sajawata

Madrid is the most fun place. ever. I dont know why New York is known as the city that never sleeps when clearly that title belongs to Madrid.

Flew with Sharron and Anna on Saturday morning. Walked around the city for a few hours. Has to be said that Madrid actually is not a very attractive city. The cathedral is quite underwhelming from the outside, however inside it was lovely. The brightness and vibrant colors are refreshing in comparison with the darker gothic style cathedrals.

Met Anna’s friend Angel who lives in Madrid and gave us a tour of the best Tapas bars. Tapas means you go to the bars, order a drink and they give you ‘finger foods’ free. We drank sangria and cerveza all afternoon and ate spanish ham, olives, all kinds of yummy goodness.

After indulging in the local fare we headed over to the Museo del Prado for after-hours free admission. Amazing collection. Was thrilled to see Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, arguably the world’s most interesting painting. Other highlights included Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Goya’s Third of May. Unfortunately miscalculated Reina Sofia’s hours so we didn’t see any modern art, oh well guess we gotta go back. Did get to see the Andy Goldsworthy installation at the city park which was a nice surprise.

That night we headed to a salsa bar for a lesson in shaking it. Anna and Sharron have been taking legit Salsa classes so they hit the dance floor and showed those Spanish boys what was up. I on the other hand struggled with counting to 3 and broke a few toes. (Not my own.) Was unbelievable fun. Walked around the club neighborhood where they literally grab you off the street and pull you into the clubs and shove drinks in your hand. We danced till the last club closed at 7. The most fun imaginable.

Swiss Thanksgiving was one I wont ever forget. Thursday night Atlanta Molly played hostess to our potluck dinner. Due to a lack of an oven and a whole bird, we had pan fried turkey breasts. Saturday Sharron played hostess and we introduced some of our European friends to the traditional dishes (sans Pepperidge Farm and Ready Whip)

Skied Verbier this past Sunday. Not much was open yet but it was an excellent first day.

Things are going so very well with my new host family. Madalena, the 4 year old I look after, has a wonderful temperament. Our favorite games are the ‘falling down game’ where we throw ourselves and each other on the sofa or bed. Also the ’silly shark game’ where we hide the toy shark in the refrigerator, toilet, etc… Finally, the ’silly sarah game’ where she laughs at me while i speak rubbish french, drive past the supermarket, burn the beans etc… My least favorite of the games we play are the ’silly keys game’ where she hides my car keys without me knowing about it…. She really is a great kid and we have a lot of fun together.

All for now…..