Gooooood Morning, Sunshines!

Here I am, once again, blogging from a cafe near my house.  It’s called Martina Cocina and it has the perfect touristy-local vibe.  Also their wifi is strong and they give these little butter cookies with their coffee.

Doesn’t it look warm and inviting?

I tried to get up early (and failed-ish.  Got up at 9) And had breakfast a la mircowave/toaster

And then headed over to sit here and

a) look for housing (update- saw a place yesterday in Legazpi.  Legazpi is a little further from the city center than I would like to be (about 30 minutes walking or 10 minutes on the metro, but the metro doesn’t run all night.)  The girl that lives there is 29, Spanish, and seems really cool.  The room is adequate with a single bed (boo), a window (yay), and furnished with a desk, night table, etc (yay).  The apartment itself is on the smaller side with more of a kitchenette than a kitchen (boo) but there is a nice terrace/patio (yay).  I should find out today if I got it.  In the meantime, onward with the search!

b) plan another English lesson for this afternoon.  My student wants to work on listening, so I found a few news articles that I will read to him and have him answer questions about them.  I also picked out some vocabulary from each article.  In the future, I would like to use interviews, news reports, ads, etc, but his office doesn’t have wifi and I ate my data within a week…so next month 🙂

c) blog with ya’ll even though most of my loyal readers (dad, mom, some of you Facebook folk) are still sleeping.  You’ll have something to read when you get up and put you back to sleep 🙂

Hmmm so let’s see.  What’s new?  This weekend was okay.  i am still having a hard time finding a “group”.  Of course I am very grateful for and love my two amigas Annie and Monica, but I’m still waiting for this feeling of “this is where I belong”.  I know it will come with time, though….I hope.

Friday we went out, but I ended up going home pretty early.  Saturday…what did I do Saturday?!  I can’t remember.  Probably the same thing I do every day…looked for housing, walked around a ton, oh!  I had another private English lesson, but it was more like an interview…like he was interviewing me.  WHAT IS IT WITH THESE PEOPLE AND INTERVIEWS?!  But in all seriousness, he was very nice and he spoke well, so we shall see.  Saturday night, I went to an “intercambio” with Annie and it was..strange, to say the least.  I guess it was what I was expecting, but also not what I was expecting.  I’m not writing them off entirely, so I’m hoping to check out a few others this Thursday when they seem to be the most common.

Sunday was a good day!  It was the first day I whipped out my biga$$ camera.

I went to El Rastro with Annie:

Basically a huuuuge flea market-literally full of thousands of people.  They sell everything and anything there, but mostly clothes, jewelry, artsy things, tapestries, etc. I didn’t buy anything because I was a bit overwhelmed by the selection as well as the number of people.  I was getting a bit claustrophobic in there!

This is the kind of thing I can picture telling my dad and his eyes will bug out with concern…haha don’t worry dad, I know you’re reading this!!

We also walked over to Mercado de la Cebada, which we still aren’t really sure what it is! The market itself was closed, but on Sunday it drew big crowds of people playing soccer (futbol), listening to music, or sitting with friends- chatting and drinking.

The rest of the afternoon, we walked around and I looked like a big tourist with my camerata…instead of camerita, I used -ata.  No?

In Madrid, there are these people-statue things all over the place.  We still aren’t quite sure how these guys do this all day long…there has to be some sort of plate in there holding this man up?!

There also happened to be some sort of sporting event going on!  I think it may have been a triathlon, but I don’t know.  I would love to do a half marathon or some big event while I’m here in Europe.

I saw another apartment on Sunday that was reaaalllllllllllllllllllly nice!  And it wasn’t too expensive, had a big kitchen, two bathrooms, and a big room with a balcony, double bed, and furnished.  Perfect, right?  Want to know what’s NOT perfect?  That over 300 people responded to their ad in less than an hour and they will be “calling people back for a second interview.  Maybe to have a beer or something”.  I did not get a “call back”, but acting has never been my thing and one of the roommates was annoying.  So bye.

I eventually meandered home, stopping along the way at a huge HUGE club here called Joy because I saw a sign that said “Cuban Nights” on Sundays with dance lessons.  I just wanted to see how much it was (10E to get in), but the bouncer thought he was cool so I just thanked him and kept walking.  Plus I had valuable things with me.  I walked home, stopping along the way to be a tourist 🙂

I saw…

Curved buildings? 

People Getting Eggs Smashed on Their Heads (I think to raise $)

A Caricature Artist

I wonder if she asked for her $ back after seeing this?

Other sites:

And then yesterday (Monday), I woke up and went for a run, then got dressed and went to Orientation with the Community of Madrid, which I don’t want to say was pointless, but…well, it was completely pointless.  So afterwards, I walked allllll the way home.  I like taking the metro to my destination and then walking home.  It’s helped me figure out the layout of this city- even if it did take me over an hour and a half to get home!Selfie game strong. Haaaa

Alright, that’s all!  Finished my cup of coffee and I need to go eat lunch before my lesson.  Also on the agenda for today:

• Paying for another week of foster care
• Food shopping
• Looking for my forever home
• Finishing my “about me” PowerPoint to take to school on my first day.

Alright, the people sitting next to me are basically chewing their food and putting it into the other persons mouth.  Time for me to go.