Mucho Caminar! (Lots of Walking!)

So last night's tapas bar crawl just turned into us making our way to whatever bar was offering free things. There was about 20 of us so it was a lot of fun and we all got to know each other better :) It was a Monday night so it was pretty dead, but we livened the city up, obvi! The Metro closes at 1:30am which is pretty ridiculous so we had to taxi it back to our house, it was only 10 Euros and we got back at like 3:00am. We ended up staying up late and not going to bed until like 3:45am and I had to get up at 8:30am for class.

I was tired for class, but it was well worth it :)

This was most of the Purdue group at our first discoteca while we were waiting for a couple more people to come!

First day of class: left for class at 10:15am because we didn't want to be late, we got there at like 10:50am and class didn't start until 11:30am, but better to be early than late! My first class was Arte del Prado (Art of the Prado) with Marissa (Professor from Nebrija) and she's a lot of fun! She talks at a good pace, so I was actually able to understand her! I know nothing about art though :( But every Thursday we're meeting at the Prado Museum so that'll be sweet!!

After class we came back to our house and was bombarded by the maid (I'll have to explain this story in person!!) but she made delicious paella for lunch!!!!! :) Needless to say I ate my weight in paella haha

Once we finished eating, we had to leave for our next class. We met at a Metro station near downtown Madrid, and all we did was pretty much tour Calle de Segovia. We saw this amazing church there but pictures won't do it justice, but I'll post one at the bottom of this blog, but it was so beautiful!
It was such a pretty walk all around today downtown and it's just how I pictured Madrid!! :) We ended up at Mercado de San Miguel where it is just filled with stuff from Nachos, to wine, yogurt, sweets, and more drinks! Ana (our professor) bought us a bunch of treats to all taste:

Yes that's right I HAAAAD to eat that for class, poor me :( hahaha

Still haven't had churros con chocolate!!! HOPEFULLY tomorrow because we all know I love churros :)

After my second class we ended up just walking around, and got back to our place at like 8:30. Our host mom came home a little after and made us dinner which was pretty tasty! I'm trying so many different things!! :)

Tomorrows agenda: Clase a las 11:30-1:30 y despues mis amigos y yo vamos al parque de retiro para relajarnos y beber vino :)

Translation- Class at 11:30-1:30 and after my friends and I are going to Retiro Park to relax and drink wine.

God I love Spain! :)

(Here's a picture inside the church, it doesn't do it justice!)

¿Dónde estamos?

Today we had our orientation at the Universidad Antonio de Nebrija. The school was pretty small, but it should be interesting! I have an Art class from 11:30-1:30 MTW and then on Thursday we meet at the Prado Museum for class. My food and culture class meets only once or twice a week at various locations, tomorrow we're meeting at the Ham Factory where we're going to sample different types of ham (I think!). They served us lunch at Antonio de Nebrija and served us sangria with it :)

After class Abby and I went exploring to Retiro Park, which is a huge park about a half hour walk from our place. We stopped in and out of little shops and made it there but it's kind of a cloudy day so the pictures aren't that great:

<-- Abby and I in front of a monument in Retiro Park!












Welllll on our way back from Retiro Park we decided to take a different route... and got lost multiple times so we asked people "Donde estamos?" which means "Where are we?" People helped but they were laughing, as were we hahah We stumbled upon "El Cortes Ingles" which is the huge department store.. which we managed to get lost in hahah Today sure has been an adventure! We're doing a tapas bar crawl tonight with everyone from Purdue. We meet at a Metro station at 11, it'll be our first night out in downtown Madrid!! Thank god my class is later :)

Adios!! :)

Sangria Sunday!

Yes that's right, today is Sangria Sunday! After my flight being delayed two and a half hours, Abby and I deserved some delicious sangrias. Our host mom, and her daughter and son-in-law met us at the airport and helped us with our massive amounts of luggage (thank god haha). It was pretty awkward when we arrived and she was showing us to our rooms because we both didn't want to speak Spanish yet. I unpacked and showered and then we decided to go exploring for two hours while Puri prepared lunch :) We walked down to the Bull Ring that's literally like 3 blocks from us, and were being touristy and taking pictures:

We stopped at a tapas bar and ordered Sangria and apparently you get a free tapas when you do, which is sweet considering the conversion rate from US dollars to Euros sucks. We finished our (very strong) sangrias and made our way over to another tapas bar. (I love Spain already!)

It was there at that tapas restaurant (which we can't remember the name of) that we decided Sunday is Sangria Sunday, and every Sunday here will be Sangria Sunday!

We told Puri we'd be back by 3:30 so we could eat lunch. She made chicken legs with bacon, and potatoes and it was soo good!! Lucky us :) We talked with her the whole time in Spanish so wooo! Hopefully I can keep it up! (Abby and I keep speaking in English, I mean we don't know how to gossip in Spanish so we're sticking to English together)

We have orientation at 10 tomorrow, but we're probably going to pass out in an hour or so because the jetlag is already in gear and we want to be rested for tomorrow! We have to find the school using the Metro, we'll see how this goes with my sense of direction haha

Off to Spain! :)

It is officially my departure day, and I just finished packing! I managed to pile everything into one carry-on, a backpack (carry-on) and one checked piece of luggage that is almost 50 lbs. exactly.. and I packed an empty duffle bag in my carry-on for all my souvenirs :) I'll be getting up in about two and a half hours to shower and such before I head to the airport. Clearly I didn't plan my packing time wisely, but who cares because I'm going to SPAIN!!!!!

I know I'm going to miss all my friends and family a ton, but at least I'll have some adventures to tell them! :) Love you all! E-mail me if you need my skype name. I still don't know if my host-family has internet, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow :)

Oh and btw Spain is 7 hours ahead of Chicago!

My next blog will hopefully be from here:

I'M SO EXCITED (although pretty nervous as well)!!!!! :)

Tapas, tapas, tapas!!

LESS THAN TWO DAYS 'TILL SPAIN!!! I finally realized that I'm, well that I'm leaving for Spain in two days! I've been eating plenty of American food to prepare myself, but I'm so excited to try all the new food there. I've heard so many amazing things about the food and about Madrid in general. One big tapas dish in Madrid is PIGS EARS, well at least according to all the travel shows and books. I will most definitely be trying them. Just so you have an idea of it:

I mean they look pretty tasty! Tapas are basically snacks/appetizers, but the best thing about them is that you can try so many different things..







This is most likely the amount I'll be eating for every single meal:

hahaha Anyways Madrid seems to have some tasty treats, so I guess I'll be going up a jean size or two once I get back.

Also one tip that I got for packing was to BRING DEODORANT! haha Guess I'll be on of the best smelling person there, which is always a plus :)

4 Days 'Till Departure

4 days until I leave??! That seems so crazy! I cannot wait though, I'm very excited! Can't wait to try new food, travel, speak a little Spanish (who am I kidding, A LOT of Spanish), oh yeah and do some learning I guess (??). Anyways, I'll be taking two classes while I'm there: Food and Culture, and Art of the Prado. I thought I'd make a blog to keep you guys informed on my adventures throughout Spain and hopefully throughout Europe (on my free time of course!)

Here's a picture of where I'll be staying:

<-- It's a little smaller than what I'm used to, but I think it'll do haha just kidding, obvi! That's a palace in Spain, I wish I was living there!! I'll be staying with a host family though and I can't wait :)

Anyways my way of preparing for Spain today was going out with friends, whoops! Guess I'll start packing tomorrow :)