05.03.10

This day was so uneventful, it was a sad rainy gloomy day from the time I woke up. I didnt want to walk around Madrid and be wet the whole time. I stayed in, studied some spanish, took a nap and not much else.

The kids came home and we dont have class on fridays so we hung out and played some games. Then Irene and Sofia left for San Sebastian for the weekend. Soon after Miguel and Gonzalo left to a friends house; I was left alone and bored again. A terrible way to put a day to rest.
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06.03.10

Woke up fairly early, I was going to Miguel's soccer match. It wasnt raining but it was still quite murky out. Oscar, Gonzalo, Juan(Miguel's friend) Miguel and I headed off to the match. There is over an hour of practice before the match so everyone besides Miguel went to the swimming pool.

Im sorry i might have painted you the wrong picture, it was a swimming facility. There was four giant pools outside for the summer time, a couple jacuzzis, pool for doing laps and swimming from end to end, a beginner swimming pool about three feet deep with tons of floaty toys, relaxing warm water lagoon with two separate hotubs, and finally the last room with bubble massages, huge hot tub, swimming channel/river(it had a current to swim with and wound around places) and a water slide all inside.

The kids asked me what I wanted to do, I told them it didnt matter and they chose the water slide. We went up the stair case to the entrance of the slide. It had a red/green light telling you when it was safe to go. Gonzalo went first but he didnt go down the traditional laying on the back style; he went down kicking the sides spinning him around in circles. I followed suit the same way.

I havent been on a lot of water slides but this one was quite unique. You go from pitch black, around a corner to having a few fog lights dimly lit above you, sharp corner back to pitch black, to a different go through a section of more translucent tube, around another corner and back to pitch black, through yet another corner to this very weird and out of place disco lighting in the tube, back to black and then finally out.

We switched on and off doing this and taking laps around in the river and switching up our styles going down the slide. We did everything from head first on stomachs and backs, on our knees, holding each others feet, trying to play catch and tag on the slides, Gonzalo standing up and spreading his legs and letting us go through. Eventually we did get kick off unfortunately for not obeying the rules but it was just about time for us to go watch Miguel's match anyway.

We left the pool and met Oscar to watch the match. It was quite good, this league is a pretty action packed league and some of the kids have pretty good moves at this age. It was still very soggy out because it was raining while we were swimming, making the match very exciting to watch people slide or fall in puddles.

After the match we headed of to the heart of Madrid and had lunch. It was quite interesting to hear the kids so excited to eat a Frazescos Hollywood. It is a very american dinner; classic menu of burgers, steaks, ribs, and sandwiches. The kids absolutely love this kind of food and eating here. Its a rare occasion that only happens once or twice a year. After a big ole American feast we headed of for more fun.

We went to go-kart center. This one had a track outside and inside. This wasnt no lousy run center either. You dressed up in full attire, a large red jump suit with many racing emblems on it and a helmet with a fold down mask. We got there at ten to five and the kids headed off to get ready. We were trying to buy passes but the lady said that the kids races closed at 5 and there wasn't enough time to get the kids ready and down to the track. Little did we no the kids made it down in time and we say their names on the screen.

Thankful that the kids got their shot Oscar and I bought our tickets and finished watching the kids race. You were allowed around twelve laps, depending on how fast you were you could squeeze in thirteen of even fourteen. It was an Indy style course and quite fun. Oscar and I made out the two best people in the crowed of twelve or so. It was quite fun, it wasnt on pavement but some type of hard flooring that make it fun to drift your car and squeal the tires whenever you turned sharp.

After all the fun we were off to see some of the early very basic drawings/sketches for a movie coming out. That was really neat to see, we got to see some of the drawings before we had to leave the room while Oscar conducted business.

After that long day we returned home had some dinner and watched the soccer match between Seville and Real Madrid. It was a very good match and was quite entertaining to watch and to hear/see the kids reactions when Real Madrid scored and won.
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07.03.10

Woke up today and it was kinda cloudy out but no rain which was awesome becuase I was headed into madrid. I left the house and checked my bus schedule, I had five minutes to get there before the bus left. Running as soon as I left the yard, hoping to catch the bus I was off. It's about a ten minute run from my house and as soon as I was rounding the corner to get on Guadalix(main street where the bus picks up) I saw it leaving for Madrid.

Out of luck I sat at the bus stop for an hour waiting for the next shuttle into Madrid. Missing the bus was quite unfortunate, I was supposed to meet a group of friends I have been in contact with for a movie. Now unable to make that happen since I missed the bus, I called Felicia(friend ive been talking to) and told her I would meet up with them after the movie.

While they were at the movie I walked around Madrid to the famous Plaza Mayor. It is a very nice place with paintings all over the buildings. Since I went on a sunday there was live music in the plaza and tons of people out showing of their art. After a good look around I went down calle toledo to see where this big swarm of people was coming from.

I found a huge open market that is in Madrid every Sunday. There were hundreds of booths set up lines all of the streets. You could find anything there, old records, jewelry, clothes, pots/pans, comic books, really anything that you can think of. I walked through the market which was crammed full of people. You made it about ten steps before you had to stop and wait for an opening to continue moving.

I walked around looking at everything for almost two hours. Then I headed back to Plaza del Sol; sat and ate a sandwich and a beer and waited a few minutes until the movie was out. Then i met Felicia and Christina. Felicia is from Colorado and has been here for about five weeks and Christina is from New York and this is her second week here.

We set off to find a good tapas bar to indulge in some more food. We walked around for quite some time trying to find a good place to eat. Finally we decided on a small corner cafe because it started raining on us. This was an excellent choice because I got tarta manzana. Its like an apple custard and it was delicious, a very rich and fresh taste with the apple's.

Later we walked around some more and went to a couple museums. We ended up only going to one of them the Museo Thyssen-Bornimisza because it was free. It was interesting to see but it was hard to interpret a lot of the art.

After that it was starting to get dark and Christina headed back to her house while Felicia and I went to another tapas bar near Plaza de Castilla to wait for our buses that would come in about an hour. I could not resist any longer the craving for some ice cream so I tried a new flavor of honey and graham cracker. It was very good and full of honey.

After that we headed our different ways back to our respective houses. When I got home there was no one here so I made a little snack and listened to some music. Shortly the boys and Oscar returned. Oscar made dinner and this experience was another first for me. He cooked a dish with black rice.

This dish was excellent but looked repulsive. Everything: rice, fish, and the vegetables were coated in this dark tar like substance that took the color out of everything. It looked like a pan with black water paint and rice. Gonzalo was telling me the whole time that it looks bad but taste's good, which was the truth.

After dinner we sat around for a bit and then it was off to bed. I needed some new material to teach the kids tomorrow so I started researching new things