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Well, I had my first visitor since I have been here!  Jeremy (known him since we were born, great family friends, supposed to marry into the family etc...) is done with his program in Switzerland and came through Madrid for a few days.  He is staying with Joe (another friend from high school).  It was a last minute thing, but we all got to hang out!  


On Tuesday we all went out to a really great restaurant and then to a jazz club, but Wednesday was the best day!

Me and Jerm 

It was great Jerm was here, because it gave me an excuse to explore the city, something I haven't done in awhile.  Although I saw lots of things I have already seen, duh, I also saw some new stuff too, which was great!  Even got to check 2 things off the Madrid bucket list!


We took Jeremy through the typical tourist Madrid sites, but with some modifications.  Originally the plan was to go on the Teleferico, one the things I still haven't done yet in Madrid, and get a view of the city into Casa del Campo (one of the big parks).  But the line was really long so we just walked down to the river, then up to the palace, stopped at the cool purple building for a drink, went through Mercado de San Miguel, the Plaza Mayor, and Sol. 

Rio Manzanares

The Sacramentans

New view of the palace I hadn't seen before

After, we headed to the Circulo de Bellas Artes, an arts center that has a rooftop terrace with a great view of the city. Item #1 checked off the bucket list!

View of Madrid

(Since going here though, I was taken to a different mirador, in the old post office building with was better than the Circulo de Bellas Artes!  Not only was it free, but it has a whole 360 view and there aren't any bars like at the 1st one so us shorties can get a better view!) didn't take any pics.  sorry.


Next stop, Retiro, because none of my friends are allowed to come to Madrid without seeing one of my favorite places!  We rented the little row boats (item #2 checked off the bucket list!) and I rowed the 3 boys around the lake for about 3 minutes.  It was fun to look at all the different people in the boats...families, couples, etc... 

Rowing the boats

We had a great photbomb moment of this young teenage couple.  (For those of you who don't know, photo bomb: when you discretely pose in the back of someone else's photo without them noticing until they look at the picture later).  So we photo bombed these kids, and then they noticed and looked around where we were.  We ended up taking a picture for them, and they snapped a perfect one of the 4 of us. 

Product of the photo bomb

 Post Retiro, it was time for some specialty beers.  David took us to this place he had been to before, with a very knowledgable owner and lots and lots of special beers to choose from.  I went for a dark wheat beer.  It was yum!

our beer assortment

My Erdinger dark wheat brew!

Well after the excitement of Jerm being here, I had to hunker down for finals.  Now I will mention 2 of my silliest Madrid blunder that all happened in the last few days.  Even worse than the time I clotheslined myself trying to walk in the out turnstile at the metro.

First, I had to go to a bank.  Well banks here have super security, so in order to enter and exit, you have to go through these double sliding glass doors.  So you enter one end.  It closes, then the other one opens.  But when I entered, the automatic voice started telling me to do something, which I didn't understand.  So I entered and exited again, same story.  After doing this a few times some woman on the other end of the glass started pointing and explaining something.  But I couldn't hear her, and had no idea what she was saying.  We made some motions and I probably just looked like the most confused schmuck in the world, so finally she exited, and told me that I had to put my metal items, keys, phone, etc... in the lockers.  WELL DUH!! Why didn't I think of that?  Anyway, I think all the security is kind of silly, and definitely a pain in the butt, but the rest of the bank visit went well.  (Sorry I don't have a picture of this, I don't know how the bank security would feel about cameras in the bank, but I think you can play it out it your head for a visual.)

However, the biggest blunder of all, involves my grammar class final.  Where I woke up at 9:10, for a final that started at 9:00 am.  Why you might ask?  Smarty pants forgot to set my alarm.  Any way, I frantically called my program, got dressed, took a taxi (telling the taxi-driver to speed, even though there was traffic and it was raining) and got to take the test with extra time, no worries.  Good thing I have a good record with the people who run my program, and my teacher is super cool.


Only 3 more tests until IES program is officially done!