Madrid

October 30, 2011

On Sunday after we were let free for our break I met up with a boy I had met in Salamanca awhile back that lives in Madrid. His name is Antonio and he lives there but has friends in Salamanca. I met up with him in La Puerta del Sol and he pretty much showed me the entire city of Madrid. We walked around for about 4 hours. It was pretty awesome that I go to practice my Spanish for that long. He studies English so he also tried to speak to me in English sometimes for the practice.  It was probably the first time ever that I actually felt that my Spanish has improved since being here. One of the first things he said to me was how much my Spanish had improved since he first met me. Win.  I was able to have real conversations with Antonio and I felt awesome. I never thought that I would ever be able to hold a conversation about scientology in Spanish. He showed me all of the key sights like the cathedral, palace, parks, and plazas. We also went to this market outside of La Plaza Mayor and I ran into one of the teacher from the elementary school. It felt weird to run into someone I knew in a foreign country. When walking through the Plaza Mayor there was a ham festival going on. I feel like that only happens in Spain.  We got some tapas and then he helped me find my way back to the hostel because Jesus knows that my sense of direction is not on point.  

Later that night Haley and I met back up with Antonio and his friend Nacho. Yes, his name was nacho. They took us to one of the bars that they like to go to. It was really neat because it definitely wasn’t a tourist bar. It was decorated in Middle Eastern decorations. Oh, and Nacho is a police officer. A Spanish police officer paid for all of our drinks that night. I’d say that’s a win.

Madrid

I would say that that night was probably one of the best nights I’ve had in Spain so far. We stayed at that one bar for the entire night and didn’t get back until almost 6 am. We only had three drinks that night but it was soooooo fun. Antonio and Nacho were so much fun to hang out with and we didn’t even have to be decisive because they knew of all the places to go. AND we had locals to walk us home which meant that we didn’t even have to break out the map. A song from Grease came on at the bar we were at and Antonio and Nacho knew the majority of the words and even the dance. What a surreal experience.