Filling in the gaps :)

Hola tod@s!

It's been a busy week for me! It was the first week of classes, and I'm in eight classes this week and the next so I can try them out and then narrow it down to five. I think I know what I'm going to do, but I want to get it cleared by my advisor first, so it's not finalized. I stayed busy after school too. I thought I'd share some Elizabeth in Madrid content that was left on the cutting room floor for other posts this week, and cobble something together from the scraps.

Monday: here's the pizza Bernadette and I got after the Mon Laferte concert. It was really good. A regular walked past our table and told us it was the best pizza in Madrid. He might be right.

Wednesday: this one from the walking tour is for Liam. A terrible angle on the pic (thus why it didn't make it through edits) because I was standing off to the side and the group crossed the street right after this and I couldn't get a better picture. But El Oso y el Madroño! The Bear and the Strawberry Tree! The symbol of Madrid.

After the walking tour I went to a mercado with Jisenia, Addie, and Ben. We got empanadas :) I got a spinach and ricotta one and a onion and goat cheese one. I also got a cider and mango drink--it was all really good.

Thursday: Susana had told me about these violet (like the flower, not just the color) candies that are very famous and characteristic of Madrid. She has some and I tried them--pretty good. The store was closed for all of August. During the casadiella hunt we were near it and so we went and checked it out.

After the casadiella hunt, we went to a mercado and got tacos and margaritas. My tacos are tofu--they were really good! Jan, it didn't taste like twigs or dirt at all, you would've liked them.

Thank you again to Jisenia and Jason for being good sports and following me across the city for an hour during the casadiella hunt. (I told them multiple times we could call it a day at any point and they didn't throw in the towel, troopers.) We'll get em next time team.

After this we walked around for awhile, got ice cream. Jisenia is the only other person here for the year. (Larissa's paperwork took too long and she's just coming next semester--sad.) We've learned we have similar taste, which is great because we have the whole year to do splitsies with food. We didn't splitsies with the ice cream though--we both wanted mango. It was sooo good.

After some walking around, casadiella team breaked (linguistics homies on the blog... I know that's non-standard but I'm referencing like "Ready team?! BREAK!" so 'the team broke' felt so wrong. Just before you guys analyze me I want to get out ahead of this one.). We all headed home, but El Prado was on my way home, and they were open for another hour, so I tried to go in, but they were sold out for the day :( (El Prado has free entry for everyone for the last two hours they're open everyday, and they're always packed.) (Also for everyone keeping track at home, that's a full eight days I went without mentioning El Prado on here.) But it was so nice outside that I decided to sit for awhile before going home. And then while I was sitting Addie and Jisenia texted the groupchat to ask if anyone wanted to go get dinner with them so I went. It was just the three of us and we hung out for awhile. We got sangria (which I hadn't had yet!), which was good, and I got a salmon and avocado "salad" (it was not the kind of salad I thought it'd be--not bad just different and kind of a lot for me).

And today, Friday, I went to El Prado after school. Another bad angle pic, this time because I had to take it on the DL. Pictures are against Prado rules. I'm justifying it by saying I wasn't blocking any paintings, I was sitting on a bench, and I earned it because I was sitting there for hours. (Emily and Vanessa--Three Graces moment.)

Here's a list of some other random things that I've wanted to share but haven't made it on the blog yet.

• They sell beer in the school cafeteria.

• Jaime taught me this week that "pasado mañana" means 'the day after tomorrow'. I know that language is hardly ever logical, I know that, I will support and defend "pasado mañana"... but TO ME I don't like it because it makes me think 'past tomorrow' as in 'before tomorrow'. I get that it's 'past tomorrow' as in 'further away from tomorrow' but that isn't where my mind goes. But that's what makes language fun :) (and also challenging when you're learning, but in a good way).

• Jaime also helped me with my fit for dance class on Tuesday. I thought it'd be like workout wear, an athleisure moment, but when I clicked on the event link for the address, it was at a club and it said "Dress code: smart." I have never heard of "Dress code: smart" in my life. So I asked Susana, who didn't know, so I asked Jaime, who told me "it means like elegant, like Fendi, Gucci, something like that." I told Jaime I had nothing like that, but I threw something together, he approved it, and I didn't look out of place at the club. Thanks Jaime.

• I love Susana so much. She is so nice. She is always talking to me. And last week she bought me lip balm and lotion because I told her I have dry skin, and just now while I was writing this she gave me two balls of yarn and a crochet needle because she knows I crochet and she saw them and thought of me. And those are things that my mom and my grandma would get and have gotten for me all the time (thank you Mom, thank you Nanna), so it's nice to have that energy here too, makes me feel at home.

• Susana's friend is Asturian and he speaks Gallego!!! He says he'll keep his ear to the ground for any casadiella leads and he taught me that "bico" means 'kiss' in Gallego!

• Susana said "tiquismiquis" the other day and it reminded me of Belen because she taught me that :) (That is an Elizabeth in Oviedo deep deep cut.)

• The only complaint I have so far with anything is that there's zero minutes in between classes. On Mondays and Tuesdays I have class from 8:30--10, then 10--11:30, then 11:30--1. Not even a little five minute break or anything. Kinda wasted. But in the grand scheme of things, it's awesome that that's the worst thing that's happened to me. #blessed

• This is mostly for my mom--Susana told me your 22nd birthday in Spanish is your "duck birthday" because the 2s look like ducks and they call the 2s "los dos patitos".

• I had Lays Paprika chips today. I've had them before. They're good.

I am super super tired so I am signing off (actually, I lost my voice today because I haven't been sleeping--the late nights and early mornings are catching up to me in a big way).

Hasta luego!