On Friday our entire IES group went to Segovia for the day. Segovia is a small town an hour outside of Madrid, famous for it's Roman aqueduct and castle that Walt Disney modeled his logo after. We got into groups of 12 with a tour guide and walked around taking in the beautiful sights. I was a little spoiled though as I had been to Segovia in high school during the summer when the town is at its prettiest.
After walking around for the day, we loaded back onto the buses and went about 20 minutes up the road to a very nice restaurant, El Rancho. IES provided us with a wonderful meal with multiple courses. I had bread, red peppers in olive oil, croquetas (my favorite!), tortilla espanola (potato pancake), salad, chicken, and a Segovian pastry for dessert. Before the trip we were given the chance to sign up for either chicken or pork. Luckily I had chosen the chicken because the people who picked pork had hooves on their plates. I can hardly handle a spot of fat on my meat let alone a hoof!
Saturday was the day I had been waiting for as I was finally reuniting with my "Spanish girls", Zara and Elena. Zara came to my apartment at 6:30 and called my cell phone to tell me to come outside. I was so nervous! We hadn't seen each other in 4 years. I went downstairs and we saw each other through the glass front doors of my lobby and we ran to each other and hugged for what felt like ten minutes. All we could do was laugh. I think our bellboy was confused. We then took the metro to Gran Via to go shopping. We went to Zara but due to it being a Saturday night and the sale season, it was too crowded to enjoy. We ended up going to a cafe, sitting outside, ordering 60 cent beers, catching up, and laughing for an hour before we left to go meet Elena for dinner at VIPS. Dinner was so much fun and the time flew by. Before we knew it it was 11 o'clock.
Unfortunately, Elena has exams the entire month of February and couldn't go out with us because she had to return to studying. However, Zara and I went directly across the street from the restaurant to her friend Esther's apartment to hang out and "pregame" with a few of their friends before going to the discoteca. The three of us had so much fun getting ready together and chatting. I was surprised to find out from Esther that they don't like Penelope Cruz. A lot of people here think she is a sell-out because she only does important interviews, etc. in the States. Oh well, I still love her. Esther and Zara also got out Esther's laptop and went on youtube to play what seemed like all the American songs they could think of to impress me with their knowledge. Well, I can play that game too. I started dropping all the names of athletes, singers, and TV shows that I had studied in my Spanish class last semester.
A little bit later into the night, some of Zara's guy friends came over too. These guys were a lot fun, but Graham certainly has nothing to worry about as they couldn't have been farther from my type (as I'm sure you've seen from my facebook album!) The time fly by while we were having so much fun and before I knew it it was 3 am and we had still not gone out yet. Around 3:30 we got cabs to the discoteca only to discover that there was a 14 euro cover to get in and we were exhausted and had only planned on staying for an hour or so. So, Zara and I just ended up getting a cab back to her house. It was so strange to be back in her apartment again after living there for 2 weeks in high school. It felt exactly the same.
While we were getting ready for bed (around 4:45) Zara mentioned something about going to church in the morning. This was quite the surprise to me.
"We're going to church in a few hours?"
"Yes of course, it's Sunday Patt."
So in a few hours we were woken up by Zara's mom to go to church. Needless to say, we were exhausted. After church we went out to lunch with her family to a very nice restaurant inside of a hotel next to the American Embassy. I had a great lunch - swordfish!
It was so great seeing Zara and Elena again. It was like no time had gone by and we picked up right where we left off. I told Zara that when she left the States that I had no idea when I'd ever see her again. She said, "Really? I knew I'd see you again, I was planning to invite you to the day of my wedding!"
Today I had my orientation class from 9-1 and then came home to have lunch with Cristina. After a lazy afternoon, Jessica and I went to the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art. It was fun to see a lot of the paintings that we had studied in my Spanish class last semester, especially Picasso's Guernica. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take a picture of that one, but I got a picture of the sign to prove that I'd seen such an important painting.
Unfortunately, Elena has exams the entire month of February and couldn't go out with us because she had to return to studying. However, Zara and I went directly across the street from the restaurant to her friend Esther's apartment to hang out and "pregame" with a few of their friends before going to the discoteca. The three of us had so much fun getting ready together and chatting. I was surprised to find out from Esther that they don't like Penelope Cruz. A lot of people here think she is a sell-out because she only does important interviews, etc. in the States. Oh well, I still love her. Esther and Zara also got out Esther's laptop and went on youtube to play what seemed like all the American songs they could think of to impress me with their knowledge. Well, I can play that game too. I started dropping all the names of athletes, singers, and TV shows that I had studied in my Spanish class last semester.
A little bit later into the night, some of Zara's guy friends came over too. These guys were a lot fun, but Graham certainly has nothing to worry about as they couldn't have been farther from my type (as I'm sure you've seen from my facebook album!) The time fly by while we were having so much fun and before I knew it it was 3 am and we had still not gone out yet. Around 3:30 we got cabs to the discoteca only to discover that there was a 14 euro cover to get in and we were exhausted and had only planned on staying for an hour or so. So, Zara and I just ended up getting a cab back to her house. It was so strange to be back in her apartment again after living there for 2 weeks in high school. It felt exactly the same.
While we were getting ready for bed (around 4:45) Zara mentioned something about going to church in the morning. This was quite the surprise to me.
"We're going to church in a few hours?"
"Yes of course, it's Sunday Patt."
So in a few hours we were woken up by Zara's mom to go to church. Needless to say, we were exhausted. After church we went out to lunch with her family to a very nice restaurant inside of a hotel next to the American Embassy. I had a great lunch - swordfish!
It was so great seeing Zara and Elena again. It was like no time had gone by and we picked up right where we left off. I told Zara that when she left the States that I had no idea when I'd ever see her again. She said, "Really? I knew I'd see you again, I was planning to invite you to the day of my wedding!"
Today I had my orientation class from 9-1 and then came home to have lunch with Cristina. After a lazy afternoon, Jessica and I went to the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art. It was fun to see a lot of the paintings that we had studied in my Spanish class last semester, especially Picasso's Guernica. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take a picture of that one, but I got a picture of the sign to prove that I'd seen such an important painting.
Pete! Love the pictures! So glad your reunion with Zara & Elena was fun!! They are both as beautiful as ever. Too bad Brent wasn't with you guys! I hope you have many more outings and gatherings with them for the true authentic Spanish nightlife and culture. Other than the clock they keep, how is it different than a party at home.
ReplyDeleteHey, do the girls using Blogspot know that if you click on a picture that's posted it will load full screen?! You guys should post that in your sidebar! I bet most people don't know that!
Keep the posts coming, we LOVE it!
xoxoxomama