Madrid!

Sorry it has been awhile since my last blog, I have just been really busy since the last time I posted! Over the weekend, I went to Madrid to visit Chelsea Isley. I really enjoyed myself and I really liked getting away for the weekend. On Friday, we started an apartment hunt for Chelsea because shes is looking to move. So, we went to this apartment which really reminded me of the gross apartment that my roommates and I saw. The common area was the kitchen which was only a sink and a bunson burner type of stove. All of the rooms were off of this "kitchen" and were all locked like a hostel or something. After we did that, I went to see the Royal Palace, which is absolutely worth the money you pay to get inside. The rooms are beautiful and there are a ton of different architectural styles in different rooms, which I really loved. We at Doner Kebab for lunch which was absolutely delicious. After that, Chelsea had a private lesson, so I went shopping on Gran Via and I am really proud of myself because I held back from buying anything! I did see a few things that I will go back and buy with my next paycheck though. Once Chelsea was done with her lesson, we met back up and went to visit another friend who is teaching English in Madrid, Rebecca Grosebeck. We met up with Rebecca and her boyfriend, Sandy, for some wine and chorizo.

The next morning, Chelsea and I cooked a delicious pancake breakfast. We made pumpkin pancakes and blueberry pancakes. The pumpkin pancakes were a bit of a fail, but they tasted delicious. After, Chelsea took me to a store called Taste of America where I bought canned pumpkin and cake mix so that I can make pumpkin muffins for Thanksgiving like I always do. We then got a wonderful gourmet picnic (McDonald's) which we took into Parque Retiro. The park was absolutely gorgeous because fall actually happens in Madrid. I was so excited to see the leaves changing color! After that, we saw two more apartments which were both extremely great. She is going to live in one of them with two other roommates and a really great location. We then went out on the town on Saturday and ended up running into her friends at both of the places we went to. It was nice to meet her friends and I really had a great weekend.

This week at school, I feel a lot more "in the know" because teachers are actually telling me what I need to do to prepare for classes. I also feel that the students are doing a much better job of at least trying to understand what is going on. Most of the time so far, they have just spaced out when I am talking, but I reinforced that if they want to do well on their tests, they are going to have to start paying more attention.