This was a very big day Pascal! It started with me and Rose going to the Madrid Open. It was one of the first days of the tournament, so there were a ton of matches going on. It was super cool. I didn't really know how it would work, so I had my dad consult. Basically you roll up and you can go from court to court whenever on the smaller courts, and for the big games on the main court you have an assigned seat. The big courts on the main court were ones Spaniards were playing in. On the little courts we saw Emilio Nava, Amanda Anisimova, and Caty McNally (plus whoever they were playing, but that's who we cared about/were rooting for). On the big courts we saw Roberto Carballes Baena and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
They don't release the schedule of who's slotted to play when in advance/I couldn't find it, so we just showed up and figured it out. Rose, luckily for me, was down for whatever. I did what I do and found the nearest American to go root for. USA! No one else felt the same.
Nava lost all the games in the first set. He made a little bit of a comeback, but not enough. He lost. Bad start for the Americans.
Here's McNally. She won. USA!
Here's Anisimova. She lost. She was clearly not having a good time and has since announced that she's taking a hiatus for her mental health. Good for her.
Main court! Baena. He won. Viva España.
Main court! Ramos. He also won. Viva España.
That was enough tennis for the day, so then we left. We got lunch at a Mexican restaurant my English class girl recommended. It was really good.
Then we took like a twenty minute nap and went to the opera with Kayla! This is the last opera :((( Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I grieve this loss. It was Nixon in China, which was fun. It's my only English opera this whole time. I wish I knew more about international relations/foreign policy so I could have understood more of it. It was pretty weird. The first act made sense, and then a lot of the second act is this wierd meta dance/opera/dream sequence/vision, and then the third act is Nixon and Mao Zedong being existential and sitting around reflecting on their lives. It was not my favorite, but as y'all know, I love any opera. It was still really interesting and well done.
We had a box to ourselves, living large. But after the first act this guy came and sat behind us and it turned out he was conducting the orchestra for two of the later performances, so that was cool.
After the opera Alana and Jisenia joined us for dinner at the opera ooooooo. Going out in style. Long-time EIM readers might remember that we visitied this restaurant on the opera tour forever ago and decided it was a need and not a want to come. It lived up to the hype, it was epic. Moreso because of vibes and company and less because of the food, but it was totally worth it.
Literally no one else was there though. It was crazy. I guess it was just a Wednesday, but out of all the fancies at the opera no one else pulled up to the restaurant. Rose had made a reservation, and when she went up to an usher in the lobby to ask for directions to the restaurant they knew her name, and then they pointed us to the area to head to and the next people were expecting her too. We were like "huh weird" and then we got up there and saw no one else. You have to have a reservation, which means they kept the whole restaurant open for us. We felt kinda bad, but the waitstaff was so nice. We had so much fun.
Kayla ordered the best thing because it wasn't just a meal but an experience.
I got the only vegetarian thing🙏 Alcachofas🙏 They weren't good🙏
I shared this chocolate cake with Kayla for dessert.
Time to embarrass myself on the blog. Basically I thought the waitress had said this cake had a crunchy top (which I guess it kinda did) and that you needed to crack it (which you definitely didn't) and so I hit it. Sooo quirky can't take her anywhere. Then I like lost my ability to speak Spanish because I was so embarrassed, but honestly it wasn't even that so much as that there's literally nothing I could say to make it better. No words. It's too funny to not post though--you guys are lucky I stay humble and keep it real, you're welcome.
Then on the way home they were finishing putting Queen Charlotte ads all over the Ópera metro station!
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