A local...almost

Well I've been in Madrid for two weeks now and I really feel like I'm starting to fit in and finally see the city as my temporary home instead of just a foreign unknown. The stares have mostly subsided since I bought some Euroshoes (dressy sneakers that they don't consider sneakers). It's funny because just about everyone in the group has purchased a pair of shoes from here because they couldn't take the stares any longer. No matter how european or nondescript our outfits were, we were always known as American because of our shoes. Literally, I would step on a train and within a minute just about everyone around me had looked at my feet. It was uh...Interesting.

This past week was really fun, especially since I've been feeling better. After the insistence of my Senora and mom I went to the doctor on Wednesday. He told me I had a sinus infection so he gave me an antibiotic and I'm feeling much better. I guess the one good thing that came out of my being sick is that I became good friends with the nice guy in the metro that sells tissues.

Friday was one of the best times out I've had since I've gotten to Madrid (not counting Santander because that was hard to beat). Chrissy and I went in search of a salsa club called The Tropical House in Principe Pio. We stopped at a Mexican bar first because we saw there were a lot of kids our age in there. We ended up talking with some kids from a Connetticut study abroad program (mainly Middlebury and Amherst students). They invited us to go with them to a hookah bar in another part of the city. It was the best hookah bar I've been to before because it was so authentic (well as far as I know). The ceiling was covered in low hanging middles eastern tapestries and we sat on large pillows or small benches. We ordered a fruit hookah and sangria and ended up hanging out there until it closed at 2:30. On our way to find a hip hop club one of the girls knew about, I heard a loud crash and a massive chunk of brick slid in front of my feet. I looked up and saw a guy had been hit over the head with the brick and he his friends were trying to get him away from the scene. The guy was holding his head closed and blood was everywhere. It was a crazy part of town. We finally made to the hip hop club where it turned out it was the equivalent of a club in the U.S. with a lot of American music.

Yesterday, our group went to Toledo for the day. It was absolutely amazing from a distance and adorable up close. The only complaint I had was that it was so touristy that it took away from what could have been a nice small town feel. We visited the famous el greco painting, a huge church that was the most amazing I've seen yet, and a Jewish synagogue that is now a church. The city's architecture and history is unique because it has three different groups living there. The Christians, Jews, and Muslims. You can check out my pictures because they always do a better job of showing the beauty.

When our bus returned to Madrid last night, MarieCarmen (our leader) took us for Tapas (its another name though, I'll find out the right one). We ate at this beautiful restaurant on the top floor over looking the Palacio. They were the best appetizers I've ever had in my life! I came back raving about them and my Senora said, "Tapas, tapas, all you liked were the tapas! What about Toldedo?!" That was fun too :P Also, they had huge barrels of cider that when you open the tap the cider flows about 4 feet straight out and lands in a bucket. You have to stick your glass in the flow to get a drink. I felt like I was at a 16th century kegger.

Last night I got my traditional 12 hours of sleep and woke up at 12:30 today. After a scolding from my Senora to clean up my extremely messy room and stop picking at my horrendous blemishes, I've been writing emails ever since. And now, as I've been saying forever, I'm finally going to post my pictures.