I'm terrible with updating this blog. I have about 5 half written posts because i get distracted and never finish them (no surprise there). I just got back from Madrid a few hours ago. We took the renfe ave (high speed train) to and from. The train was a nice change from the Barcelona air port that I have been frequenting for the past few weeks. Hannah, Kate, Maggie and I arrived in Madrid on Friday around 2pm and went out to get some lunch. We stumbled upon a place called el tigre. The place smelled great, but we could tell it was not a traditional sit down restaurant. We tried for about ten minutes to figure out how to order until we finally gave up and attempted to ask a local how this whole process worked. He explained that all we had to do was order a beer for 2 euro and we got a plate of tapas. We each ordered 2 beers and had a huge lunch for only 4 euro. One big difference between Barcelona and Madrid is that people in Madrid do not usually sit to eat tapas. They stand by counters, throw their trash on the ground, and are on their way within 30-45 minutes, whereas in Barca, people will sit and have tapas for hours at a time with no intention of ever leaving. After a big lunch we went shopping and finalized our costumes for Carnaval. We went back to the hotel and got ready to go see john digweed at Macumba. We met up with the guys and headed to the club. I think we can all agree it was one of the best nights of our lives. We danced and fist pumped all night (some harder than others). Specifically, Hannah danced so much that she tried to buy joe's shoes off of him for 50 euro so she didn't have to wear her heels any more. Digweed's set ended at about 7am and we left the club and entered what felt like the artic. We later learned that it was -2 Celsius that night(we did not bring coats out). We hoped on the metro with all of the normal looking people attempting to start their day and got back to the hotel at 8am. After a few hours of sleep, we went on a tour of Madrid. Unfortunately most of us fell asleep on the bus part of the tour and had to leave the walking portion early in order to get some food. The food in Madrid was so good! That night, we went to a restaurant called Lateral. They had the best Tapas and salad (yes i found salad in Spain) that I have had the entire time I've been here. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Madrid. After dinner we found a small wine bar and met some locals. One claimed Kate as his fiance and Hannah as his sister. We ventured through the streets of Madrid with them and talked about the differences between Barcelona and Madrid and about the college system in the US. They were very surprised and intrigued with the way that the greek system works within universities. It was funny to explain it to someone that had only really heard about it from movies. All in all Madrid was one of my favorite trips so far. I will be spending the next 2 weekends in Barcelona (finally) and I have my birthday a week from tomorrow! The 22nd will definitely be a loco lunes to remember. I just booked my flight to Rome for spring break. As i start to book up all of my weekends while I'm here it's starting to feel like I wont have enough time. I never want to leave this place...

besos