I really just want to sit on the throne....

I have been in Madrid for 1 week today. It´s crazy because I feel like I´ve been here for so long, but at the same time I feel like time is slipping away (even though I have 4 months). This week we started classes. I am taking a poetry, grammar, colloquial Spanish, and art history class, all in Spanish. The poems class sucks, but it would in English too, but that's a class I need to take so unfortunately I will have to stick with it. All the other classes are pretty good and the professors are great! We only have class on Mondays and Wednesdays but those are usually long days. I think I'm going to start an internship soon where I go to a school and help teach English to K-12 kids.

The rest of this week has been pretty slow. For some reason Madrid makes me very tired. It could be because walk EVERYWHERE or I eat like half a loaf of bread a day and have just carb overloaded. Possibilities. I could literally sleep forever and I've been very lazy this week. I have been running in the park around the corner from me which has been nice. People don't run on the streets here which is kind of weird but there's parks all over. They all are dog parks. Tons of people have dogs here and all of the dogs are very well trained. Most of the time they will walk without a leash, its rather odd. The dogs don't really seem interested in people though. They won't come over to you or chase after you but they're not afraid of you either. I've had to hurdle many small dogs while running because they just leisurely walk in front of you.

Last night was the Barcelona v. Madrid game. For people who may not know this, that game is like the superbowl for Spain. Literally no one is on the streets, everyone is watching it. We stayed home to watch it with our host brothers, Cote and Christian and their two friends. Just as a side note, we had hotdogs (boiled maybe? not really sure) with guacamole and tomatoes, you should all try it, it was really good (besides the not grilled hotdogs part). Anyways, Alexis and I are Madrid fans (I guess only because we live here and Ronaldo is rather good looking). My family is all Barca fans because Cote used to play on a semi pro team for Barcelona when he was younger, so although they live in Madrid they are huge Barca fans. That was a very interesting game to watch. I learned "men and their sports" holds true anywhere in the world. I could not understand barely anything they were going back and forth about. They talked so fast and used so much Spanish slang that I was lost. But they atmosphere was still fun. They all gave Alexis and I a hard time about liking Madrid, until Ronaldo scored the first goal. Then they shut up, only until Barca scored 2 unanswered goals and won :(

El Palacio Real

La Basilica

El Palacio Real from the other side

Today we went to the Palacio Real or Royal Palace. For my art class we have 1 day of class and then spend the other day touring various museums or other parts of the city to see what we have been learning in class. I'm really glad I'm taking that class because we basically go on guided tours with the best professor ever to places in the city I may or may not have the chance to visit. The Palace is incredible and I guess is the largest in Europe. Its is rococo architecture so the insides a bit guady and tacky but the majesty of it is incredible. Across from the Palace is a basilica which was actually built in the 20th century but more or less reflects the architecture of the Palace.

We're staying home this weekend so I'm looking forward to exploring the city a little more and of course do some shopping :)  just kidding dad!! maybe :)