blog worthy.

My parents came to visit! That means lots of being touristy (and shopping of course). While showing around the parentals I got to do some of the touristy Mardid things I hadn't done yet.

We went inside Madrid's most famous museum: el Prado. Which has the most paintings in circulation of anywhere in the world I believe. Including: Goya, Rembrant, and Velasquez's Las Meninas.


Finally did the boats in Reitro Park.


It's harder than it looks!


Tour of inside of Palacio Real. (Told you! Touristy.)


Representaion of my studiousness - Don Quixote statue in Plaza de España.


And Dad got it all on video - even the party scene in front of their apartment. Yep, he woke up at 2:30 a.m. and decided to document Spanish night life.

Madrid basically has jamon everywhere and being that my parents don't eat much ham eating was the biggest concern. I came to appreciate Madrid's worldwide food accessibility.


There is SUCH a good Italian food place that we may or may not have went to twice...


The best thing we ate was Restaurante Sobrino de Botin. Mentioned in Hemmingway's "The Sun Also Rises" this is the Guinness Book of World Records' proclaimed Oldest Restaurant in the World.


It has a cool tavern feel and suckling pigs lined up on deck to bake in the wood oven.


In reality, if you are an efficient tourist, you can see Madrid's major sites in three days. So my parents 6 day stay included a day trip to Segovia. The Roman Aqueducts are well worth the visit. Made completely without mortar the rocks fit perfectly together to form over 160 arches that are still standing today. Amazing they could do that back then!



Segovia is also home to Alcázar, an old Castle residence of the Castillian king and queen and apparently the model for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle.




It used to have an artillery school upstairs. FYI there is a certain angle you are supposed to lean at to fire a canon. The one hand behind the back is the classy professional touch.


By far the best part of the visit was dinner with my parents and my Spain family. Another wonderful meal at Restaurante de Inés (AKA my Spain mom's kitchen).


Family meets host family!


So yes, Mom. Despite what you may think, you are indeed blog worthy.

dun dun dun.

Why have I been MIA from blogging? Well, for one I had to face my worst nightmare: a two day group presentation in front of 70 Spanish peers. yes, IN SPANISH. We had to represent and analyze three short stories by Ruben Dario.

Great. Awesome. Cool. FML. $%@#.

This basically sums our feelings before presentation.


Pájaro azul y Garcín.


Our group. Luckily Allie and I had very nice compañeros. Mónica and Carlos. We're dressed as gnomes for our musical portion of the representation. Yeah...don't worry about it. PS Carlos def shaved his head in front of the whole class on the second day to represent passage of time in one of the stories. Epic.


We survived! And did an excellent job for foreign students if I do say so myself. But yeah, next time you feel like complaining about class, a presentation, or even a chem and math final on the same day just remember: AT LEAST IT'S IN ENGLISH.

Cositas

San Sebastian is a small town with small things. Take for example their version of tapas, Pinchos. Instead of ordering big plates for the table, platters of small choices are laid out all over the bar. You take what you want and pay at the end for however many you got. Not sure why Madrid doesn't implement this ingenuity. You don't have to compromise and order something for the table and you can try as many different things as you want!

The first night we went to a bar and got super small food! The kobi burger was no joke the size of the bottom of a water bottle. ¡Qué mona! my Spain sis would say. A Fuego Negro. Intense name for such baby sized food. But it was delish.


I also got pepper and chocolate for dessert (in Basque language in San Sebastian chocolate is spelled with tx for the ch sound). Sounds weird but it was actually good. It tasted like a piece of fudge with a glaze that slightly resembled red pepper. I love chocolate. I love peppers. So it was worth a try.


We eventually made it over to a legit pinchos bar. Baguettes with awesome seafood since San Sebastian is right on the northern coast of Spain, croquettes (friend potatoe roll) and so much more! You grab a napkin and start picking! Stand and eat. Then push your way through the crowd to grab more.


When you're done you tell the bartender how many you ate. Don't cheat! They know. Pay. Then throw your napkin on the floor. I felt weird doing it, but it's the way.



There are also way too many small cookies in San Sebastian. Pastry shops are more common than ATMs and there is for sure one every block. Sooooo good.


Okay so maybe the gelato in San Sebastian isn't small...


Okay, neither are the baguettes...we only had four!


Anyway, we did more than eat believe it or not. Views like this make hiking one of the hills of the quaint beach town well worth the trek.




There are also these cool statues off the coast, wincoms or something like that.




Oh, one more thing. Okay: I hate alcohol. I can always taste it no matter what anyone says about their favorite mixed drink. HOWEVER, Mia and her San Sebastian savyness introduced me to cuarenta y tres and cococao. Chocolate milk plus alchi basically. So sweet! Even I can't taste anything!
I need to get me some of this to take back to the states... (I'll be 21 by then, Mom, don't worry!)


Glad my best friend from first grade is studying abroad in this awesome small place.

Aufgabenliste (to do list)

Oktoberfest. 2009. Ready. Lets go.


1. Go to one of the wild beer tents such as Hippodrom.


2. Get kicked out when people who reserved tables a year ago come. Go explore and eat awesome things such as super sized soft pretzels.



3. Continue eating delicious things such as mini churros with your choice of cinnamon sugar or nutella.


4. Participate in the ginormous carnival including the epic obstacle house done with prism glasses so all you see is pretty lights while floors start to turn, move, squirt water etc. (For additional resources ask Justin and Michael how this was combined with tipsyness.)


5. Win prizes at the carnival such as colored roses and flags.


6. Participate in Germany's recycling system: return your empty bottle and ticket you received upon purchase to the store and get the extra euro they charged you back!



7. Contribute euro to one of the traditional heart cookie necklaces.


8. Make German friends. Perferrably named Thomas and Constantine.


9. "Prost!" with said German friends.


10. Drink and be merry.

Foot First

Fútbol. It makes lot more sense than “soccer.” Better word , better game. I don’t need to say much about the hype around European fútbol. What I do need say is I am in Madrid while Real Madrid is neck in neck with Barcelona to be the best team in the Spanish League. Holler.

Went to a game un partido de futbol when the boys came to visit. No fights or anything intense like that considering Real Madrid was the easy favorite over Tenerife. But it was still awesome to be there.



They have a million jersey colors it seems like .


There is also nee section that leads cheers and is louder than the rest of the stadium – like the Den!

Office of Kaka! Ronolado! Raul!