January:
Back to Spain, back to Spain… I made it safely back to Spain on the 9th of January, after a large dose of home, feeling quite rejuvenated it was time to get back to my “real world” life. After spending everyday of the past month surrounded by loved ones; adjusting to Spanish life was not my favorite thing— mind you, at this point I still had no internet in my apartment so I was feeling disconnected to say the least.
However here I am today, so I survived. We finally got internet two weeks later and my life has been significantly easier since. One thing that made my transition back to Madrid easier was the weather!! I came back to sunny skies and 60 degree weather; who can be grumpy when it feels like springtime in January?!
The last weekend in January: AMSTERDAM
For some reason Abby and I decided to book our flights at 6am- leaving our piso’s at 3am really had us wondering what our reasons might have been…? Still wondering. We booked separate flights because the costs were different so we parted ways at the airport and I headed to terminal 3 for my departure. After the most disorganized/inefficient plane boarding debacle I found my seat in the back of the plane and slept every bit of the 2 hour 5 minute flight. After switching train platforms 4 times and illegally hopping on the tram we made it to “The Flying Pig” hostel. We checked in and were greeted with smiles, Bob Marley music, and the overbearing aroma of marijuana.
After a much needed siesta Abby and I wandered around the city for a while and found ourselves outside a Mexican food restaurant and decided it just felt right (the Spanish don’t understand flavor). After this we headed back to the hostel, showered and headed downstairs to the bar… where we were meeting one of Abby’s roommates. We indulged ourselves with a couple of rounds of Jupiler beers and headed out on the town, unfortunately a spur of the moment thought to change from my flat boots to heels was my downfall… nonetheless we had a good time, we made a few stops at different bars and ended up at a club to finish off the night. The best part of the night was by far being taxied with three other people via bicycle, he was like superman.
Below: the girls, superman, my awful heels.
By the way Mom and Dad Sean and Kate, one of the bars we stopped at was called Durty Nelly’s J
Below: Abby, Me and Borja
The next day we headed out to explore Amsterdam, which I quickly fell in love with. The city has something special about it, perhaps the architecture, the canals, everyone riding bikes, a mixture of all of these elements, I really enjoyed it all.
We made our way to the Van Gogh Museum with several photo breaks and one coffee stop on the way. The Museum was superb. We enjoyed the rest of the day doing touristic things downtown Amsterdam, and of course stopping in the Red Light District… a very peculiar place, where not only do you see women selling themselves in windows but your standard Saturday family outings with children of all ages; so appropriate.
One observation made while visiting Amsterdam, the ratio of men to women is ridiculous… For every woman, there were at least 10 men.
Sunday was my favorite day! We got up and had some coffee and made our way to Mac’s Bike Shop and rented bicycles for the day J mine was bright red, and since I was feeling a little daring I chose one that had pedal breaks instead of the fancy hand-breaks. Not only did I save myself 7 Euros but I felt like I was 7 years old, which was fantastic. We rode bikes for a couple of hours made some stops for food, shopping and random picture taking.
Trip to Amsterdam=success.
Back to the grind… and even more so on the grind, this week and the previous I HAD TO WORK MONDAYS. The worst… Haha.
February:
I added three more tutoring classes so I’m now teaching a total of 9 hours of private lessons a week…
I am getting outside as much as possible! This past weekend Becca and I went for what turned into a 5 hour excursion in Madrid. We headed towards Sol and Plaza Mayor where we visited our favorite market: San Miguel Market. We had some tapas and a couple drinks, after we headed to El Meson del Champiñon and had the most wonderful mushrooms!
Below: San Miguel Market
Later that night we headed to Abby’s piso for a Superbowl get-together. Kick-off was at 12:25am… we went to Dubliners pub and watched most of the game. Monday was followed by a lovely beer headache. Luckily I was back to my regular week; which does not include working Mondays J
Otherwise my life mostly consists of school, tutoring, gym, going to 100 Montaditos (the best sandwhich/tapas place, where everything is 1 Euro on Wednesday), and enjoying fresh air. I suppose I could say that I have gotten extremely comfortable living here in Spain and my life feels somewhat normal, aside from the occasion weekend trips to other countries!
I am counting down the days for my next visitors!
Mom and Katelyn: T-minus 11 days
Katie Carlson: T-minus 16 days
Josh: T-minus 31 days
Hasta pronto,
Besos
Kelley
P.S. The girl working at Starbucks asked my name so she could write it on my cup, after responding to her question in every possible Spanish accent I could form (there are only so many ways you can pronounce Kelley)… She proceeded with this question:
“Te parece bien si escribo Ana?”
Yes, I do mind if you just write Ana.
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