Spring time in Madrid

Spring is here and I've had a great day to show for it!

It started off with my my Spanish midterm....weird that I'm already half way done with the school semester here.  Anyway, afterwards, my friend Julie and I sunbathed in the IES courtyard, just laying on the ground, it was so nice! I didn't even wear a jacket or scarf today.

yummy tapas

Then I went to Lavapies, the cool international funky neighborhood in Madrid.  On the metro, we ran into my intercambio (exchange friend to practice english and spanish) and it was very random and fun to just run into a friend, and a Spanish one!

In Lavapiés we had cañas (cup of beer) with some friends outside of a cute funky restaurant called La Buga del Lobo (The Wolf's Mouth). It is kind of a Guatemalan restaurant but with a Spanish flavor.  More Spanish than Guatemalan. They also gave us some of the best little tapas I have had so far in Spain, kind of Pinxos style, which are tapas from the north.  David left early, but Ed and I stayed there and eventually got kicked out of our table outside because we were done with our beer but still sitting outside and other people came up who wanted the table and chairs.  However, we didn't get kicked out, but simply moved inside and given a free beer and more tapas!!

Free beers!

Anyway, after that I wandered home, pretty tipsy from the beer (being relatively small and having still not eaten lunch by 4 pm).  I walked through a really cool street that had carts and tables of used books for sale, and it took me right to one of the gates leading into El Retiro.  Then I walked through Retiro, enjoying all of the blooms on the trees.  SO BEAUTIFUL.

Came home and ate the yummy leftovers from last night since I skipped dinner to play soccer instead.


Soccer, I should talk about that too.  Some kids in the program organized a weekly soccer game on Wednesday nights.  I haven't played soccer since I was 12, but I finally decided to go after my friend Julie  tried to make me come for a month now.  It was so much fun.  And I wasn't as bad as I thought I would be.  I am definitely going every week!  Running in the park is nice, but its great to be able to play an organized game again!!!