CASA DE CERVEZA

Sooooooooooo, this is the night of 12 Euro all you can drink at the CASA DE CERVEZA (House of Beer). This included not only beer, but sangria, which kicked us all in the face. There were about 50 bazillion people there, and about 75% were from SLU. And how did I know, you might ask. The orange Nokia phones that SLU sells blew their cover. Annnnnnd, we got VIP passes for next week, so we get in free! Word. So, after we went to the CASA DE CERVEZA, we took the Metro to Sol. The picture of the many people on the Metro stop portray this craziness. We were not exactly fitting in as calm and cool Spaniards, but Lauren's thumbs up sums up the night. So, we took the Metro to Sol (which was dead on a Thursday night at 3), but a guy was passing out tickets to get into Club Joy (a discoteca) for free. So, I was warned (by you, Kathryn) not to go to Joy b/c it's very American. I totally agree, buuuuuuut I can't say NO to something that's free. We got there at about 2:30, and what kind of music do discotecas play here? TECHNO. Yes, techno. Crazy talk. It was hilarious, and there were these 2 scantily clad females dancing on stage. They worked for Joy, and it was so awkward. The people there were awkward dancing, too. I'm pretty sure the techno made me want to do the robot all night. Which I may have done.........no, I can't back that up, but I did bust it out occassionally. (Next time I'll follow Liz's advice and do it in front of a strobe light.) HILARIOUS. Oh, and check out the guy in the background of the third pic...........AMAZING.

One of my sisters here: María

So, the girl in the middle is María, one of my sisters here. (The crazy girl on the left is Rebecca, always looking amazing in pics.) Anyway, María is 11 years old and is hilarious! She is always singing and talking and being crazy. We get along perfectly. Annnnnnnnnd, she always stops by our room to tell us goodnight. She's really the sweetest. Oh, and when I was explaing the "5-second-rule" to them (in spanish, of course) I wasnt' sure if she was understanding the concept. Then with a completely straight face, she said "dos horas." (2 hours). So she got it afterall! I was so proud......

Nic Cage and El Prado Museo

Soooooooooo, today we went to El Rastro and then to the Prado Museum. The Prado is this huge art museum in Madrid that houses many famous works by artists including Raphael, El Greco, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and a ton by Goya. Anyway, we were walking around for a few hours (it was my 2 roomies and me). As we were walking toward the exit Rebecca says, "Did you see who just walked past us?" We replied, "No. Who?" "Oh, it was Nicolas Cage." (Mind you, Rebecca is from LA, so seeing famous people is no big thing for her.) We were like, "Well, we want to see!" So, like creepy stalkers, we set out to find him. Right when our search seemed to be in vain, we turned the corner. And what to our wandering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer. Ok, but take out the "miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer" part and insert "Nicolas Cage with longer black hair, pale ghostly skin, and black leather pants/boots." Seriously, he looked kind of creepy. His body guard kept eyeing us (I guess we looked like the creepy Americans who might try to take a picture.) However, since we were in a museum there were no pictures allowed, so this experience must live on only in my memory (this pic of Nicolas Cage and his hilarious pose will also aid in that mission.)

Roomies

This is me and my 2 roomies. The girl on your left is Leah. She and I share a room. The girl on your right is Rebecca. She has her own room. I'm pretty sure I said this exact same thing on a previous post. Anyway, this is us at the cave bar. It's not called the cave (I don't remember it's name) but it has the motif of a cave inside. And we're not talking crappy "if-you-squint-hard-enough-it-sort-of-looks-dark-like-a-cave." I'm talking stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, and other crazy stuff. Not to mention the way over-priced drinks came flowing out of these geological formations. You definitely paid for the atmosphere there, not the size of the drink.

Beautiful even as a cartoon

So, these pictures are courtesy of Kodak easy-share software. Even as a cartoon Madrid is incredible. The tall building is from the Sevilla Metro stop, and the other picture is from Puerta del Sol. (Don't worry, the building in Sevilla is not on fire. I don't know where the alleged smoke is coming from............perhaps from the cigarettes of all the smokers here, which is probably a mere 84% of people........WORD.)

GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are the actual pics from the game. Madrid was playing Real Betis. The game ended in a tie, but only after the refs called back 2 Real Madrid goals...........you should have seen/heard the crowd. Whistling, throwing things on the field, and the resounding chant to the refs of "Hijo de puta!" The huge group of young Madrileños in front of us were hilarious and going crazy the whole game, as were the rest of the packed stadium. I love the pic of the skurmish on the far side of the field...

REAL MADRID!!!

Soooooooooo, it finally happened! All my soccer dreams came true. These are pictures of my first Real Madrid fútbol game. I know we look photo-shopped into these pics, but I promise they're legitimate. It was some of the most fun I've ever had at a soccer game. This is Leah and I at the game. The other picture is Leah, me, and our friend Jack from Wheeling Jesuit in West Virginia. Oddly enough, one of the young Madrilleños in front of us turned around to chat with us because he said that he went snowboarding in West Virginia. Colorado? No. West Virginia? Yes.

Candy=Smiles

These 2 lovely ladies are my roomies here in España: Leah on the left and Rebecca on the right. Leah is from Chicago, and she was an RA with me in Gries last semester. She actually was an RA her sophomore year, too. Remarkably, she has an internal compass and map that never fails (well, almost never..........Lavapiés?! How are we here again?! *said at 3 in the morning*). Rebecca is a junior, too. She went to UMass her first 2 years, and transferred to SLU this year. She is a nursing student and originally from LA (west coast style). Leah and I share a room, while Rebecca has her own. In this picture, they were obviously excited to have found the candy store... :o)

First Day of School

This is Leah and I on our first day of school. Awwwwww, I know. I've done a picture like this since I started kindergarten. It's fine. The other picture is after our first day of classes. We stopped to get something since we successfully finished our first day of school in Spain. (It was pretty painless.) Leah got a sundae from this pastelería and cafetería that sold only sandwiches without crust. Not appetizing to look at. Too uniform. I cracked and got..........you guessed it: Starbucks. The coffee shops we were finding didn't have mixed coffee drinks. But it was scrumptrulescent! Oh, and we decided to walk home from school so we could check out some rabajas (huge sales) at the shops. And what kind of a store did I find that cracked me up?...........a SOCK store. It had nothing but socks! Crazy talk. I guess it must be a speciality shop. I'm just gonna throw it out there that I love the fact that my classes don't start until 2 on Mondays & Wednesdays and 5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Lola

This is Lola, the other cat. Her red eyes in this picture tell the whole story. The first time we met her our Senora picked her up and Lola batted her across the face. I was cracking up and decided that I would keep my distance. This is her warming herself on the heater in our room. Clevah girl (that's for you, Bethany)! She's nicer to us now, and she also likes to hang out in our room. But I swear I can still hear her saying "Sleep with one eye open...."

Micho

Ésto es Micho, one of the family cats. He loves our room (we all know that what he really loves is spending time with us.)

European Styles........hmmmmmmm

So, I really am intrigued with and enjoy most of the styles over here, such as the boot trend. The boots are diverse and pretty awesome. And no Uggs!! Thank goodness they realize how unattractive those are.... Buuuuuuuuut, there are a few trends that are huge here that make me go "Que?!" The 2 biggest are mullets (& yes, there are plenty of fullets {female mullets} too) and the Canadian tuxedo. Check out the pic: I guess the Hoff visited Europe recently...

Nuestra Habitación

This is the room that Leah and I share. It's small, but we already feel at home here. It's the battle of organization and chaos. Can you guess whose side is whose?

La Cocina y El Baño

These are pictures of the kitchen and our bathroom. There are 2 bathrooms in the apartment. This bathroom is the one that Leah, me, and Rebecca (the other SLU student) use. The shower is really nice and is to the left of the picture of the bathroom. The kitchen is pretty small, but Senora Pilar makes some pretty delicious food in here.

Dining Room

This is the dining room, which was also the sight of a real life Will Ferrell skit. Leah and I eat dinner with the family (which is the mom and her 2 daughters which are 16 and 11) every night. We usually have pretty decent Spanish conversations (none of them speak any English), but one night it was just Leah, me, and the 16 year old daughter (Andrea). Andrea wasn't being very talkative, and after awhile i just busted out laughing. If any of you remember the "Dodge Stratus" skit from Best of Will Ferrell, you'll know what I'm talking about. For a pretty decent length of time there was just the sound of utensils cutting food, interrupted only occassionally by Leah or I (mostly Leah) trying to make small-talk. It was so awkward and hilarious. (Usually it isn't, but that night was one of a kind and extremely entertaining...) But later that night Andrea watched "Love Actually" with us (we made it speak in Spanish with English subtitles so she could follow along.), so all is well.

Living Room

This is the living room where the living takes place. See that plant in the back left corner? Yeah, one of the the cats (Lola) likes to eat that plant.

Nuestra Vista

This is the view from our bedroom window. They are all about conserving energy here, so people don't own dryers. Instead they line dry. Mother Earth loves Spain!

British, Luggage, and Mustaches

So, the British are a little inadequate in their luggage department. They lost both of my checked bags, so for the first 3 days I was lacking many necessities. Luckily, my roommate (Leah) is awesome and let me borrow her stuff. I finally got my luggage back on Saturday. The hygiene talk was almost needed.......

Puerta del Sol

These are pictures from Puerta del Sol. It literally means "Door of the Sun." This is the heart of Madrid. There are many plazas here, and the shops are incredible. Not only that, but the number of restaurants and bars are too many to count. This is about a 15 minute walk from our house (actually we live in an apartment. Pictures of that will come later. I don't want to weird my family out too early by being the creepy American with a camera.) But this area is absolutely incredible!

El Palacio Real

This is El Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace. The king and queen of Spain used to live here years ago. You can now take free tours, and it's pretty riduculous inside. There are lots of gardens and parks. Actually El Parque del Campo del Moro is right across the street from it, and that will be the sight of project "Get Emily Back Into Running Shape..." The Palacio Real is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment.

¡HOLA!

Bienvenidos a mi página para mi viaje a España! Since I can't be there to show you these pictures and tell you my stories, I am putting them on this website. Feel free to make any comments on here. You all know that I love when the whole family gets together, so this is the next best thing since I'm in Spain and you're there. I'm hoping that this can be like an online conversation among all of us. You don't have to post comments addressing me directly. Feel free to respond to each others' comments. And if you want to post any pictures you can do that, too. I brought pictures of all of you and of my friends to show my señora and my family here the awesome people that I left in the U.S. Oh, and you may have to create a blog account to respond to my blog. I'm not sure, but if you do it's free and really easy. Go to "www.blogger.com". If you don't have a google account you have to create one. This is also free. All you need is an existing email address (it doesn't matter if it's g-mail, hotmail, aol, etc.) Make your google name something that makes it easy for anyone to tell that it's you that made the comment so they can reply appropriately. Anyway, enough rambling. Onto the pictures...