Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were ridiculously hot. As in around 95 degrees (seriously, it was that hot, check the weather channel if you don't believe me, you skeptics).
Thursday there was a seminar after school about phrases in Spanish (the equivalents of things like, "an eye for an eye", "there's more than one way to skin a cat", "I have other fish to fry", etc.). It was pretty interesting, but the guy who was leading it talked super fast and I didn't catch a decent portion of it. I learned a lot of simple words, like animal names! Who knew my education was lacking such basic things. After that, we found snacks and went and sat near the Palacio de Cristal in Retiro.
Friday we went on a mission to find the gluten free bakery near school, Celicioso! (Such a clever title, people after my own heart, clearly.) After getting a wee tiny bit lost, we found it! I got a chocolate extravaganza cupcake and an apple cinnamon one. They were quite good, but shh, I prefer Gluuteny. I don't suppose Gluuteny ships to Spain, do you? After acquiring some pastries, we went back to the park (see a routine?).
We also went out Friday night! Which was a lot of fun. The first bar we went to, El Tigre, is a fairly well known bar in Madrid. It's said that the dirtier the floor of a bar is, the better the bar is. Patrons throw their napkins on the floor as a kind of respect. (I don't get it.) And El Tigre did indeed have napkins all over the floor. But 0.75 liters of sangria was 6 euro and you got a huge plate of tapas with that, so it was pretty cool. We hung out for a bit after that, but soon went home because we were still tired.
Saturday, we went to a municipal pool because the heat was just too much. It took 40 minutes to get there and there was a wait for 40 minutes in line, but I think it was worth it. The pool, located in Caso de Campo, was surrounded by a bunch of trees and nature-y things, unlike a lot of public pools I've been too that are surrounded by concrete buildings. There was a lot of grassy area to lounge on and the cold pool water to go jump in to cool off. We spent most of the day there applying and reapplying sunscreen, because the sun in Madrid is not fooling around. At 6pm here, it looks like it should be about 3pm, the sun is so high in the sky. It's no wonder Madrid is up late, the sun doesn't go down until around 9 or 10 at night.
Sunday, we went to El Rastro, the biggest open air market around. It was big and crazy and full of people and lots of random things. But it was very very hot and so we didn't spend too long there. After going home to eat and nap, we went back out to Museo del Prado. We critiqued some art there like professional art critics who knew what we were talking about. Mm, the brush strokes, what depth to that paiting, mm yes.
And now on to another week of classes, but luckily a much cooler week!
Thursday there was a seminar after school about phrases in Spanish (the equivalents of things like, "an eye for an eye", "there's more than one way to skin a cat", "I have other fish to fry", etc.). It was pretty interesting, but the guy who was leading it talked super fast and I didn't catch a decent portion of it. I learned a lot of simple words, like animal names! Who knew my education was lacking such basic things. After that, we found snacks and went and sat near the Palacio de Cristal in Retiro.
Friday we went on a mission to find the gluten free bakery near school, Celicioso! (Such a clever title, people after my own heart, clearly.) After getting a wee tiny bit lost, we found it! I got a chocolate extravaganza cupcake and an apple cinnamon one. They were quite good, but shh, I prefer Gluuteny. I don't suppose Gluuteny ships to Spain, do you? After acquiring some pastries, we went back to the park (see a routine?).
We also went out Friday night! Which was a lot of fun. The first bar we went to, El Tigre, is a fairly well known bar in Madrid. It's said that the dirtier the floor of a bar is, the better the bar is. Patrons throw their napkins on the floor as a kind of respect. (I don't get it.) And El Tigre did indeed have napkins all over the floor. But 0.75 liters of sangria was 6 euro and you got a huge plate of tapas with that, so it was pretty cool. We hung out for a bit after that, but soon went home because we were still tired.
Saturday, we went to a municipal pool because the heat was just too much. It took 40 minutes to get there and there was a wait for 40 minutes in line, but I think it was worth it. The pool, located in Caso de Campo, was surrounded by a bunch of trees and nature-y things, unlike a lot of public pools I've been too that are surrounded by concrete buildings. There was a lot of grassy area to lounge on and the cold pool water to go jump in to cool off. We spent most of the day there applying and reapplying sunscreen, because the sun in Madrid is not fooling around. At 6pm here, it looks like it should be about 3pm, the sun is so high in the sky. It's no wonder Madrid is up late, the sun doesn't go down until around 9 or 10 at night.
Sunday, we went to El Rastro, the biggest open air market around. It was big and crazy and full of people and lots of random things. But it was very very hot and so we didn't spend too long there. After going home to eat and nap, we went back out to Museo del Prado. We critiqued some art there like professional art critics who knew what we were talking about. Mm, the brush strokes, what depth to that paiting, mm yes.
And now on to another week of classes, but luckily a much cooler week!
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