viva la vida

so let me tell you about a little trip i took this past weekend to madrid...

we left thursday night, and arrived just in time to leave our bags at our (very orange) hostel and go right back out again. we ended up going to grab a bite to eat at a café&té, which is a fast food chain, but it was very good. what surprised me was the overpowering smell of smoke...i guess people can still smoke in public places in madrid---one of the few places where they still can! so the smell was kind of nauseating everywhere, actually, but we left and went to a club called...wait for it... joy. it was pretty joyous, i must say. it was a masquerade, so we all got cardboard masks to wear, and we danced the night away...well, til about 4, when we parisians decided we were too tired to continue.

the next morning (friday) joleen and i slept in til 11, took showers (bliss! so sad that i look forward to staying at hostels to take a shower) and discovered that our room had a balcony. we ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant on a "calle" with quotations on the cobblestones (i forget what it's called) and it was de-licious. then, since it was a cloudless, 60 degree day, we took a walk around our area, found the museo del prado and then stumbled upon the retiro, which is like central park and tuileries mixed together. we seriously were exicted to see the sunshine and to be able to take off our jackets; we could not stop giggling for about half an hour. and then we laid in the sun until it was time to meet the others at bilbao for pizza. not very spanish, but whatever.

we then walked to a park to see the temple of debod, or something along those lines, which is on a hill that boasts amazing views of madrid- and of the sunset. so we stayed to watch the sunset and i was seriously the happiest i've been so far here in europe. as the first stars began to come out, we set off to el jardin secreto (apologies for the massacre of the spanish language) which is well-known for its desserts. meh. twas okay. i've had better. but i do love me some cheesecake.

on saturday we did some more touristy things: we saw the royal palace, the plaza de mayor, cibeles, and took pictures of all of the above. i'm convinced that clouds do not exist in madrid: another 65 degree, blue-skied day. we then went to the reina sofia, a museum that houses works by dali, picasso, etc. because it was free, but we really only saw guernica before the guards ushered us out because it was time to close. from what i saw of the rest of the artworks, though, i can't say i really like dali too much. i am a fan; however, of magritte. and of picasso, bien sur.

saturday night was our tapas-hopping night. i forget the verb that gwenna told me, but i guess going from restaurant to restaurant in search of tortilla de patatas is a legitimate activity. so we did as the spaniards do. we then went to this bar that has been made to look like you're in a cave. stalagmites and stalactites and rock walls. this bar is very well known for a drink that sounded pretty weird to me: milk, cinnamon, and four different types of alcohol? what? but it ended up tasting incredibly amazing. i yearn for it. and what made it ten times better was that the milk for this drink came out of one of the stalagmites from the ceiling. yes. you read that correctly.

sunday morning we only had time for a visit to the street market before we had to go back to the hostel and leave for paris. but mark my words, i will return.

there's something about spain that i like so much more than france. probably the sunshine and the warmth had a lot to do with it, not going to lie. and perhaps the sunshine, then, makes the people of madrid more laid back and carefree. viva la vida. whereas the french (well, the parisians, anyway) are very uptight. all i want to do is go outside not dressed like i'm off to a fashion show or a shoot for the latest hipster mag. seriously, people. chill. and quit judging me.

i do what i want.

still no computer. it's ridiculous. but it definitely crashed. so everyone should send me mix CDs so i can start to rebuild my itunes library. hint, hint.

i met my french language exchange partner! her name is imene, she's algerian, 19, and a student of languages at the sorbonne. AKA she speaks arabic, french, spanish, english (she's SO good) and she's learning italian. ridiculous. we talked a lot about the differences between the education systems here in france and in the US. i met her entire family, and we talked in english for an hour and a half and then in french for another hour and a half. this is going to be so good for my french. when i'm forced to speak in class, i speak very slowly. but with imene, and her family, i got into a nice rhythm and was speaking pretty rapidly and animatedly, and i even started adopting some slang towards the end of our conversation. sweet deal.

i think that's all for now. this weekend i'll be exploring paris, hopefully have my computer, and doing my homework for all my classes. oh, and i have to clean. living alone has turned me into a pig. not even kidding. it's probably a good thing that i'll have so many guests because i'll actually keept the apartment clean!

WAIT! wait wait wait.
spring break is (almost) finalized.

barcelona for three days. morocco for ten days. london for four days. all for less than 300 euros. yes. you read that correctly. i can't even begin to describe how excited i am.

i may not ever leave europe.