Madrid!

   Okay everyone, let's go back to March 1st!!! I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be too detailed about the trip since most of my memories consist of inside jokes with my friends and all the little things that make life fun. While in Madrid, we went to Starbucks to fulfill Becca's six month craving. I ordered a caramel machiatto and was in heaven. MOre than 8 oz of coffee at one time? This was near insanity in Spain. In that same day we saw El Prado museum with some of the most famous works of art in Spain. I loved it. I saw Las Meninas finally! I swear we studied that painting for years in Spanish class with Senora B. We also went to Parque Retiro. It was really beautiful. That night a few of us went to T.G.I. Friday's for an all American dinner. It was fabulous. We ordered the appetizer sampler and got to have a little bit of everything. Our waiter, Bruce, was from Hawaii and he showed us a good time. Haha. After dinner we headed back to the hostel, showered, and headed for bed. Mitch and I were in a separate room than everyone else, so we got the chance to meet Simon, a German visiting family in Madrid. We talked to him for a really long time that night and it was hysterical because he was the exact opposite of Tabea. He contradicted everything she had told us about Germany. He also told me that I had an accent like a girl from "the land." This meant a Southern accent hahah. He told Mitchell like he sounded like he was from Scotland. I was perfectly okay with all of this because he was attractive. And it was funny. The next morning in Madrid we woke up and got breakfast at McDonald's (yes, we were hitting up all of the American restaurants in Madrid while we could...it was a bit ridiculous) then headed straight to El Reina Sofia, another art museum. While waiting in line, I saw my mimi-me. A little girl (in the picture above) looks just how I looked when I was that age. It was crazy! So I was creeper and I got a picture of her. I couldn't get over it. Now, back to El Reina Sofia, this had the works of Picasso, including La Guernica, which depicts Picasso's view of the Spanish Civil War...also the painting that got him kicked out of Spain. No big deal. It was a huge painting. I was really excited to see it. After seeing what we could in the museum we headed back to the hostel. On the way back we spotted a Dunkin' Coffee (same as Dunkin' Donuts) and Mitchell and Becca decided to order some coffee while Elle and Mariel kept going on towards the hostel. The rest of us waited for them. Turns out Dunkin' Coffee likes to take their sweet old time...after 15-20 minutes they finally finished making two cups of coffee and we could be on our way. We were really pressed for time at this point and had book it back to the hostel because Mitchell had the keys to our room which we need ed to check out of by 12. Towards the end it looked as if we weren't going to make it, so I grabbed the keys from Mitchell and started running down the Gran Via in Madrid. As I was running Nat asked if I had the keys and I threw my fist up in the air and at that moment I felt as if I was in the Amazing Race, or something special like that. It was a nice moment...but I got over it quickly and focused on not getting hit by cars. In the end, we made it on time and were not charged any extra...thank goodness. We then took the metro and met up with all of the other exchange students in the bus station. :)