Spanish Adventures: Day 2

Hola! It's 9pm here and it's been a full day. I went to a flea market this morning with some new friends and it was absolutely huge. All of Madrid must have been there! After that I came home to have lunch with my host mom... I fear that I'm not being a great host daughter yet, because my body hasn't fully adjusted to my new time zone and everything and I haven't been very hungry! She made me a Spanish tortilla, which is made with potatoes and a small amount of eggs, and soup, and it was all delicious, but I could barely eat half of it! I'm trying to make it clear that I very much enjoy the food, but I'm just not hungry yet.

Then this afternoon I met up with my group run by ISA (International Studies Abroad), the program I am here with. Between our meeting last night and this afternoon I have met a lot of cool people! There are about 50 students studying in Madrid through ISA, some in my program and some in other programs, but we all meet together for tours and whatnot. So we met back in the center of the city today and went on a bus tour of the main barrios (neighborhoods) at the center of Madrid. I tried to take some pictures, but taking them from inside the bus was tricky! We saw the Royal Palace, the Opera District, the Theater District, the botanical gardens, and we drove past the main museums. I don't think I could ever drive here, people are crazy!

Once the tour was over, we were on our own and I split off with three other girls and we just wandered around through some different plazas and whatnot. Everything in the center of the city is organized around plazas, and there are a lot of them. There are street performers everywhere and things are especially crazy this week, because a huge round of sales just started at all of the major stores. There are signs for "rebajas" (discounts) in every store window. We walked for about an hour and then found a little cafe where we sat outside and had some coffee. The weather is great here, it has been about 57 degrees during the day, and chilly at night, but not too bad.

I'll be seeing my university for the first time tomorrow morning, bright and early at 8am. Here are a few pics from the day!