guapa

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I studied Spanish all day because I had my final on Thursday. Wednesday night was unforgettable because Ana made pimientos rellenos and my mouth was in heaven. After dinner I helped, but mostly watched her make her famous tarta for her birthday on Thursday. We got a good laugh out of her making her own birthday cake, but she said it was just so good that she had to make it. So imagine five layers and within each layer nata, peaches, and nuts, then repeat. Thursday I was anxious for the first time since I have been here in Spain, I was nervous for my midterm in Spanish because it is a huge part of my grade. I feel like I did well and went on an incredible run afterwards to top it off. I came home and helped Ana and her sister Elicia make paella. Ana’s sobrina and her two kids came over and Ana’s daughter as well. It was quite the fiesta. As I was sitting down at the table I couldn’t stop smiling! I just love living here, I love being apart of Ana’s family and sharing memories with them. Well the food was incredible, I never thought I’d be enjoying seafood, but here I am in Spain eating the ocean. After lunch I talked with Ana’s niece’s daughter Carina for twenty minutes or so. She is seven years old and so darling, she reminds me of a Spanish Hannah. She even taught me a few steps to one of her salsa dances she is learning at dance class, I am planning go watch one of her practices soon. After everyone left I went to the school to use the internet and Jana was on skype so I got to talk to her for awhile, which was fabulous. I miss seeing her face everyday! Then I went home and got all dressed up to go to Bella y la Bestia with a big group of girls in Madrid. It was AMAZING! Wow, I was not expecting the play to be so fantastic. The actors, orchestra, costumes, everything was absolutely incredible. I understood almost the entire thing and just had the best time enjoying the theatre experience. We had to run to the train station and just barely made the last train into Alcalá for the night. Friday I woke up early and ran and then quickly got ready to go to Madrid at eleven. The girls I went with hadn’t seen the Royal Palace so I waited outside for an hour until they were finished. I was reading the Spanish dictionary, yes I was actually reading the dictionary and a Spanish man came up to me and asked me if I was trying to learn the language (pretty observant huh?) and I said yes and asked if he wanted to help me. Well we ended up talking for a half an hour and I had the best time. I could understand him perfectly and we just had a normal conversation as if I was talking in English. I still know I’m saying stuff wrong, but I have a lot more confidence- that counts for something right? Right, so after that we ate our bocadillos and then went to the Thyssen museum which was fantastic. You start on the third floor and as you make your way down you are moving forward in time through the different periods of art. We were there for three hours or so and I enjoyed every minute, I think I even liked it better than the Prado because its not overwhelmingly massive and it has a little bit of every style. The Thyssen and Reina Sofia museums are tied for first place in my book. Then went to the Buen Retiro Park, my favorite place in Madrid, to people watch and listen to the drummers that are always there. After awhile we went and got dinner it was my second kebab experience and it was almost as incredible as the first. Afterwards we took the metro to the church stake center in Madrid because we had heard of a single adults dance going on. We arrived and there was a surprisingly large number of Spanish singles. It ended up being a formal Valentine’s dance, but we heard music and all of sudden didn’t care that we were all in jeans. We each got a heart with a number on it, walked in to a valentines decorated gym, and started dancing it up American style. It ended up being one of the most fun nights I have had here in Spain. The heart with the number on it matched up with a guy with the same number who was your dance partner. He taught me a little meringue because he was from Venezuela and that is how they dance there. He had just arrived in Madrid six days ago and it was so fun talking to him and learning about his story. I asked him how my Spanish was sounding and he said it was really good, which made me feel happy even though he was probably just being nice. This one song came on and everyone went crazy it was kind of like the songs in English that tell you what dance to move, but one hundred times better. Arriba, abajo, arriba, abajo, derecha, izquierda… and so on, it was a blast. Once again we had to run to the train station to catch the last train into Alcalá. This morning Ana woke us up quite early because Savi our Japanese sister was leaving to go back to Japan. None of us had any idea that she was leaving so soon, Ana found out the night before! Even though it was hard to communicate with her, I love her so much! We had a lot of good charade sessions and she is just the sweetest most sincere girl. So we stumbled to the kitchen table half asleep and ate breakfast with her. She gave Amy and me some Japanese cookies and a cute note saying things like “Erin es guapa.” We said goodbye and I couldn’t fall back asleep so I went for a run. I met some friends at the plaza around noon and we walked and shopped a little bit and then I came back for almuerzo and now I am sitting here. This week has been oh so amazing and I can’t wait for our five day trip to Santiago de Compostela on Tuesday!

P.S. If you ever are feeling down on yourself come to Spain, I get called guapa at least three or four times a day by men of a wide range of ages. Que guapa tu eres!