Okay, Madrid is for Cool People.

A few days before we left to Madrid we basically didn't know anything about it other than the bull fighting. So we did lots of research (meaning Sam did) and we asked around and by Thursday night we had a wonderful trip planned ahead of us. This first picture was our first encounter of Madrid life. It is a bunch of dudes selling crap. . . no seriously it was like used hairspray bottles, used shoes that looked two steps away from falling apart and other stuff that was probably cheaper new from the store than it was from these guys.

Museo del Prado

This was the first attraction we went to. It was so funny to me because there are these historical, old important monuments in the middle of intersections- ancient world mixed with new world= madrid (well more accurately Europe, but for the sake of this post lets just say Madrid).

It's really foreign to the life of an American though.

Once we were worn out from all our hard work site seeing we stopped and got the most amazing smoothies I have ever had. Mine was mango and mine was better.

It's so funny because in Europe McDonalds are classy. They always look super cool with funky colors and modern layouts and lots of them have two floors or a basement.

We ended up booking our hostel really late and so we were placed in different rooms. Me with 4 girls and a dude, then Sam with 4 girls and a Mom. If you couldn't tell neither of us slept that well but they gave us free breakfast and it only cost 18e a night. The hostel was a 5 minute walk from the middle of they city it was so cool! (but not the sleeping seperate part, of course- that was kind of freaky.)

Right in front of our hostel.

Art.

Can you find Sam in this picture?

Her is a close up of where he was. Is that palace huge!

Now try and find me!

Well, if you couldn't find me in that last picture you sure won't miss me in this one (I am the one with the thighs.) This shoes are basically the only ones we have and they rock (my toms and Sam's Nike frees-sorry about the commercial break.)

Then we arrived at my favorite part- the food market! I will give you a moment to drool. Seriously, this market stays open til 2 am and offers a variety of desserts, spanish specialties, fresh fruit, meats, fresh bread, lots of wine, and tons of other stuff that made me weak at the knees. I could have spent all our money here in a heart beat. This was more inciting then any architecture or museum.

We took a break in their huge park, a break meaning he read, I slept. The weather was so good I couldn't resist.

Then we headed to see one last thing before we caught the bus home- the famous ancient bull fighting arena. . . I was so excited to see this.

. . . but when we got their this is what we found . . .

And this is Sam's reaction to the news . . .

They were having the circus inside the bull fighting arena and so we couldn't see inside the arena unless we bought tickets to the circus . . .

So we did!!!
Here is how it all went down. We were looking at the prices and thinking we really shouldn't spend that much money and we were debating whether it was worth it when this lady came up to us and said, "dkfjselifnsgliedkg." Which I guess meant "our two friends didn't show up so we will give you their tickets for half price." I quickly responded to her YES! and I think she knew what that meant. This was the first time at the circus for both of us. And what a great time to do it . . Madrid, Bull fighting arena, Spanish clowns. . . It was all to amazing. We ended up taking a later bus so we could watch the circus and then go back to the city center and eat more.

Being in Europe gives me the right to eat more and eat lots of treats, right? Good, cause I'm not slowing down and we sure know Sam isn't either.

That's so American

The family has been asking us to cook for them typical American food. . . HELLO! What is typical American food? . . . um . . . how about every single culture's food combined. Besides apple pie and hamburgers I felt like American cuisine doesn't exist.

Then Sam got this bright idea and was all like "I know! Lets make them grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup ."

Me being someone who loves to cook and makes things fancy and pretty was all like, " You can make them that, but that is not my idea- who likes tomato soup?"

And he was all like, "Fine, I will do it myself- it will be just from me."

And me being the typical hottie brat type responded, "you do that."

It was an epic moment in both of our lives.

So in an effort to contribute I made brown sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

Trying to convert a recipe into European measurements and covert it to there oven is not cool! Also trying to find the right american ingredients isn't easy- I had to use this weird brown sugar.

Oh, but wait, here is where my brattish nature is proven wrong. Sam ended up doing this amazing homemade tomato soup and used mozzarella and spanish ham with an olive oil, garlic glaze on his sandwiches. It really was amazing and I would eat it for any meal. They all worshiped the ground he walked on afterwards, seriously. I worship that ground the most though, even with my brattish natural tendencies. (but i am one of the hot brats so it makes it okay).

On a side note this is us shopping for the groceries for the rock hard core awesome dinner, and here is Sam helping to teach English in the classroom of Isabel.

Bicicletas, La Manga, y Una Fiesta

A few days ago we decided to go biking into the city to have a look around. We ended up biking through the city and out the other side where we found a cool trail. The sun happened to be setting, which contributed to a great evening.

My lovely lady. She hates in when I make her pose for pictures, but she does anyway because she loves me.

I love this picture. Along the path there were a bunch of lemon and orange trees. With the sun setting, it was remarkably nice on the eyes.

We met a young Brazilian couple at church who recently moved here to teach English. Their names are Valerio and Thais. They invited us over for an FHE with the sister missionaries. I gave the opening prayer and pulled the classy move of expressing thanks for Valerio and ... his wife ... for having us over. I totally couldn't remember how to pronounce Thais' name. Afterwards we played monopoly and Reagan dominated. I was the worst performer by a wide margin.

The next day we hopped on a bus with them to go visit a place called "La Manga." It's this really narrow stretch of land that incloses a piece of the Mediterranean in a body of water called the Mar Menor. The part we went to was probably only 100-200 yards wide with beach on both sides. It was pretty rad. Unfortunately, because it's considered winter time, the place felt kinda like a deserted island (even though it is 65 degrees out).

We ate lunch at a little pizzeria on the La Manga. I love this picture. I've always wondered what I'd look like if I put on 100 lbs. Now we all know.

After La Manga, we showed up an hour and a half late to this little girls (3rd) party. Luckily we're in Spain and nothing ever starts sooner than 2 hours late. The poor little one was sick and crying the whole time so neither her nor her mother was able to enjoy it. The food totally kicked butt.

One of Reagan's favorite things about Spain is the old people. They always hang out together and chat and go on walks, but not just with their spouses. You can always see a pair of old men walking down the street chatting about who knows what. The two oldies on the right are Reagan's faves.

Spain does good things for Sam . . .

. . . And his hair.