tinto.

GUESS WHAT?!

We decided to surprise you and give you not only one, but TWO blog posts today =) On Monday, we went to El Parque del Buen Retiro (or just El Retiro). The park was built as a park for the royal family in Spain around the 17th century. It served as a "retreat" at the time, and judging by the amount of people there on a weekday with cafes and vendors on every corner, it is still very much a retreat for the Spanish.

The entrance of the park (from the inside facing out).

Us and Genifer at the entrance

(thanks to Jessica and my flash for the great picture hahah).

Being silly.

The artificial lake built inside the park. If you look closely you can see people in rented boats rowing around the lake. It got pretty crowded in there after a while.

An aerial view of some of our group members waiting for the metro.

After our classes on Tuesday, we just relaxed at the dorms. At night, we felt like having some decent food, so after some restaurant searching, we took the metro to downtown Madrid and went to a modern-day tapas restaurant called La Musa. Here are some highlights...

The "Parrilla" dish with steak, chorizo (brit's faaaavorite), chicken, and grilled veggies.

I keep forgetting to take pictures of food BEFORE we actually eat them.

This dish was breaded and fried green tomatoes with shredded goat cheese, arugula salad, and fig jam. We had another huge combination plate of tapas (with some Asian and Mexican fusion dishes) but we demolished it before I remembered to take a picture... =) typical us.

After dinner, we took the metro to the center of Madrid because we had heard about an amazing place called Chocolateria San Gines, that served melted hot chocolate and fresh churros (VERY different from what we'd normally have at home). This place is open from 7 in the evening to 6 in the morning and it's in the cutest alley!

So crowded around midnight!

A snapshot of Britt and her churro con chocolate!

Wednesday evening we were supposed to go shopping in one of the shopping districts in Madrid, but we decided to stay at the mall next to the metro station in Principe Pio instead.

The Starbucks barristas are worse here than at home. They misunderstood Brittany for Pretty... at least it was a cute misunderstanding =)

A booklover's heaven! Why can't we have one of these at home?!

Thursday night, most of our group had already left either for Pamplona, or any other individual weekend trips. We had fancy schmancy paella night here at the dorms, where we had some GOOD food for the first time. They served us some salads and tapas and then two different types of paella (the first time we've had it here so far!). We also had some amazing homemade sangria, then took the bus to a place called MAGIC (lol) in Villaviciosa.

Besos from Espana. We'll talk to you all very soon!

PS. i realize the subject of food is prevalent in these posts. i can't help it. our whatever food at the dorms is never worth mentioning. but when we actually have some GOOD FOOD, it's definitely worthy of an honorable mention in our blog!

=)

goo gin hyme.

Hola to all you non-Spaniards!

I know we were supposed to update this way more often, but we didn't know how busy we'd be! So we're trying to find time (ie, stay up all night) to make sure we keep you all updated on our week. Last weekend, we took a group trip to Bilbao on the northern coast of Spain. After a 6 hour bus ride, some Dramamine, and VERY uncomfortable seats, we made it to the ABBA hotel. After a short break, we took a walk across town to do some sightseeing and find some food! We walked and walked and walked and got to the Guggenheim (we toured it the next day)

- it was BEAUTIFUL and definitely a must-see.

In front of the Guggenheim Museum.

Maman by Louise Bourgeois as part of her recent Spider collection.

These ice cream stands were on every corner, literally.

In front of some colorful blocks? We have no idea what this is.

We were starving by the time we did all that walking, but we ended up getting lost while on our way to go to the restaurant we had reservations at. When we finally found the restaurant, Bitoque, we realized it was just a block up from our hotel. Some of us decided to stay and had tapas on the street. We were so hungry that we all herded to the waiter each time he came out with a serving tray. But everything was amazing, it was worth the wait. For the record, tapas hardly ever fill you up - we ended up ordering pizza afterwards :)

Seared tuna with foamy soy sauce. yum!

Told you we attacked him... these were potato wedges with different "salsas"

On Saturday, we woke up early and had to walk all the way to the Guggenheim again under the rain! We toured for a couple of hours, and then we were free to roam around the museum for a while longer. Pictures were forbidden, but we snuck in a few just for you!

Puppy by Jeff Koons stands in front of the museum.

Tulips by Jeff Koons is on the back patio of the museum.

Inopportune: Stage One by Cai Guo-Qiang (same guy who designed the Beijing Olympics) exhibits identical white Fords with pulsing colored lights to create a "rise and fall" illusion.

The Matter of Time & Snake by Richard Serra made of steel sheets.

Having lunch at a restaurant whose specialty is chicken and eggs - go figure.

In one of the bars in Bilbao (it sucked - they had watered down drinks).

We'll update soon with a review of this past week! But we're having a wonderful time here. Most of our group went to Pamplona this weekend for the Running of the Bulls - we stayed behind to explore Madrid a bit more. Tomorrow, we're going to Toledo on a day trip. We'll have all the weekend updates up by next week! We miss you all and hope you're doing well (we doubt you are without us there...).

Pat and Britt

say sangria!

Hello again everyone! Due to popular demand, Pateel and I are back with new and exciting pictures. On Monday,after we had our introductions to our classes, we took the metro to Madrid and toured it LA style, on a double-decker bus. We got some great shots; here are just a few...

One of Spain's most famous attractions.

Another one of Spain's most current attractions...

The Communications Palace in Madrid

A frame-worthy picture =]

Here's a video we took while touring on the double-decker (just copy and paste again):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7BGWSAfGZ0

Wednesday evening we decided to have dinner and roam around in downtown Madrid. Luckily, we came across this great restaurant called Parrilla de Maria (I know, very catchy) where we had baked potatoes, chorizo, steak, wine, and ice cream. Thus far, it was the greatest meal we've had.

At dinner with one of our good friends Genifer.

Putting our bus passes to use on our way to one of our monitor's houses for a get together with the whole gang.

Everything in Spain is bigger and better...

including their plastic cups

Spain recycles too!

With our friends Genifer and Jessica

Waiting for the bus in the wee hours of the morning =]

Spain has been wonderful to us so far. We'll keep the pictures coming and all of you posted on our future adventures.

Love, Britt and Pat

jetlag.

Hi everyone! Pat and Brit here =)

We had a pretty interesting trip to Madrid... our flight from LAX to Munich was delayed by about two hours and we got scared that we'd miss our connecting flight to Munich. BUT the heroes of Lufthansa saved the day! We got VIP rides through the Munich airport straight to our connecting flight and made it just in time for take-off.

When we finally got to Madrid, it was around midnight and we went to check into our hotel for the night. It was a beautiful hotel. Here are some pictures to share:

Here's a link to a video of a VIP tour we decided to record for you all =)

(just copy and paste it - embedding wasn't working)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKcoOAGZFXU

The next day, we went to spend some time at the local mall, or the "Media Markt" and we decided to have a classy European meal at McDonalds with some McRoyal burgers, which were actually pretty decent.

We then returned to el aeropuerto to be picked up by UEM's program coordinators and had a half hour drive back to the campus. Today (Sunday), we took a tour of the UEM campus in the morning and then visited the mall in Downtown Madrid with the longest indoor ski / snowboard track called Xanadu.

the ski track from outside

donut shop in the food court - this one's for mike!

exiting the bathrooms...

(we had to ziploc our shopping bags before entering the "supermercado")

We miss you guys! Adios, until next time....