It’s been so long since I’ve done a weekend post!  The weekend started Thursday, as it always does!

It was nice and low key, first with some furniture shopping (FUN as it sounds) and then I went to Luis’ for my third favorite food in the entire world!  Salad de la mama espanola!!!  

On Saturday, I woke up pretty groggy for some reason, even though I had almost ten hours of sleep!!  It was one of those mornings where you keep hitting snooze and keep waking up and then falling right back asleep.  Seriousl, the worst!  It wasn’t anything a little Body Combat couldn’t fix!  I swear the classes just keep getting better and better and I always leave super sweaty and on a crazy endorphin high!!  Love, love, love the class.  After some treadmill walking and a quick grocery store trip, I came home and made a huuuuge batch of Mexican bean and corn salsa!  And I bought a basil plant (because I was high….on endorphins)

I saw the recipe on Hungry Runner Girl and it came out delicious!  I still have a ton left and have been using it on, um, everything.  

Later in the afternoon, I showered and met Luis at another furniture store to help him pick out some pieces.  

Everything in the store was 50% off and the crowd was CRAZY!  You would have thought they were giving the stuff away for free.  In the end, he bought a desk chair and a nice woven wood basket for the living room.  

I couldn’t stay too long because I had plans to meet with my new intercambio friend for drinks and Spanish/English conversation.  We met through the website Lingo Bongo and so far, I love it!  She is so, so nice and we get along really well.  We speak about 50/50 Spanish and English and I think our levels are pretty similar, so it’s a lot of fun.  Plus, two glasses of wine always helps break the ice 😉

Later on, Luis came over for some deconstructed tacos with herb-rubbed chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, the aforementioned corn salsa, Greek yogurt, bread, and a sprinkle of cilantro.  It was delicious, if I may say so myself!!

On Saturday morning, we did more…furniture shopping!  First breakfast…  

This time, it was to look at dining room chair samples and choose some colors.  I am trying to encourage him to go for something bold, like a muted/dark tourquise, which will look so nice with the wood and steel elements in the flat.  (I hope…..)

After all of that fun, I came home for a bit, had some lunch…with salsa….and then went to El Matadero, which is a local cultural center where they do theater, art exhibits, and sometimes various festivals!  This weekend, there is a design and food festival, so we went and shared a few dishes with some cold beers.  Meaghan is one of my best friends here, so it’s always so nice to catch up after so long!!

 We had a lot to talk about.  After chatting for awhile, we did a grocery run together and then I came home and made a chocolate tart (via Iowa Girl Eats) to give to Luis’ mom for Mother’s Day, which was this weekend in Spain!!  Sorry mom, I made one for you in spirit.

On Saturday night, Luis and I had dinner at Taberna La Descubierta in Huertas!  I actually included them in an article I wrote for MuchBites, but had never been.  I included them based off of a rec from someone in the MuchBites group so we had high hopes.  We found seats at the bar (actually, we found seats outside but the waitress told us to move and literally picked up the table while we were sitting there), but the bar was nice.  We ordered beer and wine, and then a few plates to share (#IloveSpain).  We ordered the patatas bravas con dos salsas (roasted potatoes with two sauces- spicy and creamy), pisto manchego (which is basically ratatouille with an egg on top, eaten with bread), and a salad to share.  

Everything was so good and despite it being on a very touristy street, I was impressed (and so was Luis, which is less of an easy feat!).

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast:

And then we went for a 40 minute run together and then did “ejercicios de chica” a.k.a girl exercises.  Lots of abs, arms, and leg work.  And Luis complained the entiiiiiiiiiiiiire time like a baby.  Sunday was one of those perfect, blueskynotacloudinsight kind of days…the ones that make me stop and look up and think “this is my life….”, so I spent as much of it outside!

After a quick shower and some computer time, I met up with my friend Kimber!  She is another really great friend that I accidentally met here in Madrid when I was looking for a new piso (long story), but we have remained friends and although we only see each other about once every two weeks, we always have the funniest conversations!  We walked all around, stopped for coffee, and laughed like we always do.

After some decent chatting, I quickly inhaled some yogurt and then was off to meet Luis and his mom for coffees in Plaza del Oriente right off of the Royal Palace, which was super nice.  After, we stopped at a couple stores and then had dinner and the end.