Grandparents!! (&Papi)

Just as my sophomore year was coming to an end my grandma and grandpa came to Madrid for a visit!!! It was such an extra special treat because I hardly get alone time with them, let alone in a beautiful foreign country. It was also really cool because apparently in the 12 years that Ana and Juan have been host parents, not one of their students has ever had their grandparents visit them until me!
That first day I got up and met them at their hotel where they greeted me with not one, not two, but THREE BIG bags of Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!!! (And I am as surprised as the rest of u that I still have nearly 1.5 bags left for my Euro trip!!). After we caught up for a bit, while still trying to fight off jet lag, GM n GP decided it was time for lunch... Keep in mind that it was noon, and here nobody has lunch til 2 or 3, so it took a while to find somewhere that was even open, but alas we found a small tapas place around the corner from their hotel that agreed to serve us. Lunch here is nothing like lunch back home but we had fun and I thought the food was pretty good. Afterwards I got them back to their hotel where we hung out a bit more but by this point it took what seemed to be every ounce of strength and will power to keep their eyes open so I freed them of their conversational duties to relax and prepare for the next morning's tour of Madrid.
9am that next morning when I met GM and GP at their hotel lobby they were much more awake and were excited for this driving tour. Our tour guide was a very nice Spanish man, who speaks 6 languages!! We started out our tour with the bull fighting arena, seeing it from the outside and learning a bit about its history. Fortunately we all were in agreement that seeing an actual bull fight is not worth our time. Grandma didn't want to see either the bull or the matador get hurt, Javier (the guide) thought it was really boring, and I would probably pass out at the site of that much blood. After that we went to the major train station to look inside (which sounds weird, and well it kind of was) to see the plants they have that is similar to a mini-rain forest. I enjoyed checking out all the turtles that were in the fake pond, made me miss my turtle, Sharkbait, who reportedly has grown quite a bit since I left! On our way to our coffee/tea/ churros break we drove past the palace and noticed the 1/4 mile long lines that influenced our decision to not visit the insides later in the afternoon. At the churros place, Grandma and I each ordered a hot chocolate, only for it to come out as actual melted chocolate for dipping your churros into. (Btw that is how you eat a Spanish churro, it is not like the Mexican churros we have at carnivals and Disney Land back in the US...here it is a skinny churro, sans cinnamon or sugar, that u dip into hot, melted, thick chocolate... Mmmm mmmm mmmm, yummy!). Now I'm not entirely sure how this next bit happened but Javier convinced GM and GP to visit Toledo that afternoon with him, but since I still had a bit of Drawing homework left to do I was dropped off near my apartment to let them carry on for a few more hours. It seemed that Javier really just wanted the company for the afternoon since he had nothing else to do all day. Sounds like they had a lot of fun. When they came back we went to a restaurant for dinner called VIPS which is like a Red Robin and a Walgreens all in one. The only issue was that I was literally walking back from lunch when Grandpa called asking me to meet them for dinner in the next half hour. So needless to say I still hadn't figured out how to balance my eating schedule with them in town.
The next morning, Sunday, we went to the same Opera brunch that Mom, Aunt Med, a couple of my friends and I went to for Easter Sunday a few weeks prior. It was delicious and we were right next to the piano player who caught Grandma's eye. Haha. Afterwards we walked to Sol, the center of town right by my apartment, and showed them where they could spend some time while I had class the next day (my final class as a Sophomore!)

The next day, after my drawing class during which time GM and GP went shopping, we met up at the hotel to walk over for an early Spanish dinner (that I had stomach-aly prepared for!!).

9am the following day we went to Segovia with Javier... After a slightly rough start because my alarm didn't go off so I was running a few minutes behind, woops! We saw the castle that supposedly inspired Walt Disney when designing the castle for the Disney logo, or was it the Cinderella castle...? After coffee at a place that offered a beautiful view of the city we swung down to see the magnificent aquaducts before heading out of the city... At which time, again, Javier convinced us to visit yet another town outside of Madrid, Avila. We stopped to see a great view of that town before lunch and then visited the town's cathedral. I asked GM to light a candle for my Nana since I understood that since I'm not Catholic I'm not allowed to do it myself. By this point we had had a very long day and headed back to Madrid to quick meet Ana and Juan and see where I was living before saying goodbye until I visit Arizona this summer. I had such a great time with them and miss them so much. Grandma, Grandpa, if you are reading this.... THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VISITING ME!!!!

I am also going to add to the bottom of this blog the details of my dads visit because he was only in Madrid for about 16 hours...
Dad had a work-related event in Barcelona so on his way out he swung down here to see me before RaCiNg back to Saint Louis for Steven's 18th Birthday.
I met up with Dad at his hotel (the same one that Grandma and Grandpa AND Mom and Aunt Med stayed in so it was veeerrry familiar by this point). We had a drink with Vic and Christina (two people from Peabody that were with him for the thing in Barcelona) and then headed out to dinner at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world, where Mom, Aunt Med and I ate with Leticia. After stuffing ourselves full and having the most fun catching up, chatting, laughing etc, we went to Ana and Juans for a bit where they talked my dads ear off. I dropped off the Lucky Charms and Mac&Cheese that Dad brought me while I was there too. (We'll see how far into my Eurotrip I can make those last...). Before saying goodnight we wandered back to his hotel to had a Diet Coke, chat some more, and call Mom/ Steven. The next morning Dad swung by the apartment at 7:45am to take with him back to the US all of my luggage and a few of my friends things so I could just have my big backpack for the next 3 weeks. It was so sweet of him to do that for me so I got him, Vic and Christina each a Starbucks coffee. I said my goodbye (ending, of course, with the famous full-body wave goodbye that was passed down from my mom's side of the family, and my roommates Lisa and Mary helped me with it! Too funny!)
I'm going to have to say that saying goodbye to Dad was the hardest of any of my familial goodbyes from these past 4 months because he was gone before he even got there it seemed, I didn't get to prepare myself for his departure because I was still preparing myself for his arrival. I am really missing home right now but I am officially on my Eurotrip now, I leave for Barcelona tomorrow, and Annie joins me in 3 days so I am really excited about this trip but ready to go home!!