I Corazon Madrid

So tonight I am packing... Well, blogging with the intention of packing later.

Madrid has been awesome. We have gotten lots of sleep which has been definitely needed! Especially after how jam packed Rome was. The first night after we got back, Megann and I went on a romantic date to see the Flamenco Ballet. It was so awesome. There were like 12 dancers total and a live band on stage and they just rocked it. The audience was straight Americans, which really made me laugh because it was definitely geared towards tourists. The dancers were definitely spicy and Meg and I definitely loved it. It was really cool to see. After that we kinda roamed the streets (looking for a fabled Subway Restaurant we´d heard about) and ended up doing a little bit of shopping (oops! No Pradas this time, though!) and ended up eating the best chicken sandwiches ever at KFC! We´re super authentic in our food, but I hear Spanish food isn´t that great.

The next day (yesterday) I spent some time in the Thyssen Museum which is a HUGE art museum that is all one family´s private collection, which is insane. It was quite the large collection. M and M had already seen it all so I went by myself which is probably best because I´m a nerd and got like the audio tour and wandered for a while. Then we took a few Metros (I am getting deathly sick of public transportation and am pining, yes pining, for my Mazda) and ended up at an incredible park that had some tram system that takes you over a huge chunk of Madrid. It was a great way to see tons of the city without dealing with the weird Madrid-ians.

People in Madrid are so strange. Italy was full of very beautiful and extremely well dressed people. Madrid on the other hand?? Yikes. This is the land of mullets. Men, women, young, old, it doesn´t matter, you cut the mullet. And if you´re extra fancy?? Grow the back into dreads. Then add some hammer pants or skinny jeans, wear shirts from 1980 and throw in some cleavage and you are good to go! Add a cigarette just to make yourself extra authentic. It´s gross.

That was a huge detour but it needed to be said.

After the tram ride we went into the park to see this huge Egyptian temple. Yes, Egyptian temple. Apparently Spain helped Egypt with something at some point and so they donated a huge temple that they took apart and labeled each brick and then put back together in the park. It was really cool. We got there about 10 seconds after closing time so we couldn´t go in, but the outside of it was oddly cool for how out of place it looks in the middle of Madrid!

Today we spent the day at Aquopolis, which was the most ghetto water park I have ever seen! Yes, Emily, more ghetto than Roaring Springs in Meridian Idaho. It´s in the middle of nowhere built on top of a huge hay field. They have like 10 slides, but let me tell you what. Maybe it´s the lack of safety codes or something but some of those slides are AWESOME. We went on some huge blue one about 20 times by the end of the day. The other weird thing about people from Madrid (and pretty much Europeans in general) is their lack of decision making skills when it comes to swimwear. I have never seen so much anatomy in my life as I did today. And that almost includes our days at the beach. I think Megann and I were 2 of about 5 women there NOT in bikinis, which isn´t a bad thing until you factor in that many of them were large, many of the bikinis were small, and all of the slides included a strong water current. And then add in the men in Speedos or white tight swim shorts and you´ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. Or a lesson in body parts.

So tonight I pack. Little challenging due to the handbags, but it needs to be done. I am getting really excited to go to Romania. I am so excited to see those kids for now the third year in a row and see how far they´ve come in the last 2 years! I´m very excited to get there and a little bit sad to only be there for a week, but I am starting to get anxious to come home and get my classroom set up! Yikes. Well, next time I blog it will be from the lovely city of Barlad. Thanks for all of the comments, emails, etc. and keep them coming. Romania is hard on my heart every year and it was harder last year than the first year so I hope it´s not a trend.

I love you all so much! Be good while I´m gone!