Paseo por Retiro

Saturday night was quite an experience. My cousin Astrid, who lives in Venezuela, gave my email address to her Madrid friend Javi. After tapas (small Spanish appetizers), we met up with him and his friend David. They took us to a Spanish festival/carnival right outside Madrid. We had a great time just riding the rides and mingling with the locals. After the carnival, we went to a couple clubs, called Ciao and Graduado, where Javi and David are involved with public relations. The clubs we went to were very high class and supposedly many of the Real Madrid players go there to party. Although we had a great night, the most difficult part was finding our way home. Since we had only been to our home stays once, and mostly just knew the street names, it became quite an adventure trying to find them. Not only was locating our homes difficult, but getting into them (we have about 3 different keys to unlock 4 different doors) turned out to not be so easy as well. I’m pleased to say that we all safely made it into our homes . . . eventually.


Sunday morning, our group met at El Parque de Retiro. This park is comparable to New York City’s Central Park. It is just beautiful. We walked around the park for awhile and then traveled to El Museo del Prado. Amalia (one of the directors) gave us a bit of history on the places we saw. After our group outing, I returned to my home on the metro for a delicious lunch prepared by Menchi (that’s what my Senora Carmen wants me to call her!) Tonight will be lots of relaxing and preparing for classes that begin tomorrow. I also have my first meeting at my internship. All VERY exciting! Time for a siesta – I love the Spanish life.