Week 1!

I wanted to tell ya'll about my first day of classes and our first day of field trips!!! 

Monday July 4-- HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! Monday was our first day of classes which was so exciting!! I started off with my Spanish Culture class with Dr. Bosisio! He is so so nice and personable. I only met him once before Madrid, back in May and he knew my name and exactly who I was as soon as we got here! Our first class is from 9:00-11:15 which is not bad at all! We pretty much had a in class discussion the entire time about differences between the cultures and it was so interesting! We had a thirty minute break in between classes and started back again at 11:45 with my watercolor class! I do not know a thing about watercolor but our teacher is so much fun and so helpful! Molly, Nola, Maggie, and Jack are all in the watercolor with me so its even more fun with friends! 

After class we grabbed a quick lunch and it was time for SIESTA (nap time). We were all so exhausted in our morning classes, I could barely keep my eyes open. Around 5:30 we all were back up and decided to hop on the bus and go on down to the El Corte Ingles which is Spain's largest department store. They are everywhere in Madrid. They probably have over 12 just in the city. We all left our hair dryers and things at home so we went to go buy those! The bus dropped off right out front of the store and supermarket and it was so crowded! And again, none of the ladies working there spoke English. I ended up accidently stepping (lightly) on a womans toe and made her super angry. I kept saying 'lo sienta' which is 'I'm Sorry' in spanish but she was not having it. I have never gotten so many nasty looks from so many people in my entire life. Other than that fiasco, everything else went fine. 

We walked around that area for a little bit before it was time to head on back for dinner. After dinner we (Abbye, Nola, Kelsey, Jamie Lee, Molly, Maggie, Jack, and myself) went to a bar & grille called 'Pizza Jardin' where we drank sangria before we headed on down to a club! The club was SO much fun. We were the only people in there when we first arrived and even had a few free drinks! More people from our trip ended up coming in too and we had quite the party! We got back to the Colegio right at 3 am, which is our curfew for Monday-Thursday, and went strait to bed! 

Molly, Jamie Lee, and I at Pizza Jardin

Kelsea loves her Sangria

Happy 4th of July!

Tuesday July 5th-- FIELD TRIP DAY

Now this was interesting. Roberto had split the entire group into two smaller groups, and unfortunately Abbye, Kelsey, and I were on the early one so we had to be out by the bus by 8:45 am! 

Abbye and I in the Metro Station

The field trip was planned for all of us to go the the largest Mosque in Spain. It was huge. I had high hopes for this field trip to be awesome but it definitely let me down and I think others too. It was a little unorganized and EXTREMELY hot to be walking all over the place. And after we got there, they were not ready for us. Finally when we went inside, a woman talked to us for about 45 minutes -- which I understood none of. Apparently she was telling us the rules in Spanish but clearly I didn't get those. Rule #1 -- Do not step on the carpet with shoes on! -- Seeing that I do not understand Spanish and had no idea of this rule, as soon as we saw the room, I walked right on the carpet with shoes on to go take some great pictures, and was then yelled at by a Muslim for doing this. Rule #2 -- Do not walk past the second row of columns! So after taking our shoes off, I saw even more great things to take pictures of so I walked right on up to do it, and was yelled at again by the same Muslim lady. Rule #3 -- no pictures of yourself inside the mosque! -- We were instructed to wear scarfs on our heads inside the mosque just as they do. The women cannot have any hair showing ever. Well of course we all seem to think we look ridiculous with these scarves wrapped around us and I wanted a picture to show you all! This is when I got kicked out of the mosque for being rude in a Holy place. So clearly, this field trip was a no go for me, but I made the best of it!

This innocent picture is what got me kicked out of the Mosque

Our little group of friends did not do a whole lot the rest of that day. We had a tour of Madrid at 5 which was super fun. We were again so exhausted so went to bed pretty early that night. Until today (thursday), I think we have all still been pretty jet-lag. Sleep has been a priority.

Wednesday July 6-- 2nd Class Day

Both of my classes when great just as I had hoped. We were done by two and went strait to lunch. We all took siestas afterwards and then Abbye, Nola, Kelsey, Jamie Lee, and I went back down to El Corte Ingles to run to their supermarket! I was in dire need for some salad dressing. The food we have at our colegio is by no means awful but it is typical cafeteria style food -- very bland. And they have salad available at every meal and no dressing. So we all got a few things to spice up our food at the colegio! Wednesday night, Molly, Maggie, Nola, Jamie Lee and I all walked back up to the Pizza Jardin for some late drinks and a snack. I believe they are beginning to recognize us there now! But their food and sangria is so good there we just keep coming back! We didn't stay for long and we were back at the colegio by 1ish!

Today, Thursday July 7 -- field trip day 2

Today our watercolor class (about 11 of us) went down to the Sorolla Museum. Joaquin Sorolla was an Impressionist from the city of Valencia and his former studio-mansion in Madrid has been converted into a museum reproducing perfectly a typical early 20th century house. We walked around the house for about an hour and then walked down to the Conde Duque museum of art! We explored that part of the town for a while and then were back on the metro to come back for lunch and now I am here blogging with ya'll! 

I hope ya'll enjoying reading my blog! I haven't been able to upload pictures on my blog recently so to see those, look on my facebook page!