Cafe con leche

Today it is hot. Unusually hot. It is 95 degrees right now, fortunately without humidity. While I do enjoy a warm day, it is rather uncomfortable to be walking around outside. My host mom says that it usually is not this warm until the end of July or beginning of August. What intrigues me the most is that the women always wear jeans. Skinny jeans. I have only seen a handful of women who are in shorts, and I am not sure if they were actually from Spain or if they were tourists. If a woman is not wearing jeans, then it is a skirt or a dress. I do wish to fit in with the crowd, but I don't think jeans are going to happen on a day like today :)

Yesterday was a fairly normal day with classes.  A lot of it is reviewing Spanish history, the Monarchy, etc. I enjoy the history part a lot and I understand most of what the professors are saying. I have my first class for 2 hours (with 2 professors) and then we have a half-hour break. I usually eat a piece of fruit during my break because breakfast and lunch are about 8 hours apart. After the break, I have my second class for 2 hours (over art). We also have two professors in that class, both named Marisa. It's a running joke that their names are the same. (I just realized that I posted about yesterday already... :)

I had to run around the city trying to find an ATM yesterday. My card wouldn't work in the Metro and I was worried that I wasn't going to have any money. Fortunately, it was only a problem with the Metro machine and I was able to get a little bit of cash. The exchange rate dropped again...which is good for me. Unfortunately, the euro is still worth more than the dollar so it is still a bit expensive.

After my ATM adventure, I went on a walk with my host mom. We drove a short distance outside of the city to visit where Francisco Franco used to live. His palace was HUGE and it was surrounded by the barracks of the former guard. It is hard to believe that only 40 years ago, Spain was a dictatorship. We then took a walk through the woods. It was really beautiful and nothing like the "city" of Madrid. I like exploring these places that are tucked away and different from the normal.

Today was the last day of class for the week. I am looking forward to being able to sleep in tomorrow! This afternoon, I met up with another student from Purdue who is in Spain for the semester. We had a cafe con leche and talked about things to see in Spain. It's crazy that even though I am over 3000 miles  away from Purdue, there are still Purdue people around (outside of our group).

And to end..we had the most fantastic lunch today! it started out with cooked green beans with potatoes and carrots. I thought that was going to be it, but then we had fish with salsa verde. Oh. My. Goodness. It was so delicious!!! The fish was tender and the salsa (sauce) was wonderful! Of course, we had some bread with it as well. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and I definitely think I will be good until dinner around 9:30.

Hasta luego!