Friday!

   This morning all of Patricia's clan (meaning Alice, Amanda, and I) overslept.  Instead of getting up a 6:30 in order to be semi-ready before breakfast we all woke up at 7, despite having set our alarms much earlier.  I know that I have been having trouble sleeping at night so I guess it is no surprise I struggled to get up, but still.  We then took too long over our little breakfast--even though we knew we were late... I'm not sure why the three of us had so much trouble getting out the door today but we definitely rushed getting ready and made it out at 7:52 according to Alice's phone. This was rather distressing because it has typically taken us about 40-45 minutes and class begins at 8:30. (If you are 15 minutes late you receive 1/2 falta  (penalty).  If you miss a full day you receive 1 falta per class. If you end up receiving 3 faltas you are penalized 30% of your participation grade, which is worth 33% of your total grade.)  We "hoofed it" all the way there, running to catch our connection in the Metro. And amazingly we made it exactly on time along with a stream of other students! A new record of 38 minutes.
    Everyone, that I know of, only has two classes on Friday instead of three so the day went by very quickly.  Today our began in Lengua Español. We continued to share pictures which represented something important to us from home and then discussed holidays/fiestas in our country and in Spain.  Most of the students in my class are from the states but there are three from Thailand and one from Holland.  At 9:50 we had our break and then jumped back into Conversation and Culture.  I really like this class. The professora is very animated and expressive, she is funny and really tries to make the class comfortable for speaking.  Today we discussed certain things about Spain which are different from our own country.
      At 11:30 we were released.  I found Sierra, Kyle, Megan and Rhiannon out front; Tanner and Amanda had gone up to the offices to see about student IDs along with most everyone else. By the time the four of us had gone upstairs as well the line stretched down an entire flight of stairs.  Luckily we ended up not wait long because Amanda and Tanner came down to inform us that unfortunately none of our IDs, with our login information, were ready.  We had received our Metro passes on the first day of school but for some reason the IDs are still not available (which is surprising because they are literally small pieces of paper with our names and login info written beside a picture of us taped to the card). We all headed to the Metro, agreeing to meet later for some evening activity.
   Today the gates outside the Church...  which is right in front our street, were open so we went in.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  The only sounds came from the cleaning lady running a small vacuum and faint noises form the busy street outside. There only a few people there, some sitting and others kneeling.  We went in and sat alongside these silently observing the details of this ancient edifice and discretely taking pictures. 

     No one was at home when we entered 10 minutes later but it was evident that Patricia had cleaned our rooms and bathroom as our bed sheets had been changed and the laundry could be seen hanging in the courtyard of the apartment. We talked for a while and then I worked on some homework... And now as I type at 2:13 Amanda is catching an early siesta and I can hear Patricia puttering in the kitchen; there is some sort of music lesson going on up in one of upstairs apartment.  The music will go on for a few seconds  (I think it is a guitar but it is hard to tell because it is faint) and then it will stop and you can hear voices instead.  Our part of the city becomes very quiet in the late afternoon as people return home for their afternoon meal.  For now I'll leave you with these pics, but I promise to update you with the rest of the day's activities.      

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As you can tell I did not get back up you on Friday. :)

Around 7 Amanda and I met everyone at the Apple Store in Puerto del Sol, the true city center. There was a protest going on as well as a really great group of street dancers preforming. This evening we went way out if the city to el Parque de Juan Carlos III. This is a newer park close to the airport, but it is quite impressive. It is built in a giant circle with walking/paths, a river, hundreds of trees and flowers, playgrounds, modern art, and great views. We had a good time wandering through and getting quite a bit of exercise. 

(This hill was on the way to the main part of the park...it was called "my sky hole" (this was the name for it not a translation)....the views were incredible. 

 



 

 

(These trees were arranged like the points of a compass)

 

This is a view of the park: 

 

 

Down off the hill: 

 

 

 

Tanner and Kyle climbed this strange net contraption: 

                            

Lots of interesting art: 

                                     (Nos=We)

 

 

 

Also, right before we got to the park there was a castle:

(La Castilla de Alameda)

 

...And a church

 

Outside of the park on the far side were all kinds of big modern, international businesses. It was a completely different city from the Madrid we had seen so far. 

We got back to the city at 9:30 and began wandering around for a good place too eat. We spent the night in the Spanish style of eating Tapas with a drink and then moving to the next place. In total we stopped at 3 places before heading home around 12:00. We found this great little Mexican restaurant that was packed. It had nice sized quesidillas that were only 2 €!

Our group has been having a great time together and it's only the 1st week!!

Emily