El Otoño

(Cammye, me, Alex,  and Lisa @ Star Cafe)

Just a quick update about my weekend:

Well, it all started Wednesday night when we decided to go out to Star Cafe for some sort of "Welcome to Spain" party for international kids studying in Spain. There was free admittance and an open bar for those on "the list". And thanks to a couple of IES kids who are working as club promoters we were on "the list". The crowd was mostly American, but definitely included kids from all over. We even had an encounter with rude French girls!! Yay they are the best. There was also beer pong......? Yea, a bit strange but it doesn't last very long - once people start dancing the beer pong is forgotten. 

Thursday night - aka first night of the weekend for IES kids - was a trip to the discoteca. Joy is one of the main discotecas in Madrid. It is a converted old theater with a big dance floor on the bottom level and two levels of balconies that look down onto it. I met up with my friends for dinner, followed by some bar hopping were we got sangria. I topped of the sangria with a couple of beers (called Mahou) from the convenience store for good measure. Discotecas in general are better with some alcohol in the system.  Joy can be very expensive, but once again we got in for free and got a free drink. I made the horrible mistake of buying a second drink. DON'T do that haha. It set me back 11 euro. I was pissed, but also laughing at how a $15 drink is ridiculous. Overall it was a fun night because a lot of friends were there and it was good to hang out. ((I don't have any great pictures of these friends yet b/c i never have my camera but Emily, Virginia, Claire, Anna, Bethany, and I are going to Granada this weekend so I will have photos soon!))

Friday and Saturday night were more of the same except much more relaxed. We hung out a small bar one night and got delicious Mexican food on Saturday. One cool thing Saturday was that we went to el Real Jardin Botanico which is a lovely botanical garden situated next to the Prado museum. Unfortunately the blooming season is pretty much over, but we did see some Dahlias, roses, and amazing trees. I didn't take any pictures because I forgot my camera, but some of my friends did so see the facebook...

On Sunday we hit another Madrid tourist landmark: El rastro. Basically it is a giant flea market were vendors come to sell crafts, clothing, scarfs, tapestries, jewelry, bags, shoes, pipes, etc. I got a cute purse and a scraf....most things are a good deal. The market is located in La Latina, a neighborhood in the city, and apparently, apparently there is a huge street party after the market closes at 2 pm. We were there from 10 am - 12 pm so we missed the party, but we will be returning. I know I heard a sweet band in the subway station playing upbeat latin sounding music with trumpets and saxophones. I gave them some change. Maybe they move to the street for the partay? 

Check out Julieta Vengas "Limon y Sal" - she is a mexican singer, with a really nice voice and simple songs, but they are catchy. We listened to her in language class and she was actually in Madrid last weekend for concerts.