Fun in Madrid

So......I made it to Madrid!! This is the first time I have checked my email since I left. I must say, I am going to have fun, writing many of you postcards. I will get some from Spain to write in the bus on the way to Barcelona tomorrow.

The flight was very interesting. I sat by a 13 year old boy on the way to Atlanta. He was very loud and talkative. He shared his gum with all of the people around us and made tons of friends, while making other people mad at the same time because he was so loud. I told him that I worked at Dusty´s Den after high school and he said he knew everybody in Dusty´s Den as well as all of the flight attendants for Delta. He was heading all by himself to Orlando for a skateboarding competition. His knees were all scabbed and scarred from his tricks and he went up and down the aisles, showing people. When I got off the plane, people congratulated me for being so patient with him. I actually thought he made the time fly by.

The second flight to Madrid was a lot calmer. I got my own TV with games and movies. I played a Trivia game against the others in the plane. One of my previous French students, Andrea, won the game. She started cheering and the guy ahead of us shushed her. I don´t know why...it wasn´t even that late. Oh well. Some people on planes can be annoying!!! We finally put on our hot pink eye masks and tried to sleep. I didn´t sleep much, but oh well.

We arrived in Madrid and met our guide for the two weeks, Jose Fernandez. He has a Spanish name, but is actually a native of Paris. He is pretty nice, but quiet. We always ask him to tell jokes or stories, but he doesn´t have any. How can you be a guide without any stories?!!!! So we have to tell our own stories. We met up with the other groups from Columbus, OH and Houston, TX. There are some cool people in their groups but the six of us from Utah are by far the most outgoing. They put us on a bus for a city tour. The local tour guide was a Spanish lady with such a thick accent, it wasn´t worth paying attention to. I looked around and everybody was sleeping, so I decided to sleep to. She finally stopped speaking when she realized that noone was even awake!!!! I felt bad, but what can you do?

We then got off the bus and went to see the Palace of Madrid. It was huge...2000 rooms!! Inside the same thick accent lady gave us the tour. It was a little bit easier to understand her. She said that none of the royalty EVER bathed because they thought sickness came from the water. So, they put vinegar on as perfume. Can you imagine a life like that?!!! After the tour of the palace, some students were buying the expensive chocolate at the gift shop for souvenirs. I think I would rather wait until the end of the trip and buy it at the grocery store, but that is just me.

Last night the four of us girls went bowling. They said that they thought some of the guys in the other school groups were cute, but it was hard to get to know them. They wanted me to suggest to Jose, our fulltime guide, that we do some icebreaker games or a dance or something. I told him this morning and he just laughed at me!!

This morning, we went to the Prado Museum. Melissa, my previous AP French student, and her mom wanted me to hang out with them. Her mom turned 59 today and has trouble getting around, but she really is the nicest lady you could ever meet. They asked me to walk around with the two of them, which made me happy to be wanted for my Spanish expertise...ha ha. However, I am a fast museum walker, so it was difficult for me to learn to slow down. In the Prado, as I was looking at a famous painting, Las Meninas, guess who I ran into......the missionaries!!! One Elder said I looked familiar. We tried to figure it out and I found out I was his EFY counselor in 2005!!! Small world, huh? That is what is fun about traveling.

Anyway, we have free time until dinner now. Dinner last night was pea soup (pretty good to me, but the high maintenance Houston girls complained) as well as chicken and french fries. I didn´t much like the choice of main dish, seeing as I could have had that at home, so we will see how the rest of the food goes for us.

Adios amigos!!