Friday I had school (I know, kinda obvious) and after I had track at 7. In between, when I probably should have been doing homework, I was busy talking with my mom and a friend via Facebook. My friend wanted to skype (this might sound like i didn't want to skype, i did) and my mom wanted to skype. And both of them wanted to skype at the same time. I was trying to ask my friend if we could skype thirty minutes earlier during her lunch but she was in school so it was kinda hard to get a response, and my mom was adamant about skyping during office hours. So i came home from track, still not knowing who i was skyping with when, and basically sat at my computer for an hour figuring out who i was skyping with. I ended up skyping with my friend for about 20 minutes, and then i called my mom. I send the thing and when it opens up and i can see her, it isn't just her but about 15 of my friends all crammed in her office having a surprise birthday party for my via skype. They sang happy birthday to me and had cupcakes (i didn't get one :( ) and people came and went as office hours went on. It was nice to see them all after two and a half weeks and i really enjoyed it.
Saturday morning i woke up too early. I wanted to sleep longer but couldnt get back to sleep. It was really annoying. But we had churros for breakfast (these are different from Mexican churros, although similar...) and that was nice. After breakfast we cleaned the house. I was assigned the front porch so i swept and mopped the whole thing (Pablo helped towards the end after he finished the back porch). After that I went up stairs to do my homework. Whoo Hoo. It actually wasnt too bad. I just had to fill out a map of Europe (made more difficult by the fact i had to fill it out in spanish (I know, crazy)) and do a family tree of the Kings of Austria, or something like that. Once i finished that i pretty much just hung out all day until about 5. At five i left the house to go to the train station. I was going to Madrid to meet a friend of a friend (the same friend i was skyping on Friday). I caught the train and made it to Madrid without too much difficulty and waited in Puerta del Sol for Maria to get there. We went to Starbucks (it tastes the same here (except for the whipped cream. That tastes different)) and walked to the Royal Palace. There we sat and talked for a while, then retraced our steps back to Puerta del Sol and walked to Parque del Retiro. It was probably a twenty minute walk from Sol to Retiro, and we saw many interesting things on the way, such as a tandem bike (ok, we saw this at the Palace, but i am putting it here on my list of interesting things (and no, it wasn't really that interesting for me, but Maria had never seen one before)), a super tiny bus (like SUPER TINY. It moved before i could get a picture), a riot (we don't know what they were protesting but they were quite loud) and we walked through a wedding. Ok, its not what you are thinking. We didn't walk through all of the people sitting down and the bride and groom standing there with the dude reciting all of that stuff. We walked through all of the people outside of the church in all of their fancy clothes and stuff. So don't freak out, mom. It wasn't bad. Anyway, we went to Retiro. It was really cool! I got a really good picture of the sun setting over these trees and stuff. There were tons of people there and a lot of street vendors and performers. After retiro we walked back to Sol and I ran down pretty much 10 flights of stairs so i wouldn't miss the train back to Tres Cantos (there was another one fifteen minutes later, so it wouldn't have been that bad to miss the train, but i didn't want to wait fifteen minutes). But all in all, I had a great time in Madrid and it was really nice to meet Maria. I got home and my host family was still gone at some relatives so i hung out for an hour and a half. I skyped with my family for thirty minutes and then went to bed right after my host family got home.
Sunday i woke up at 8 when my alarm went off. It was all together too early to get up, but we had to leave the house at 9 to drive to Segovia (an hour and a half away). When we got to Segovia we pretty much parked on one side of the town and walked to the other side of the town. On the way we saw the old Aqueduct (more on that later) and a huge Cathedral (More on that later) and went to this fort. The fort was really cool! There were suits of armor and some really cool stained glass windows and these cool trees and a cool garden and wow i sound like a nerd. Anyway, it was cool. And i got some great pictures. After that we walked to church (which was about halfway between where we parked and the fort...) and after church we walked back to the Aqueduct. I got some really good pictures of the aqueduct and it was really cool to see it. In the US we don't really have things like that because we aren't that old of a country, which made seeing the aqueduct that much cooler. After that we went to lunch at some restaurant because it was my host moms parents fifty second wedding anniversary. I had a pig leg for lunch (and yes, it was a pig leg) and it was quite good! Then we walked to the Cathedral! On the way to the cathedral, i stopped at a shop i had seen earlier because i wanted to get a pressed penny. My host family didn't know what a pressed penny was so i had to explain it to them and when they figured it out ALL of them wanted one. It was really funny. Apparently they don't have the pressed penny machines all over like we do in the states... Anyway, we went to this cathedral. It was HUGE. You couldn't take pictures inside so i don't have any but there were some HUGE books and we saw some room with some cool tapestries. Also, there were some corridors that I swear they filmed Harry Potter in. They didn't but they sure look like they did. After that we went home (which took like 2 hours because there was traffic...) and had dinner and I went to bed.
Monday I had school. No surprise there. Monday night I had track. And it was sooooooooo hard. We ran from the track to a hill on the outside of town. We then proceeded to run up and down this hill for thirty minutes. It was super hard and at the top of the hill it was so steep that you had to walk because your legs couldn't do it. And then we had to run back. Tuesday I had school (again, kinda obvious). But on Tuesdays i have Tutoria, which is pretty much the Spanish equivalent of Advisory or Homeroom. I didn't understand anything. The class was talking about something with the teacher and i was fine with just sitting there, drawing in my planner. But about halfway through the class i hear my name. I look up and still don't understand anything and then ask Carla what we are talking about. Her answer: You. Apparently they were talking about how I was fitting in and stuff... Or that's what she said. And through out class when i asked her what they were talking about i was quite confused. Something about showering in the Morning and me and something else i can remember. It was weird. And then that night i had track. Again. But it wasnt nearly as bad this time. So that was good.
And then last night it rained and it has been cooler the past few days. Which is nice. At least i like it. Ok, now about crosswalks. They are so different here:
- Being from the US, i am still not used to the crosswalks here. You basically just walk across the street and assume the cars are going to stop for you.
- I almost fell over because i stopped because i wasnt sure if a car was going to let me cross, and then when it was slowing down i started to go, but i guess the driver thought i was letting him go, because he started to go, and then i slammed on my breaks again.
- I have annoyed so many drivers it is not even funny.
- And i have to deal with this pretty much every day because i have school or track or something.
Adios!
Make sure you get one of those cupcakes when you get back.
ReplyDeleteI might have to make some here. THere is a store in Madrid called Taste of America and i think they have funfetti cake mix. :)
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