Popcorn!

This week has been fairly normal--that is to say, busy and warm!

On Monday, we visited the Royal Palace after class. It was so huge and awesome! We only saw 24 rooms but our tour guide says that there are hundreds in the palace. The Royal family of Spain doesn't actually live in the palace-and they haven't since the 1930's. When the European Union flag is hanging above the building that means that someone important is visiting and the public can't enter. Fortunately, it was a quiet day at the palace. Some of my favorite rooms were the dining room and the music room. Some of the finest instruments ever created are kept in that room...they are only played a few times a year! It would be so awesome to be present for one of those concerts. After the palace, we visited the armor museum (again, no pictures allowed) and the pharmacy from the 1700's. There were definitely some interesting medicines in the pharmacy-think millipedes and boric acid.

Monday night was also the soccer game--Spain vs. Croatia. I didn't feel like heading out again to watch the game so I decided to watch it at home. Fortunately my host parents had the same idea and provided quite the snack experience-popcorn (my first time since being in Spain!), chips, Doritos, and peanuts! We ate sandwiches during half-time which were delicious! Unfortunately, nothing happened until the last 2 minutes-fortunately Spain won!

Yesterday, Kelly and I decided to head out for a few hours before dinner. It rained for the first time since we have been in Madrid. It was more of a light sprinkle and felt really nice. I ended up getting a cafe con leche--and the milk was steamed! (Also a first since being in Spain). I really enjoyed it but regretted it slightly when I had a hard time sleeping last night. We also did a little bit of shopping around Sol as well.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Prado for class and on Friday the Congress building!

Hasta luego