everyone got along well, first we went to one crowded bar until it closed, then we went to a small club where we danced until it closed. It was great. I came home on the bus alone at five in the morning. My key didn't work when I got home, which was really frustrating but not entirely unexpected because it was made from some weak, light-weight metal and had been working less and less each day. I tried for a while, tried calling Jade, and eventually had to give up and ring the bell to be let in. I felt really bad for waking Jade and Paloma but didn't really have a choice, and Paloma gave me a new key Sunday.

Other than those two nights on the town, I basically spent the weekend relaxing in bed, which was really nice.

Sunday, Marissa and her friend/London roommate, Erica, came into Madrid. I met them at the airport and helped them find their way to Sol. Paloma then invited them over for dinner. We got some tapas and then ate dinner with Paloma and Jade.

Painting at the bar where we ate tapas. Barefoot girl with pistol.

Monday the three of us went to the Royal Palace, and then I had a Scuba class from 7-10pm. It was the second installment of the classroom work which started Thursday night. Tuesday we had another class 7-10pm, and took the final written test (which I passed, yay!).

Tuesday during the day we wanted to go to the Reina Sofia and the Prado. We grabbed a snack and ate it in the square outside the Reina Sofia. A woman came up to us and warned us that there were people around who wanted to steal our bags. She made me a little nervous, but we all checked our belongings and nothing was missing. It turns out that the Reina Sofia is closed on Tuesdays, so we went to the Prado and Retiro Park. Afterwards Erica went to meet a friend, and Marissa and I grabbed lunch and ate outside in the sun. It was so nice and warm.

I missed her! Plus this continues the saga of my inability to take a photo without someone getting in it.

Tuesday night, Marissa chilled in my room while I went to class. She and I were going to go out for a delicious Spanish dinner, but ended up getting Wok to Walk which is a noodle place which I had never been to, but she had liked in Amsterdam.

Marissa and I also planned our Scotland trip while she was here, and booked flights and a hostel.

If I were one of the seven dwarfs, I would be Happy.

So normally when I have a bunch of days to post about I try to do it in chronological order, but i have been oddly chipper today, so I think that is where I will start. Actually no, I am way too scattered for that.

So I went to Portugal this weekend. It was amazing!! From the moment we rolled into Lisbon I was unbelievably excited, and immediately after stepping off the bus, I informed everyone that I would not be returning to Madrid.

There were a ton of factors that went into my immediate infatuation with Portugal:

1. The Ocean! Portugal is on the Atlantic Ocean and from the moment we got to Lisbon all of our days were spent by the water.
2. The weather. Apparently it is not always the case, but the whole time we were in Portugal it was warm and sunny, a wonderful break from the immense cold that took over Madrid last week.
3. Portuguese. I love listening to people speaking in Portuguese instead of Spanish. It is probably because Portuguese is familiar to me since my mother grew up in Brasil and has surrounded us with Brasilians. I wish I spoke any Portuguese, and I did try, but it was unbelievably confusing, and everyone spoke fluent English. At one point a woman in a Starbucks yelled at me and Jade because we were trying to speak Portuguese, but apparently it was all Spanglish, and she was like "are you Spanish or English?? I don't understand!! We do not speak Spanish here. I can speak English if you speak slowly." It was really awkward and we apologized and proceeded with English.  It was sort of hilarious... I laughed.
4. The Food! Oh my goodness gracious, the delicious food I ate in Portugal. The fish was AmAzInG!!! I had grilled swordfish (shown above because I was struggling with using the numbered list and inserting pictures) one day while sitting at an outdoor patio in the sun, and I was in ecstasy. We also had some delicious pastries in Belem which were BOMB! (shown below, because struggles)
5. The Hotel/Being away for a bit. At the end of the day I think a big part of why I loved going to Portugal is because I was away from my host mom for a bit, and had a nice get away. Away from school, and Madrid, and the dirty/broken apartment. It was nice to stay in a fresh, clean, fully functioning hotel. And I welcomed the change up from my host mom's cooking.

Basically, it was an awesome trip, and I didn't want to come back here. For some reason I have been uncomfortable lately, and just homesick, I guess. I developed this irrational anger towards my host mom, and was just in a perpetual bad mood. Seriously, I was miserable. When we got back I was so unhappy, I even talked about wanting to move home stays, and I knew I had no reason to be angry at my host mom, but I was just annoyed and sick of everything being dirty and broken. Plus I think it is hard to live with someone, so it may be normal that I have tired of her. 

Sunday, I asked for a broom to clean my room, and Paloma (my host mom), leapt into action and insisted on doing it herself. She swept and mopped in my room and in Jade's. She claimed that she intended to clean on Monday, but that seemed unlikely. I was still annoyed and moody that night, and dealing with her walking around singing and muttering to herself (which she does constantly) made me irrationally angry. But yesterday, something clicked. 

I spent my Monday afternoon watching some shows and finished my FreshFest facilitator interview form and my Summer Adventure Camp counselor application and emailed three people recommendation forms to fill out for me. Then I watched some movies, and relaxed for the evening. So last night at dinner is the first time in a while I was smiley and participating in the conversation. Since then I have just been oddly happy. Maybe it's because I don't have many stressful things going on right now. I didn't have work to get done last night or today, and I am just generally happy.

Today, Jade and I went to an awesome health food store, and two different produce markets and bought a ton of delicious food. Paloma was in the kitchen when we got home, so I went to get lunch at the Döner Kebab place a few blocks from the apartment. It was delicious, and I walked home cheery, and totally ready to take a nap... though I have detoured to write this post and watch about five or six Jennifer Lawrence interview videos on YouTube. 

I am not sure how I will deal with Paloma's vacation which starts on Thursday, it will be hard to have her around all the time. But till then I will just enjoy my mood and not question it. Plus I finally finished reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I was hating, so that doesn't hurt. Now I am devouring Fight Club. It is great. Unfortunately, I saw the movie first (several years ago when I thought I would never read the book) but it is still fun to read.