On our way to becoming Madrileños...

We spent most of Thursday getting everything unpacked and settled in to our apartment and then went to buy several things we needed for the apartment. And let me tell you, whether you love it or hate it, Wal-Mart sure does make life easier and more affordable. We spent a great deal of time going to different places in the city trying to buy pretty basic stuff. And when we finally found it I couldn't help but think how much cheaper it would have been at Wal-Mart, haha. But now we have everything we absolutely need (although many wants remain unfulfilled) and our apartment is beginning to feel more and more like home everyday.

Since our program doesn't begin until September and we already have our apartment set up, we have had lots of free time the last few days to just wander around and get to know the city which has been great. I already feel like I know the entire central region of the city pretty well so we will be professional tour guides by the time anyone comes to visit. We basically just set off in a general direction and spend hours each day walking around and stopping in any random plaza, church, store, or palace we find (and Madrid has plenty of all those things).

Friday we met up with a couple of our friends that we met at OU. Carlos, who lives in Madrid, and Bielenis who is visiting from Colombia (she is my friend who lives in the same city as Shakira - Barranquilla - and she loves her ALMOST as much as me...so yes it is a friendship made in heaven). We met up with them and then went to the courtyard of the palace to have coffee and then toured the palace which was beautiful!!

Saturday we got our first taste of nightlife in Madrid because our roommate took us out with him. As is typical here, we arrived at the club around 2 a.m. and stayed until 6:30! And we only left then because I was exhausted...NOT because the club was closing. It was a really cool place and I got to dance for 5 hours AND they played Shakira!! I love Madrid. Guillermo says when we can make to 8 am and end the night with churros y chocolate in a local churro place then we will officially be Madrileños. Almost...

Sunday we woke up pretty late as I'm sure you could imagine and then went to Mass at the Cathedral. Luckily everything is slower and later in the Spanish culture so a common Mass time is 8:00 pm. It is a pretty Cathedral but I definitely do not plan on going to Mass there again because the constant influx of tourists coming in and out is quite distracting. Especially the group of ladies who decided to sit down behind us and eat their dinner during Mass. Whatever it was it came in a wrapper that was extremely loud to open (breathe Carson...as much as I was freaking out I can't even imagine what you would have done). Luckily there is a church on almost every block in Spain and they are all beautiful and historical so I have plently of options. I actually plan to go to a different church every Sunday so I can see them all.

Today (Monday) I woke up at a decent hour so I think I finally gotten over the jet-lag. Although I never had problems before I had the hardest time getting adjusted to the 7 hour time difference and we found ourselves not being able to fall asleep until 4am and then getting up at 2pm. We spent more time walking around and finding random plazas and parks to hang out in. We went to Park Retiro again (which is kind of like Madrid's version of Central Park) and checked out the Crystal Palace there and sat down for some quality people watching. It is one of the best places to do so and our favorite game is to guess where people are from which is pretty easy to do based on various styles of fashion. It is at least very easy to differentiate Europeans from Americans. Jordan and I have decided that there are a few clothing purchases we need to make in order to blend in a bit better. For me it is gladiator style sandals and for Jordan it is either Manpris (Capris for men) or really short shorts (probably shorter than I would be comfortable wearing in public). I think for that reason he is going to go with the Manpris.

We leave Wednesday to go to Valencia to meet up with all of our friends who live there. There is a group of students who were exchange students at OU last year and they all live in Valencia. I became very good friends with alot of them so I'm really excited to be reunited!! Plus an added bonus is we are going to spend the first few days at my friend Gloria's beach house which is in a town called Javea (about an hour south of Valencia). So we are off to the beach at last!!! I can't wait!