Semana Santa

It's been a while so this might be a longer post! This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week) so we don't have school until next Tuesday. I spent the last 5 days in Madrid and I just got back to Caceres late last night.

Last Friday was the last day of school before break, so neither the students nor teachers were really focused on school. We spent the entire first two periods watching "Hotel Transylvania". Then I went with a fourth grade class and they were supposed finish up some homework. The teacher said "la clase es tuyo" and then walked out of the room and didn't return for a half hour. I tried so so hard to keep the class quiet, but it was challenging. Then I went downstairs to a third grade class (this class is definitely one of my favorites) and they were going around the room saying what their favorite thing was about the trimester. So many of the students said "la visita de Shea" and it just melted my heart. These kids are so sweet!! Then we all had a big group hug and they went off to recess. Now, every day, all the students/teachers have recess at the same time for a half hour (11:45 - 12:15) and most of the teachers sit in the teacher's lounge. I was sitting there talking with another teacher (she practices her English as I practice my Spanish) and I noticed it was already 12:30. I said something to her about the time and asked if the schedule was different that day or something. She got up and said to the rest of the teachers that is was already 12:30 and someone needed to go push the bell. I didn't know this, but the bell isn't automatic, and the teachers are in charge of pressing it every day. No one wanted to press the bell... so the students had a 90 minute recess that day... 

After school, a bunch of the teachers and I went out for tapas to celebrate break. Afterwards, I came home and took a short siesta and then Paige and I went out for tapas. After tapas, we went to a small concert at a nearby bar where we went to see one of the teachers that I work with play piano. It was a great mix of Spanish music and they played keyboard, guitar, and the box drum. Here's a short video :)

Rachel and me in Retiro Park!

After getting only three hours of sleep that night, I caught a bus to Madrid at 7:30am the next day. I arrived around noon and met up with my friend, Rachel. Rachel and I go to church together in Ames and she was in Madrid for 10 days with a group of Iowa State students. She had the whole day on Saturday to hang out so I thought I'd come up a day early to see her and I'm so glad I did! We spent the whole day walking around Retiro Park. We ate lunch at the cafe there, got some ice cream, and took lots of pictures. We were sitting on the benches when a large group of pretty cute boys walked by.. and we heard them speaking English.  A couple of them overheard us talking and came up to us and said "Hey, we heard you speaking English! Where are you from?" We introduced ourselves and the next thing they said was, "Do you know what Mormons are?" We said, "Yes..." They said, "Yeah that's us." So for the next 15 minutes, they talked about what Mormons do and they gave us each a Book of Mormon. Then they asked for our addresses so they could send a fellow Mormon to come talk to us in the near future. Good thing I don't know my address here in Spain. 

Templo de Debod

The next day, I was intending on spending the day by myself and seeing a bunch of free museums and such in Madrid, since my friend McKinzie wasn't going to arrive until late Sunday night. I went down to breakfast in the hostel and sat next to a girl who was sitting by herself. Her name was Gabby and she was just in Madrid for the day because her flight was cancelled. She's from Uruguay and didn't speak much English, so it gave me the opportunity to speak in Spanish! (I'm so worried that I'm going to fall behind on my Spanish this week since I don't have school for 10 days.) She had made a list of things that she wanted to do that day.. and our lists matched up perfectly so we decided to spend the day together. First, we went to the Egyptian temple that was brought to Madrid in 1971: Templo de Debod. Next, we went to the American Museum, which had a huge cultural exhibit with artifacts from both South America and North America. For lunch, we went to the famous San Miguel market where we ate so many delicious tapas... and we ended the day at Reina Sofia Art Museum.

American Museum

San Miguel Market

Reina Sofia Museum

That night, I walked a couple blocks over to the hostel that McKinzie booked for the next three nights. (McKinzie and I also know each other from church.) McKinzie is studying abroad in Wales this semester and she and five of her friends just began their month-long Spring Break! I'm so thankful that our breaks matched up and we were able to meet each other in Madrid!! She and I hung out in the lobby the first night and tried to catch up, but we were often distracted by the large rugby team from Uruguay. Not only were they extremely loud and obnoxious, but they decided they wanted to make a "Harlem Shake" video in the middle of the lobby. It was good entertainment I guess...

At the Royal Palace during the tour

The next day, McKinzie, her friends, and I all went on a 3 hour walking tour of Madrid (in the rain) with a group from the hostel. I didn't think I would learn anything new on this tour, but I did! The oldest restaurant in the world is in Madrid.. and we were able to take a tour of it. It has been running since 1725 and their specialty is 3 week old pigs. After the tour, we went to the San Miguel market again (I love that place) so they could try a variety of tapas. Then we went to my favorite pastry shop. As I write more about my time in Madrid, you'll notice that almost everything we did was based around food...

Plaza Mayor

The 3 week old pigs in the oldest restaurant

A little something from my favorite pastry shop :)

On Tuesday, we took a day trip to Toledo, a place that none of us had ever been before! Toledo is a beautiful, beautiful city with great views from the top of the hill... which meant lots of photo opps of course :)

When we got back, we took a short siesta and then went out for tapas. I took them to "El Tigre", a place that I learned about two years ago from a girl that I met in a hostel in Malaga. For every drink you buy, you don't just get a little tapa, you get a huuuuge plateful of food. I ordered seven drinks (just to be clear, they weren't all for me...) and he handed me plate after plate after plate. We took our buffet of food to the back of the bar and ate so much... we couldn't even finish everything!

Sipping on a mojito at El Tigre

When we got back to the hostel, they were giving free Salsa lessons, so we decided to try. We actually learned something and we had such a good time! That night, we decided to go out with a group from the hostel... we weren't having a whole lot of fun so some of us decided to go get food instead. (Surprise, right?)

Churros con chocolate

On Wednesday, we had to check out by 11am and then we had a few hours to spend in the city before I had to catch my bus back to Caceres and before they had to catch their flight to Barcelona. We had three destinations for the afternoon: churros con chocolate, a Mexican restaurant, and cookies from the convent. (Notice the theme here?) We were able to hit up all three places and by the end of the afternoon, we were all satisfied :) You're probably wondering about the cookies from the convent... there's a convent near the center of Madrid where the nuns make a variety of baked goods. You have to press the button and say "dulces" or "galletas" and they'll buzz you in. Then you follow the signs that lead you to a lazy Susan where you order whatever baked goods you want, and as they turn the lazy Susan, you exchange your money for the baked goods, without ever seeing the nuns. It was a fun and different experience, and the galletas were delicious!

Last night, I took a 5 hour bus ride back to Caceres... it was dreadful. I love the transportation system here in Spain, but I feel like some of the drivers here need more practice driving... 

I'm spending the next few days in Caceres alone. Lola is in her pueblo until Monday and Paige is traveling around Spain with a friend until Sunday. And I just noticed that Lola bought a big jar of Nutella right before she left.. great. Well, I know what my diet is going to consist of for the next four days.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter! Missing you all back home!