TIME IS GOING BY TOO FAST!!!!!

The past few weeks have clearly been super busy, considering I haven't posted in a while, updated my travel journal thing I'm trying to keep up with, I went nearly 3 weeks without talking to my mom, still waiting to talk to my dad, and haven't done anything for classes.. not that I really need to, all of my homework is fake.  And fake means we are assigned 4 pages of reading and then read the same 4 pages aloud in class.. why would I do that? Obviously cuts into my hanging out time.

So I mentioned Carnaval, a huge festival internationally around the start of Lent.  I didn't end up doing anything, surprise! Madrid time is always late, so when I showed up for the beginning of carnaval it didn't start for 45 more minutes, and by that time we were hungry.....so that was that.  But Madrid is crazy basically all of the time, so it works well.

Side note. Not too much bothers me here. It's very different, sure, and there are certain cultural norms here that aren't the same as those in America, such as being late to everything, splitting the bill evenly no matter what people ordered, everyone smokes, and you need to be wary of pickpocketers basically everywhere.  However, I have noticed that I am wayyy to American to wait patiently in line while Spaniards take their time.  McDonald's is fast food right? Nope, not here. I got fries the other day and waited in line for 15 minutes.  I do everything quickly: talking, walking, eating (okay that one is bad) so I still need to learn to slow down and be patient!!

ALSO, Madrid is HUGE! I learned this when I unknowingly walked nearly 13 miles (yes, I procrastinated my real life with mapmyruns.com to see how far we walked) all over town.  Loved it, walking is one of my favorite things to do, but I was honestly just surprised.  Oh annnddddd I'm just going to mention my little mishap with my intercambio.. who I have yet to see again.  That day that I walked all around, I was gone from 12 noon to 830 pm.  On Tuesday she mentioned in an email we should meet up on Wednesday.  I replied, obviously, but by the time I left on Wednesday she hadn't emailed me.  She has my number though so I thought it was fine.  At 8 pm I got a text from her saying she was at La Latina.... uh oh. Okay, so I actually felt really really bad, but whyyyyyy would you just go somewhere without confirming it?  Hoping we're going to hang out again though, obviously, because I need to practice my Spanish. Today she emailed me and said Hola guapa so I don't think that's a bad sign?

COOKING CLASS! Yes, I learned to cook paella, patatas alveoli, and natillas or something like that.. it was a small donut thing. It may or may not have been worth it, but either way it was really interesting and then I got to eat, and now I have Spanish recipes, which is clearly going to be important for the huge withdrawal I am 100% sure I will go through when I leave on July 9th.

Sooooo anyway that is my update. I'm going to LONDRES (London) tomorrow afternoon to have a good ol' high school reunion with some of my favorite people.  Except I kind of don't want to leave Madrid. What are ya gonna do.  It will be AWESOME and it starts my crazy European adventure lifestyle.  I'm just going to talk about it for like 4 seconds because I'm crazy excited.

This weekend: London. Next weekend: Geneva, Switzerland.  Weekend after: Lisbon, Portugal.  Then my friend from London is visiting. Thennnn it is finalmente spring breakkk and I will be going to Valencia, Malta, and Bari, Italy!!!!!!! WHAT! This is a crazy amount of traveling and I have plans in the works for Germany and Greece, and would really like to go to Scandinavia...and in June I'm pretty positive I will do anything in my power to go to the motherlands: Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and I would love to see Austria. My Austrian roommate said I could visit and she would show me around. No big deal. Love my life. So judging by this, it looks like I will be saying hey to Mariano's this summer for a couple weeks.. can't wait. Just kidding. Spain is obviously worth it!

Okay, off to maybe pack for London.

Oh, and PS, it's crazy warm.. Pretty sure I've gotten some color by sitting in the park this weekend and today. OH!! Today my friend and I took a nap in the park. And when we woke up, this crazy man with no pants was peeing or something behind a tree just down the hill. And then he kept peering out from behind the tree and started dancing.. real awkward, real scary.  So naturally we booked it out of the park. Now aware of crazy naked men in Parque del Oeste. Noted.