A Week in Madrid

This past week was nice because we didn’t have any excursions or big day trips anywhere as a group. So we were able to be here all week and have some time to recover after our free weeks, which spanned across Europe. On Tuesday I was able to go see Cervantes’ house, which is a museum here in Alcalá. He wrote Don Quixote and from all the statues and commemorations for him, one would think the whole country of Spain is obsessed with him. He was born in Alcalá so it was fun to go see that. Later that day a few of us went into Madrid to meet up with our friend Eva. We met her when we went to the Madrid ward a few weeks ago. She invited us over for lunch. So we met up with her daughter and she brought us to her house. Eva is crazy. But we love her. She made us some yummy Peruvian food and we hung out and talked with her for a while, she is so fun. I don’t know how old she is, she has 2 kids and one is 29, but she acts like a teenager haha she was telling us stories of all the boys that try to dance with her at the clubs but she wants them to go love the young girls…haha she is crazy. Before we left though she taught us some dances so that was fun with all of us dancing in her little living room. It was a lot of fun. She is the perfect example of someone who is just so kind and loving and friendly having us all over for lunch and spending her day with us. She really is a sweet lady.

On Thursday a few of us went into Madrid to go see the Prado Museum again. There is so much artwork in that building. It really is amazing to see. It makes me wish I had any artistic talent, but I can at least enjoy them which is good:] After the Prado we went and got some frozen yogurt for dinner, which was delicious. Then we met up with the rest of the group for LION KING! We got tickets to go see the Broadway Production of the Lion King in Spanish in Madrid! I absolutely loved it! It was so fun! I even was able to understand most of it too! I’m not sure if it was because they spoke slowly and annunciated their words, or if I just know the movie and show so well I thought I was understanding the words but I was actually just saying them in my head in English haha either way, I loved it! It was so fun being there with everyone too, I really had a great time. The show was pretty similar to the one in English. My favorite “Spanish” part was when Timon and Puma were acting as distractions for Simba and they were Flamenco Dancing ha everyone in the audience started clapping and getting all into it, it was a lot of fun. I just love musicals and shows they are so fun to go see, and I love the atmosphere.

Friday morning, a few of us went into Madrid to go check out the Museum de America. It was filled with artifacts from explorers, mostly from the Americas. It was super cool to see all of the things and creatures they found. I also really liked the room where they had all of their maps and how they thought the world looked and everything, it was so interesting. I also loved that there was a little school group doing a tour at the same time as us, and they were Spanish children learning English and one of the cutest girls I have ever seen came up to me and was asking me what my name was and stuff, it was so cute. That night we met up with the rest of the group and we went to go see a Pompeii exhibit that they were having in Madrid. While we were walking to the venue, we passed by this little churro stand and we got some freshly made porras that were so delicious. The worker was super sweet, she is from Bolivia, and she was talking with us and she made us fresh porras and gave us free churros too! The Pompeii exhibit ended up being really cool. I really liked Pompeii when we went and visited it a few years ago. I just think it is so interesting how a whole city had been preserved for years and years after this eruption. I think what I liked most in the exhibit were the videos they had created that reenacted that day and showed what happened and how it all took place. It was hard to imagine what it would be like living there at that time. After that we went to the church to meet up with our friend Eva from the Madrid ward. It ended up being kind of chaotic because we were going to go do karaoke with her, but then we had to figure out where we were going, how we were going to get there, if some of us were going to take the metro, then all the Madrid YSA kids came, and it was just funny because we had no idea what was going on. We finally figured it out and drove over to the place. We found it after looking up and down the street, and Eva trying to remember where the place even was haha it really was a funny experience. Then we found the place, thankfully girls got in free! And we went down and they had a whole room dedicated to karaoke! It was awesome. So we all sung songs and hung out, but after a while we wanted to go check out the discoteca and see what it was like out on the dance floor. It ended up being like a salsa-dancing club, so thankfully the boys that were with us knew how to salsa dance, and that the boys lead when dancing and the girls follow ha. It was a ton of fun all together dancing and going crazy. When we had to go to make it home by curfew we ended up literally sprinting down the streets in Madrid to make the last metro haha. We probably looked like such crazy Americans I wish I could’ve seen it. But we made the metro and the bus back and it all worked out just great.

Saturday morning a few of the other girls and I went into Madrid to take a Flamenco dance class. It was so fun! It was in such a cute part of town, I loved the dance studio, and our instructor was super cute. It was fun! None of us knew what we were doing but it was just fun being there together learning how to dance like the Spaniards!  It made me want to just be there in Spain and learn how to dance not even worry about doing any school:] Afterwards I met up with Taylor at the Reina Sophia Museum and we were able to go see that. It was all modern art, which was kinda fun because I haven’t seen much of that since I have been here. I thought it all was super cool! I didn’t know what all of the different works actually meant or anything but I really enjoyed looking at all the different works. We saw the famous painting of Guernica by Picasso, which was way bigger than I thought it would be. I am so impressed by all the artwork and talent that is around me, especially in these museums that we go to look at. Afterwards, Taylor and I walked around in Madrid for a little bit and we tried those chips that are in the windows of all the shops. Good thing they were only a Euro because they were not that good. We ate some then ended up giving them to a lady that we always see in the same spot on the streets, she liked them so that’s good, it made me happy. When we got home we ate some dinner and watched a little Bachelor before we headed back into Madrid. Blanca thinks we are crazy because we go into Madrid so much haha she always tells us we are so young and stuff it’s funny. We went back to Madrid to meet up with the rest of the group to then meet up with our YSA friend Renato to take us to a different dancing place. We got there fairly early by Spain’s definition so it was fun because it was just our group on the whole dance floor. It was like that for most of the time until we almost left hah. It was so fun being all together and just having a fun time. Afterwards we went and got smoothies, which were delicious. And then we ended up literally running through Madrid, again, to make the last train back to Alcalá. Definitely keeps things exciting. We ended up making it to the train with 4 minutes to spare! Talk about tithing blessing. We ended up making back all safe and sound, which was good.

On Sunday a group of us sang during Sacrament Meeting and we sang I am a Child of God in Spanish and it turned our being really good, I think everyone liked it. I’m going to miss all the sweet people that are living here in Spain. I am excited to come home and see my family and friends, and peanut butter:] but I am definitely sad to be leaving this place. I have loved every minute and am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be here in Spain.