Madrid + Museums + Middle Age!

Here I am with yet another fake person, and Dan attempting to mess up my picture.

This past weekend, Friday to Sunday I went to Madrid on my first overnight, three-day trip with my job/internship. The trip was packed with museum after museum, and of course shopping. If you ever go to Madrid, Sunday is an amazing flea market called El Rastro...check it out.

The trip was tiring because it really was work but it was weird because for the first time EVER in life I felt OLD!!! 2-8 is NOT old, right? I spent a lot more time talking to the students on a one-one level and none of them could believe I was 28 and said it like I was 78. I guess it was a weird revelation that 28 is no longer young, unless you are 78...

Overall though, it was a great feeling to be back in the city where I had my first study abroad experience. We went to one of the museums and when we left, we walked by the botanical gardens where they sell all these trinkets and I saw the McDonalds that I went to the day that I hated study abroad. I had a horrible day in Madrid and took myself to McDonalds to get a fried apple pie. The nostalgia, and emotions I felt that day came flooding back. It's crazy to think that that experience was in 2000...

The students I'm working with this first semester are really great. I'm enjoying getting to know them a bit and these excursions help me figure out what things I'd do with my own program and what things I wouldn't want to do.

This is really cool...there is a hanging botanical garden on the way to the tapas bar we had lunch in. It was really cool that the water trickled down the side of the building to keep the garden alive.

Can you believe I paid this dude? I know, I know! I just wanted to see what he was going to do that was SO exciting. He was a surfer in the middle of a fall afternoon in Madrid. I mean how often do you see a black surfer dude with his body suit pulled down in the middle of Plaza de Sol? He was pretty lame but I thought it was funny that he thought he should get paid for standing on a surf board and I had to hook him up with 20 cents.

We did a walking tour around the city and we went to what has been called the oldest restaurant in the world. It was frequented by really famous people and has been written up a great deal.

We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek into the "horno", oven and were informed that we could each get a suckling pig for a pretty good price. There was just a wall full of suckling pigs.

This was some newer cultural building that I don't know much about...

I can't remember who this is...this whole afternoon was a blur because I went out the night before and totally couldn't concentrate the next day, but I'm sure he was really important.