My BEST weekend yet!!

So, I've been here nearly 3 months, and I had my best weekend when I wasn't even in Spain! Now don't get me wrong... I LOVE Spain, and have met some really great people. But it's always when you are with the people you love and who know you the best that you have the most fun and feel the most comfortable. I don't need to go out an get drunk and go crazy to have an amazing weekend.... I just need to be surrounded by good company and laugh.Well, this weekend, I went to Cheltenham, England (look it up on a map, haha) to visit my old AuPair, Ger, and her family (hubby & 2 little boys - 1 & 3 years old). She took care of my when I was 10/11 and this weekend seriously helped me remember why she has always been my FAVORITE AuPair.

Right, so as always, this trip (like every other) was a bit of an adventure. Let's start with before I even left! Apparently, Iberia/British Airways were experiencing some strikes last week, and Consuelo and Carlos kept saying, hopefully you're flight won't get canceled. And then on top of that, last year when the AuPair before me tried to go to England, they wouldn't go through customs! Aahh! So, just think about what I was imagining. Ok, well I go the airport super early (I really don't know what I was thinking), get checked in and all that. Well, while I'm watching the screen to see which gate I was at, nothing was coming up. So, I just decided to go to the gate I thought I was leaving from... when they called us to board, I got in line, got my passport stamped, and went to board the plane. Well, when I handed my ticket to the woman, and she ran it through the machine, BEEEEP, "oh I'm sorry, this isn't your flight." HOW EMBARRASSING!! So, I go back to screen, and still nothing about my flight. Mind you it's supposed to be taking off in 20 minutes or so. So I go to the information desk and ask what's up. It's delayed. So, I start thinking, great. Next thing I know it's going to be canceled. Thankfully though it wasn't and I got on the plane.
Well, the fun doesn't stop there... ohhh no. While we're waiting to taxi off, they come over the loudspeaker saying someone checked in that didn't show up for the flight, so they're trying to find them and if not, they're going to take the luggage off. It should just take 5 minutes. Well... 5 minutes later the dude gets on the loudspeaker and says, "is passenger, Layla El on the plane?" Sounds pretty close to my name, so they must be talking to me. Sure enough... somehow they thought I didn't get on the plane (um, HELLO! I'm right here!), so they had to put my bag back on the plane. ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT!!
Ok, cool, we get to London...and I start freaking out because of what happened to the previous AuPair. You know when you're really scared/nervous about something...like speaking in front of a lot of people (or in my case passport control), and you feel like you need to pee/you're going to pee yourself? Yeahhhh, that was me. Thankfully though I made it through! Phew! And I got the bus and headed out to Cheltenham.

It was SO good to see Ger!! I traveled pretty much all day to get there, but it was DEFINITELY worth it.Last time I went an saw her was nearly 3 years ago, and I was so stinkin' naive! Looking back on it, I'm like, woah! But yes, it was great seeing her! And when we got to her house, her 3 year old, who was just a baby last time I was there, was soo big AND talking!! We just chilled, talked, and watched t.v. the first night. I told her how crazy the kids are, especially the boys. We all had a good laugh about it.
Saturday, I woke up around 830am because I heard the boys playing and I wanted to have as much time as possible with everyone. Let me tell, you... it's great coming downstairs to 2 of the cutest little kids, ever! Great way to start the day! :) We played a little guitar hero, hit the grocery store, and then drove out to Stratford (about an hour away), which is where Shakespeare was born. We ate lunch there, walked a little bit, watched the birds, and played on a ginormous playground. Riley was particularly fascinated with my curls, it was really cute. The majority of my pictures are from there. It was a bit cold, but otherwise, was really fun. Riley and I played a lot of Bob the builder, monster and various make believe games that night before he and Mason went to bed. Then Ger made a wicked yellow Thai for dinner. I ate so much I literally couldn't move. We watched The Dark Knight after dinner. Amazingly good! Heath Ledger played the Joker scarily well. Tim (Ger's hubby) unfortunately went up to bed before it was finished, he was getting sick, poor guy.
Sunday, was chill, but still nice to be with everyone. Ger and I went into Cheltenham and did a lil shopping in the morning, then after lunch we all went to her parent's house and visited with them, her sister and hubby. The rest of my pics are from there. Sunday night for dinner, we made my favorite food when I was a kid (and now too)... Romanian hamburgers! and just hung out. Oh, and super cute: that morning, while I was upstairs, I could hear Riley singing a song, something like "where has Leila gone..." :)
Monday morning, I managed to accidentally get up an hour early (at 430am) because I set the alarm on my phone for 530am (but 530am Spanish time). I got dressed, brushed my teeth, finished packing, everything! And was wondering why no one was up, till Ger stuck her head in my room, looking half asleep and said, "Leila, you know you're up an hour early?" "You're kidding!" "No, it's only a quarter to 5." Damn it! So, I laid back down, but really didn't sleep. So, needless to say yesterday I was EXHAUSTED!
I was very sad to leave because I had such a great time. I hate it though, how, whenever I tell someone I was sad, they pretty much always assume that that means I cried. You don't have to cry just to be sad! I was sad because I had such a good time and wished I could stay there longer. Although hopefully I'll pop back over sometime this summer! I would really love to do that, and Ger told me I should come back! So, hopefully it'll all work out. And I have my fingers crossed that she will come visit. We just need to trick her hubby into agreeing to keep the boys for a weekend!Hehehe.

Overall, the weekend was really really good. It felt like reconnecting with an old friend. And it was so much fun... I found that we are a lot a like. Same sense of humor in many ways, like to joke around, we like a lot of the same things, etc. It was very refreshing and I really felt as if I was more mature and grown up, which in way is nice. And best of all I was really comfortable with her and her hubby and the boys. We just kept joking on each other and whatnot. Of course I was an easy target, but that wasn't surprising at all. It was also really nice to see her with her boys and see what a great mother she is. I guess I was good practice ;).

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend. The rest are on facebook!

catching up

Well, I hate to disappoint, but I really don't feel like writing about EVERYTHING that's gone on the past few weeks...so I'm probably going to keep this brief.

The weekend before I left for Sweden, I went out both Friday and Saturday night, on Madrid time mind you. That was really fun. I met a guy when we went out Saturday night, named David (pronounced Dahveed). 25, dark hair, blue eyes, tall, very nice. Only catch is, he's living in Germany till at least April, I think. And I was gone in Sweden for 10 days and now he's back in Germany. Oh well. There will be more, I hope.

Anyways, Sweden was very nice. Fun and relaxing. A lot of time spent just chilling with Anna's (my AuPair from when I was 5) family and chilling. It was FREEZING though. A couple days it was -25, -22ºC...which is about -10ºF I think. BRRR!! But very very pretty with all the snow. We went to a hockey game, did a lil shopping, played the lottery, celebrated the holidays, and went up to Sälen, a ski town and spent New Years in her family´s cabin for a couple of days. While we were there we went dog sledding, which was AMAZING!! So much fun!! I rode in the sled while we went to the stopping point (a little place where they served coffee, hot cocoa and the such), while Anna drove. And then on the way back I drove the sled. Woo! Talk about an adventure. We were going to so fast that the sleigh was flying all over the place. And then I totally WIPED OUT! Haha. I was dragged by the dogs a bit. Thankfully a couple of guys who worked with the company were right there and one jumped on the dogs to stop them. But still so much fun. I was wicked sore after that for days. Talk about the workout of a lifetime. But I would LOVE to do it again! It was really nice seeing Anna and her family again! Second Christmas in a row in Sweden!

When I came back to Spain it was nice. My family was really happy to see me, as I was them. Monday night there was a parade in Tres Cantos for Los Reyes Tres Magos...The Three Kings. And Tuesday we went to a really good Argentintian restaurant for lunch. For Christmas/Los Reyes, they gave me an ipod shuffle. That was very nice of them, even though I already have an ipod nano. But I´ll use the shuffle when I run (oh yeah, that´s one of my New Years resolutions. To go running at least 3 times a week.

Now, in Spain, there are amazing rebajas (sales) going. It´s kind of like Black Friday in the States, but for 2 months. So, of course I went with a friend yesterday and did a little shopping. I bought some new jeans, and 2 pairs of boots which I love...all for UNDER 150€!!! Uh-mazing! :) I´m rocking the new jeans and boots today! Maybe I´ll do a lil more shopping in a week or so, hehehe...

Well that´s the quick version, and all for now. This coming weekend I´m off to England to see another former AuPair, Ger!!! I´m super excited!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Chanukah, New Years...whatever! Love to all.

P.S. look on Facebook for pics!

My first complete Spanish telephone conversation!!!!

So, these past couple of days have been interesting, to say the least... I had a kind of sucky, strange day, followed by a really good day.

Right, so let´s take this in order....
Tuesday:
Well, Tuesdays I always have lunch with a woman for intercambios in Madrid. Only, last week I was sick so I cancelled. But the normal thing to assume is that we meet every Tuesday, so next week we´ll me again, right? Well. I was sitting at my computer talking to one of my friends here, and left a little late for the bus. I´m wearing clogs (really smart) and I see the bus pull up! Crap!! So I do my best to run, while half losing, half trying to keep my shoes on, like a total maniac. Well, I make it onto the bus. Good. I get to Madrid to the restaurant, and sit and wait for her. Thankfully this time I thought to bring a book, because she´s always late. Cool, I´m reading a good book. We always meet at 2 and she usually gets there by 210... Well, 210, 215, 225 roll around. Where the heck is she? I´m sitting here looking like a fool. Finally I just decide to go ahead and get myself food...and well I ate by myself because she never came. I don´t know if there´s some Spanish custom where I´m supposed to be like, hey! we´re meeting today, right? Oh well, Whatever.
Then on the bus ride home, for some reason the bus driver didn´t go the normal route and dropped us off a completely different stop. Strange. Some woman had no idea what was going on either. Gah! Oh and that morning, to add to it, for some reason I decided to put my open bottle of makeup remover on the computer (I NEVER do that!). And I SPILLED it!!! So I was already freaking out from that. Things just seemed to be getting stranger and stranger all day. And that night I had been planning to ask Consuelo if I could go away for a weekend in January to England. But with the way things were going that day, I wasn´t sure if I should... Well, thankfully, I saw that one of my friends back home was on gmail chat and I was able to talk everything out with her and started to calm down and destress a bit.

Ok, so now onto the really GOOD day!! Wednesday:
I went to class, big whoop. But after class, I started talking to this really, really good looking Dutch guy! Tall, blonde, blue eyes (yeah, well he has a girlfriend). Anyways, he´s really nice to look at at least, and just a really nice guy. I stayed to ask a question about when the school would be closing for the holidays, and he left...thinking we´d never see each other again. Well, when I was walking to go up a street to take the Metro home, I saw him coming my way, but he was looking up and didn´t see me. So, I just threw my arm out and grabbed him on the arem (totally got in the way of some dude behind me, oops!) and was like, Hey! And told him what I found about about the school being closed for the next couple of weeks. And he was like, do you have to go home now? So, we ended up walking around Madrid and talking for like 30-45 minutes! He was killing time till he was meeting his girlfriend for lunch. And! When we were parting ways at the Metro, we exchanged numbers!! Yay! Now I have another (good looking) friend!! He said maybe he´d call me after I get back from Sweden in January! I really hope he does because it´d be fun to hang out!
And laaater... One of my friends here called me, and we spoke for the whole conversation, on the phone in Spanish! I was just sooo happy afterwards!!! Like a little kid that has done something so good, or when a dog/goes to the bathroom outside and then comes bounding back so happy with themselves! Yeah, well that was me! I told another (Spanish) friend online and she was very happy for me! And when I told Carlos, he shook my hand, haha! But he and Consuelo both were very happy for me, and said it is so much more difficult to talk on the phone in another language. Uhhh... yeah! Tell me about it! So yay! Go me!

Now I´m doing loads of laundry, getting ready for the weekend, and getting ready to go Sweden on Tuesday!! I´ll be gone from December 23 - January 4.

I´m not sure that I´ll be able to post before I leave, or while I´m there...but I hope everyone has a fantastic, happy, and safe Chanukah, Christmas, ...Holidays and New Years! Miss you and Love you all!

Me encanta nieve!!

So, I seem to really suck at this whole blogging this, as much as I suck at keeping a diary... Oh well. I haven´t posted in over a week, so I´ll try to summarize everything in a short post, but let´s face it...I really don´t think that´s going to happen!

So, when I said I was going away with my family to ski...yeah, I lied. I decided to stay home because the weather was going to be bad, which meant no skiing. So I decided I´d rather meet with my intercambios friends. Yeah... well... as always happens whenever my parents go away (and I guess my Spanish parents too), I got hella sick! Man, it was bad. Not as bad as the first time, but this time was worse, because I was home alone for 3 days, all by myself. I was miserable. I did manage to suck it up Saturday morning and meet Clara, her sister, and hubby in Madrid and we walked around a bit. And as usual that was good. But when I got home, I gmail chatted (love that!) Alfredo and said I just wasn´t up to going out again. Then, I spent all weekend on the couch watching TV/dying. Clara had offerred to come up and take care of me if I had any problems, but I felt bad making her drive up here for that, so I didn´t take her up on it. Although, I kind of wish I had... Anyways, I didn´t leave the house again till Thursday when I made myself get out to find a postbox to mail a letter. I missed class on Wednesday, and I didn´t leave before then because it´s so cold outside, that I didn´t want to get sick all over again.

So, we can skip ahead to this weekend, which just a couple of days ago. Friday night I went out and met a new person for intercambios! Yay. She was really great, no surprise there. Consuelo found me some really great people to meet with. It was fun little adventure trying to find her because the metro stop that I took to meet her was HUGE! You have no idea! So, I couldn´t find the exit that she told me to take, and I just picked one thinking maybe I would find the exit once I was outside. Yeah...no. So I called her and was like, No sé donde estoy! Haha. Fun times. But she´s really nice.

Then Saturday I got up at the butt crack of dawn (for a weekend anyways) as usual to meet Clara and her sister. Fun times as always :). I bought a new webcam for the computer and it works!!! So now I can talk to people. And she and I usually talk every day anyways in English/Spanish, and now we can use the webcam. I´ve never used one till now! My other one never worked. Saturday afternoon I watched Charlie y la Fabrica de Chocolate in Spanish (!!) with the kids. I had them put on English subtitles so that I could write down words and learn a bit. Oh! And on the way home from Madrid, it started snowing really heavily! It was sooo pretty! I don´t know why, but while I was walking home from the bus stop, I was just soo happy looking at the snow! I´ve been told that when I go to Sweden, there will be PLENTY of snow. Yay! And plenty of cold.

Sunday, I met with Alfredo. He´s a really awesome guy (he has a girlfriend). It was a lot more relaxed and comfortable than the first time we met, haha. We went to a couple of bars and had some wine and stopped in at a store where he had to return something. And then we walked around and decided to go to McDonalds for lunch. I have never seen a McDonalds with SO MANY PEOPLE! Seriously, it was impossible to find a seat. You had to pretty much hawkeye people as it looked as though they were finishing eating and then swoop in and take their table before anyone else got to it! Thankfully, I did just that.

Yesterday, I had class (I went!) and that was pretty good. I learned some new words and such. But I was so fricking exhausted all day. I felt so heavy! I wasn´t sure I was going to make it to dinner... I´ve been having some real trouble sleeping, which is really hurting me when I have to get up early.

I´m super excited for my nice long break in Sweden next week!! And I´m thinking about going to England a week or two after I get back for a long weekend! Ahh! I love being in Europe!!

Here are some pictures of the gorgeous snow! And a palm tree with snow...how ironic!

imperativo, infinitivo, participle....huh?

So I started my Spanish class this week... it´s at 1030 in the morning, but it´s in Madrid, so I have to get up around 8 am to shower, get ready, eat, and then walk to the bus stop...take the bus to Plaza de Castilla, then hop on the Metro, change trains and walk to class. Fun fun. Especially in the freezing cold wind! So, needless to say, during class my brain hasn´t been functioning quite up to speed. Hopefully once I start to get used to waking up so early... Hopefully!

But other than that, my class seems really good. I like my teacher. He seems cool. My guess would be somewhere between 27 and 35 years old. There´s only about 8 or so of us in the class. The first day I had transportation issues and got to class about 15 or 20 minutes late! My teach didn´t seem to mind and other people came in after me. But needless to say, I adjusted so as to make to class on time today!

My class is ¨fairly¨ mixed. There a few Americans, a couple of people from Thailand, a girl from Switzerland, and another girl from Poland. I was talking to the Polish girl today after class and I think we may meet sometimes for a drink and practice Spanish with her Spanish boyfriend. Haha. It´ll be a nice change of pace though.

I found an International Bookstore today while I walking around after class! Yay! They have books in English. I´m sure I´ll be hitting it up once I finish my NUMEROUS books that I have yet to read. But hey! I´m going to be here for a good while, so I have time. I did however, buy the first book of the Twighlight series. Hehehe. And I went and sat in Starbucks and read the book I´m reading, ¨The History of Love¨ for a while. I heart Starbucks.

Tomorrow I am going to meet a Rabbi that my parents gave me the phone number of to buy Chanukah candles and other various goodies so that I can share the holiday with my ¨Spanish¨ family.

And this weekend I am going to go away with my ¨family¨ for a long weekend to their apartment in the Pyrenees (Candanchu to be specific) to go skiing. We´ll see how that goes. I haven´t skiied in YEARS! And I have the body of an old lady...problems with my knee and wrist. So I guess I´ll be rocking my braces for those body parts this weekend. I think we´re leaving Friday afternoon or evening and coming back Monday, because it´s a bank holiday in Spain and the kids don´t have school. So, no intercambios this weekend, but at least when I come back I´ll have a lot to talk about!

Speaking of intercambios...this past weekend did not seem to be in my favor... The person I was supposed to meet Friday night had to cancel on me. Then the girls I meet on Saturdays and I DID meet (yay!!). And that was great as usual. We sat in a Starbucks for a few hours. I really like them. I think they´re probably my favorite to meet with. So, Saturday was fine. But then Sunday, both people I was supposed to meet with cancelled on me as well because they were sick. Buh! Oh well. I´m just glad they didn´t still want to meet and then transmit their germies onto me.

I don´t have any new pictures right now...but I am sure I will from this weekend!

Hope everyone had a good Turkey Day!!

Things are picking up! yet it feels so hard to be away...

This post is going to be a long one and one of mixed emotion... I´ve been having a lot of trouble with my internet, which is why I haven´t posted in a long time. My AIM works fine on my computer but I cannot check my email or load any webpages. It´s extremely frustrating and is stressing me out, which I know sounds dumb...but the internet is pretty much my life-line to all those people who I miss and love back home. I am using one of the family´s computer now to use the internet, but when I am on the internet on their computer, I cannot be on it on mine, aka meaning, not talking to people on AIM...

Right now is a really difficult time for me to be away... there was very sad and tragic accident that occurred at my school that is affecting a lot of my friends and sorority sisters. While I wasn´t good friends with him personally, it still very upsetting to know that someone lost their life at such a young age...as young as I am now. And it´s even harder, being here, halfway across the world, when all I want to do is be there for the ones I love who are deeply affected by this. I want to hug them and listen to them cry, cry with them, and just be there in a supportive role...feel like I´m able to at least do something! But all the way over here, so far, all by myself, I feel so helpless. It´s really upseting... Ok, time to move on to some positive news. It´s hard to change from sad to happy...

I´ve been feeling a lot better lately! Yay I´m healthy! Although, Javier came home early from school because he has an upset stomach...hopefully I won´t catch anything! Yesterday I figured out how to add money to Skype so that I can call people at home on their phones (since they don´t have Skype - GET SKYPE!! Then we can call eachother for FREE!!!). I got to talk to 2 of my best friends which made me really happy to actually hear their voices and not just read what they were saying on AIM. I miss everyone so much. I was realing before dinner from thinking about the tragedy, but after I had spoken to them, but the time I went up for dinner, I felt rejuvenated and was very happy.

I´ve been going into Madrid a bit look around and to meet people for ¨intercambios.¨ Intercambios is pretty much where I meet with a person (or more) and we speak in English and Spanish. I teach/help them with their English and they do the same for me with my Spanish. I´ve met some really great people! And I still have more to meet! I met with a woman who is 25 named (and married), Clara, Saturday morning. When we were emailing setting it up, she was like, its unusual that I´m so young and married, but I know so many people who are getting married, so whatev! :) She brought her younger sister, who´s name I don´t remember. It was really great. I really like her. I definitely feel like we connected. We sat in a Dunkin Donuts for 3 hours just talking. I didn´t even realize so much time had passed! She also told me that if she ever went to Toledo or Segovia, or other places close to Madrid, that she would call me and I could go with her because she has a car. And she suggested that we go to some museums together. So, hopefully, she will and I look forward to it. We´re going to meet every Saturday morning.
Sunday I met with a 29 year old guy, named Alfredo. That was a bit more awkward. In the beginning at least. There was definitely that sense of uh...what should we talk about? But he was very cool. We walked around Madrid a bit and went to a few bars. Then his girlfriend called him and he had to leave to go have lunch with her and her mother. But we said we would meet again next week.
I went and sat in this HUGE, gorgeous park in Madrid for an hour or and called my friend in Luxembourg to make plans for Christmas...I´m going to visit her and her family in Sweden for Christmas and New Years!!! I´m super excited!!
Then that night, I met a girl who is 23 and her friend, who´s name I forgot because I can´t even pronounce it! But I do know that he´s 24. That was really nice too because we sat and drank tea for a little while (I had a coke) and then we walked around Madrid for a while and they showed me some places I hadn´t seen yet. And it was really nice being in the city at night. She said she would call me to join them when they go out on the weekends.
Yesterday (Monday), I met with a 30 year old woman, Elena in a McDonalds in Plaza de Castilla. It´s where I take the bus into Madrid initially, and then I get on the Metro to get to the heart of Madrid. That was pretty nice too. It was my first McDonalds in Europe! We will meet again every week as well.
And, I have at least 2 people to meet with still. I think I might go out with one, who is 26, named Sara, on Friday night. I just can´t stay out too late, because I have to meet Clara in the morning! But it will be nice to get out. Everyone has paid for me everytime...and when I ask how much it was, they say ¨nothing¨or ¨don´t worry about it.¨ So next time I´m going to have slip in there and be like, BAM! I got this. But it has been really great. And I´ve really enjoyed having the opportunity to speak Spanish, especially since I can´t at the house.

I´ve walked around Madrid a lot...but still haven´t seen it all. All the walking has made my legs and hips very sore. So, I gave myself a day off today. Haha. But the city is very pretty and there are many nice things to see. I don´t really know where anything is, but I´m learning. I took some pictures, which I´ll put a few on here...and all of them on Facebook. Somehow. I think the family is very happy that I´m finally starting to get out. Oh well, what did they expect...I´ve only been here a month!

Next Monday, I start classes for Spanish. I hope to meet some people to hang out with and go out with! I took the online placement exam to see what days my classes would be... ha! I clearly forgot a lot that I had learned. Oh well... I was hoping that I would have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that when I went away for a long weekend, I could come back Monday. But, alas, I have it Mondays and Wednesdays. Oh well. I may still miss class when I go away, because it´s not like I need it to graduate or anything and I´m doing the intercambios.

That´s all for now. I miss you all and love you all very much.


Plaza Mayor

















In Puerta del Sol


























Parque de Madrid








Gran Via... aka ¨Broadway¨of Madrid

Aix-en-Provence

I had a nice, quick weekend in Aix-en-Provence, France this weekend. I went to visit Bebhinn, one of my friends from working at the JCC BASE program before I came to Spain. We bonded over the fact that both of us were going to be in Europe at the same time. She left nearly a month before me.

Let me tell you, the whole thing (or at least my traveling to and from) was an adventure!! Get ready for a long post....

So, I took the bus to the airport. But it was one I'd never taken before. First off, the driver drove super fast and like a maniac. Then I saw the sign for the airport and was like good. But we didn't turn that way!! And I started to freak out...inside anyways. I was thinking to myself, I am going to have to go all the way into Madrid and then catch another bus, and by that time I'll probably have missed my flight! Thankfully, though we got to the airport and I made my flight. So, we pull away and are driving around the runway. Next thing we know the captain comes on over the intercom and is like, "umm, we had to pull back up to the gate, we seem to be having a problem with one of the engines. We're going to have the engineers check on it, hopefully it won't be more that 15 minutes..." WHAT??? Turns out, that while we were pulling away from the gate the first time, we ran over a nail or something, so the front tire had to be replaced. But seriously, what does that have to do with the engine? Anyways, we made it to France fine. The flight to Marseilles was really pretty.

Bebhinn was waiting for me when we got there and we took the bus to Aix. It was nice to talk to an American again for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. She took me to get some delicious crepes at Crepes A Go Go. Then we went to a traditional French restaurant for dinner. It was very good, but took 2 1/2 hours! The French are so lazy and take their merry ol' time with everything. We went out for a bit afterwards and the next morning we walked around the Saturday market and then went to some brunch celebrating a play that had come that weekend. Man. It was super boring! No offense to them or anything. But I didn't understand a word they said, and we had been expecting to eat at 11, when it was set to start. Instead we sat there for over an hour listening to the director be interviewed and then him answering questions from those in attendance. KILLER. And not in a good way.

When we finallly escaped, we walked around the city a bit. It's a cute little city. But I decided that I don't like French people...they're so damn rude, and seem to think it's ok because they are polite. But they think they're better than everyone else. It's going to make it hard for me to want to visit France in the future. The people in the places where I visit, definitely play a large part into whether I like it there or not. We made a yummy dinner at Bebhinn's apartment that night. Ate some brie (yummmm!)... We went out to a couple bars that night, and at one of them, met a group of Israel men!!!!!! Ahhh!!! They were so hot and so nice!! I wish they were here in Spain so that I could hang out with them. I told Bebhinn to bring them, or at least the one that I talked with at the end to Spain. He was super nice and cute. He seemed the most genuine and a Jewish boyfriend would make my mom soooo happy. Haha.

I had a morning flight on Sunday. I flew RyanAir both ways, and you all just flock onto the plane and take whatever seats are available. Kind of like Southwest. So, a woman (she looked about my age) asked if anyone was sitting in my row. And she ended up sitting there. I saw that she was grading papers, so I asked if she was a teacher. Well she and I ended up talking a little and I told her I hadn't been out in Madrid yet because I was sick for a week and a half when I first got here and then went away this weekend. So, we exchanged numbers and she said she would call me to go out with her and her friends. Yay! I have a friend in Spain now!! Haha. But it definitely did suck not knowing anyone other than my host family. So that was exciting as well.

The plane dropped us off in terminal 3, and it turns out our baggage was in terminal 1. Which I didn't find out till after I went through the exit. So, I had to find my way back into the security area. Oh fun times. But I did it, and here to write about it. :)

All in all, I would say it was a good weekend! And it was nice to get away for a couple days.

The rest of the pics are gonna be on facebook.