My 3rd weekend..

If it seems like I only write about my weekends its because thats when everything happens. During the week I go to school...maybe get coffee with friends (which i'm making...such a good feeling!!) Come home, eat, sleep siesta, watch tv and do my spanish tutor homework, eat again and then sleep again. Then comes the weekend...I'm now trying to do smaller weekly updates and it only makes sense to do so after the weekend. So my third weekend started out a little disappointing...my brother Sapi (and i'll just call her my sister...my brothers girlfriend) Leti took me to a concert...well tried. It was a rap/reggae concert in another city...but of course...i was thinking it would be an outdoorsy kind of concert and I did not bring any ID...it was good i learned my lesson that way and not in a more serious matter so now i am never without some form of ID. Anyways, we ended up not getting in and going home. 

Saturday, I went with my brother Chris to our friend Paloma's house. There we played some poker and I was on Chris's team because he said if his mom found out he was letting me bet my own money then she would kill him haha. After poker we went to Bingo in town. Bingo was amusing because we were the youngest people in there and pretty underdressed for the situation (too bad i forgot my rotary jacket because that's proper attire for any situation ;D )  So the 8 of us split 4 cards and i kissed ours for good luck. I got the hang of it pretty easily, its very good practice for memorization and recognition of spanish numbers. We got to our last 3 numbers and then those 3 numbers were called right in a row!! Chris yelled bingo and we all couldnt stop smiling and laughing... I guess that was the first time that group of people had EVER won Bingo! The waiter guy brought our winnings to the table and our jaws dropped when they started putting it all on the table. 114 Euros is about $160. We were pretty stoked and split it so each of us got 20 euros. Not bad...After that we went to our friend Nanu's studio apartment to watch a fútbol game. The tv ended up not working on that one channel so we had to bring out the tiny black and white tv....and we cooked 11 frozen pizzas in a toaster oven. It was a good time and i learned that I am not quite used to the atmosphere of cigarette smoke. 1 small room + 12 spaniards + 4 hours + ? packs of cigarettes + 0 windows/ doors open = Maddy's poor innocent eyes burning like crazy. Its something i will get used to because it is around me almost all the time.

Me kissing the winnings of our night at Bingo

Paella

 My host dad multitasking: pouring wine, smoking a cigar, and cooking. 

My Grandma, Oma, and brother Chris (he just woke up from siesta)

 My host Mom Silvia and host dad Osvaldo

Sunday was amazing....my host dad made paella in the back yard on our huge bbq and we ate outside with my host mom's mom (oma) and my host dad's friend. I passed around pictures from anacortes and we devoured the food. Sapi had said something earlier about the realmadrid game which i assumed we would watched from the bar down the road but i was completely mistaken....one of the instances where a language barrier makes things even more exciting. I started to catch on when my host mom insisted i bring another sweatshirt..and when we drove past our regular stops. We were heading to Madrid...to go and watch the game...in person....live!!! I was ecstatic. We got there and we went to get our special tickets from one of Leti's friends. Her friend worked with a TV broadcaster so we got to go in the cool room with all the screens and buttons and watch how they switched from one camera to the other. Everyone was really chill with us invading there tiny workspace. The tickets we got were special because we could sit ANYWHERE...we just had to wait to see what seats were empty. we ended up being in the very bottom section about 15 rows up from the field....and in the middle. you could see everything...i loved it...and i love Iker Casillas...the RealMadrid goalie. =D....Me and one of the other exchange students plan to sit in the crazy fan section at some point during the year...a shared goal by the both of us. The score ended up being 2-2 and we left a bit earlier so we could get through the metro without too much congestion. So that was my weekend. 

The control room

Leti and I at the stadium

Me and my brother Sapi

Iker Casillas...mi amor

The crazy fan section i want to sit in one day!!

This week at school has been amazing..a lot more people have opened up to me and I'm starting to get invited to stuff like shopping on friday and on sunday a tennis thing in Madrid. I really starting to be able to feel comfortable with certain people and I'm beginning to relax and be more myself. My favorite class right now is Psycologia, the professor is very nice and i love the people I am with....they are very happy with the new discovery that i can help them with their english homework. haha. Also, my Spanish tutor class is very helpful with laying out the basics of grammar and verbs. So, at the beginning of my fourth week in Spain everything is going very well and I'm looking forward to next weekend. Those of you who know Carlota (the Spanish exchange student in Anacortes) I became very close with her before I left and now on friday I'm staying the night at her house in Madrid with the exchange student that is living there from Pennsylvania. Such a small world. 

I'll update again soon....love you!