Mom & Aunt Medelice's Visit!!

This visit was my most relaxing despite how busy we were and how much we got done... see my Mom and Aunt Med were tipped off about this whole siesta thing we've got going on over here in this country and abused their siesta privileges... we took a very long nap every single day they were here. It was very needed. however, because both my Mom and I were sick from the beginning. Both of us had run ourselves down the week before and all my roommates were sharing the same sickness that I had hoped to dodge.

The whole trip I ended up staying in their room (they had an extra bed wheeled to the feet of their bed.. so needless to stay there wasn't much wiggle room will all the space the beds took up, but it was like a big slumber party all week!). Between my coughing, mom's coughing, and aunt med's ear plugs, my ear plugs and Mom's TV it all worked out very nicely.

Their first day in Madrid, pre-nap #1, the 3 of us had a really silly time catching up... you know what it's like when you get best friends together. I'm going to be honest and say that my mom maaaay have nearly peed her pants a little she was laughing so hard. We weren't able to get into our room after we went downstairs for a bit of breakfast and then we found out that the front desk thought that Medelice's name was Brian. We all nearly burst into tears when we just think about that first jet lag, illness stricken, goofy first morning. Later that afternoon we wandered around the city with an extra jacket (was a bit cooler that week than it should have been) and picked up my stuff from where I live so Mom n Med could meet Ana and Juan and any roommates that would be around the apartment. We first ran into Mary, Justin and Brandon who were just leaving the apartment after a big Easter parade we got caught behind that they had been watching from the balcony. Then we went in to meet Ana and Juan who were so excited to meet Mom and Med. Ana shooed me away so she could talk to them about me alone with her cute broken English (apparently had some nice things to say, I think I'm her favorite! haha shhh don't tell me other roomies). Juan communicated in what little English he knows (most of which is completely random words that he strings together, eg "one for tonight together tomorrow congratulations¨) and made his usual Juan jokes. After that we went out to try some Paella which became an adventure of it's own... both Mom n Aunt Med had an idea of what Paella is that turned out to be completely false. I also introduced them to croquettes and some Madrid Mojitos that afternoon.

Easter the next day was lovely, we had a yummy Easter Brunch at our hotel with Mary, Justin, Brandon and Dan as well after going to a Spanish mass where my four friends were called up to the front to read something out of the Bible in Spanish (well done Dan!).  Afterwards we tasted some typical Spanish sweets that are popular during Semana Santa (Easter week)... the one that Mom n Med picked out was a pastry with a hard boiled egg on it, and they figured that the white sprinkles on it would be salt, but alas it was sugar... gross!!! So I picked out a Torrija for them to try which the loved (it's basically a Spanish version of French toast).

One evening we went on a tapas tour with a lovely girl from the US, we had so much fun! Lisa's mom was also in town that same time and so that night we all got together for chocolate con churros which is a favorite Spanish dessert, however they were very disappointing because the churros were cold, colder than room temperature :-(

On one of the last days Mom and Med came to my dance practice which was unfortunatly also a bust because my instructor did not have my group practice until the last 15 minutes after waiting around for 1.25 hours! But we had fun earlier that day when we met up with Lisa, Justin, and Mary for lunch at a tapas bar near school where we got to have more typical Spanish food, including my mom's favorite... tortilla espanola.   That night we went to the oldest restaurant in the world (seriously! it's called Botin! look it up!) where we ran into someone famous (you'll have to ask Mom or Med who he was, some old new caster guy) and met up with Leti. 

We had so much fun watching movies every night and chit chatting all week. I miss you guys so much!! 

Steven´s Vists!!!

The days, weeks ever, preceding Steven´s arrival I was soooo excited, it was all I could talk about. Anyone around me, English or Spanish speaking, knew he was coming to visit. He isn´t very good at calling, skyping, or responding to emails so I really had hardly talked to him since I´d left.His plane arrived over an hour late which made me miss my Spanish class (no complaints) but made my miss out on 1 hours of Laura-Steven time (many complaints). When he finally did come out I nearly tripped jumping over the barrier to squeeze the life out of him via hug. Despite our excitement to see each other we spent the first few hours at our hotel napping, then we went out so he could see where I loved, meet my host parents etc etc. Ana was so excited to meet him she scared him with all of her squealing and touching and laughing, it was rather entertaining.The week before Stevens visit I was in Leeds, England visiting an old friend. While I was there I made friends with a couple of her friends who as it turns out were going to be in Madrid the same time Steven was, so we hung out with them (Jon and Suzie) most of the time Steven was there. I drug Steven to both of my dance classes, one of my drawing classes, and one of my Spanish classes. Of course he made friends everywhere he went. Also of course Steven demanded fast food whenever possible so Burger King became a frequent stop for us. haha. I made him try some Spanish foods, however. Together we watched a couple of movies at the hotel, played games, told jokes, etc. We took Jon and Suzie to a park one afternoon and soaked up the beautiful weather and got ice cream everyday. Steven and I had so much fun but his visit was much too short, it seemed as though he was gone before he even got here. I miss him more than I can describe in words. My little Esteban!!
Also, a little update about him... he now has TWO solos in the next choir performance he will be in!! Very exciting!!!!

Spring Break

So, yes, I am aware that spring break was forever ago... I have been really slacking on keeping this blog updated... sorry!

Aside from that one train station incident, spring break with Mandi was so much fun. Vienna was our first destination and Mandi got there a few hours before I did so she had time to recuperate from her jet lag, and that first night we just stayed in and relaxed, caught up on each others lives. It was really nice because I don´t get to see her nearly as often as I´d like. That next day we ventured out into the city, unaware of exactly where we should be heading so we started walking, of course in the wrong direction, but it was a nice day so it was alright. Eventually we found our way into the center of the city and by no surprise to anyone, we went shopping. Ended up having a glass of not so tasty wine at the top of the building that gave us a great view of the rest of the city. The night we tried to go out but the place we were directed to was too busy so we just went to bed.
The next day we went to a little grocery store to get foods for breakfast and snacks which lead to how we lived off of sliced bread, challah, pretzels, peanut butter and honey for the next few days. There was one entertaining incident where we were getting on the metro but the doors closed before Mandi could get on and both of my phones were about to die so I simply got off at the next station to wait for the train that Mandi would be on, however, once that train finally got there I couldn´t figure out which cart she was in until it was too late so i just jumped in a random one and caught up to her eventually. That night we managed to go out and dance which was a lot of fun and interesting to see what night life ¨Vienna style¨ was like.
The most touristy thing we did was tour the Schrobburn Palace which was amazing and so interesting, we really learned a lot. That afternoon we went to Prague and you all know how the process of getting there went...
Prague itself, however, was amazing. Our first day there we had a 6 hour private tour with a lovely young tour guide who showed us everything we´d ever like to see. It was a bit cold that day but we had the most wonderful time. The castle was a bit of a let down because we were tired, couldn´t see that much, and the chuch on the grounds was closed for a special service, but we covered almost every inch of the major parts of town and leaned a lot about the town´s history. One of the most interesting parts was the Jewish quarters and the Jewish cemetery. Later that night we went out and were surprised to see that the way people dance in Prague is unlike anything you´d see in the states, it was very weird but entertaining.
The next day we tackled the city on our won, again attempted shopping but had no luck, but did find some great food. The best was that night for dinner when we found a sushi restaurant that served the best eel roll I´ve ever eaten in my life, I would go back to Prague just for the sushi, no joke.
My favorite part of spring break though, hands down, was that I got to spend so much time with Mandi!