Good morning and Happy Monday!

Do anything fun this weekend?  For me, this weekend was one of those weekends that went by so incredibly fast, but also felt so, so long.  It was one of those weekends where I feel like I did so much and as I type this up (Sunday afternoon), with sleepy eyes, I feel happy, relaxed, and ready (as ready as I can be…) for the week ahead.  It was one of those weekends that made me feel so lucky to be living in a big city! in Spain!  in EUROPE!

Part of (i.e. all of) my “funk” last week came from these feelings of NOT KNOWING WHAT I’M DOING here, there, now, next year, for the rest of my life.  I was ruminating over the fact that much of my life here is…existence.  I feel busy, busy, busy, but yet, I feel like I don’t do anything important.  I know, not everything has to be IMPORTANT, but I’m such a goal-oriented person.  I like lists and order and plans and accomplishment.  Anyway, I spent the majority of last week in quite a fog… feeling lost and turned-around and quite frankly, unhappy.  But all is well now!  I’ll talk more about my change in attitude in another post…

For now, let’s talk about this weekend.  You probably don’t care, but I like looking back and reading about fun weekends.  Although, I’m now realizing I have very few photos to share.  Oh well.

Thursday

No picture, but I after a relatively fun Spanish class, I went out for drinks. Thursday is the first day of my weekend, so might as well treat it as such…

Friday

Woke up late, had a haircut, went shopping (this is a Friday habit.  Bad bad bad) but things weren’t all that expensive thanks to the rebajas.  Um what else….  I did a 40 minute NTC workout, cleaned my room (the dust bunnies were getting out of hand), showered, and went out to dinner with a bunch of people I didn’t know. U

More than one person was kind enough to tell me I look Asian in this dress… haa

Everyone spoke Spanish and told stories that I did my best to keep up with.  From what I understood, they were hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I will say, though, that we went to a buffet and oh my gosh, the difference between Americans in a buffet and Spaniards in a buffet is…embarrassing.  People ate “normal” portions (I mean, considering that it was a buffet).

Saturday

Woke up WAY TOO EARLY, did laundry, took a really quick nap and then met Annie for some gossip and a walk around Madrid.  Like always, we found cool new spots that I vowed to go back to, but probably won’t (ha).  Except this place!It was 110% my kind of place.What is the red stuff on those pears?  Anyone know?  Blood?

We stopped for “juice” along the way for something a little more substantial than a coffee.

The juice was good, the service was atrocious.

After our juice, I headed home and went food shopping.  I was only going to buy like…6 things and came home with a HUGE bag full of stuff and 27 Euro poorer.  Whyyyyyyyy.  But now my shelf is stock full of fresh cut and prepped veggies because after all of this eating out, I need some sort of a detox…or intervention.  I lied on the couch for a bit and tried to start Making a Muderer, but fell asleep 15 minutes in.  Got dressed and went out for yet another dinner….burgers and fries and I need help.  I definitely wasn’t a burgers and fries person when I was in the US, but it’s become my go-to here.  Good?  Bad????

Sunday

SUNDAY BRUNCH!  Oh how I missed you.

I went with my roommates and the coworker/ friend of my roommate and we were all over the spectrum of completely hungover/ a little drunk to completely put together with make up done.  (Hence the lack of a photo…) Brunch is something that I can add to my relatively short list of things that I miss about the United States, but coffee and eggs helped alleviate some of that.

That thick slice on top of the eggs is a big, fat piece of goat cheese.  My mom is gagging as she reads that, but I loved it.

I walked home since I was feeling super full, stopped to buy some necessary costume essentials for CARNIVAL next weekend (send prayers my way), and here I am, chatting with ya’ll…trying to keep my eyes open.  I’m off to nap for a bit (post written Sunday afternoon)

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Sunday Food Prep

I did a bit of food prep this weekend since we did so much restaurant eating.  I wanted to ensure that I had plenty of healthy food for a health(ier) week…Cucumbers // rice // lentil soup // roasted squash and broccoli // chopped mushrooms

Chopped cauliflower // chicken breast // hard boiled eggs // diced squash

In the fridge: hummus // feta cheese // cheese wedges // parm cheese/ tomato sauce // plain yogurt

Have a great week!