Hola!

It's day 2 for me here in good 'ole Espana (tilde the n) and I must admit.. today was better than yesterday. Por que? because:

1. I wasn't jetlagged and exhausted
   


2. I've started to figure some stuff out
   


3. Ok, ok.. it was mainly because I was well rested.
   

While today (Wednesday) was better than yesterday, it was definitely not without it's mishaps.

Mishap #1

I told my roommate that I would set the alarm for us so that we could get up and go with our group to the Museo de Prado ( one of the biggest/best museums in Spain). Well, aparently, my international cell phone did not automatically set itself to the correct time so, therefore we missed the trip. (I was devastated) However! My roomate, her bf, and I all went to this other museum instead (scope the pics on fb) it was called The Museo Nacional Centro del Arte Reina Sofia.. it was amazing.. lots of fun creative art.. (it had that stuff that most people would say "that's art? I can do that.") but whatevs.. it was wicked. Missing the Prado was definitely a blessing in disguise. God knew I would like the Reina Sofia more.

Mishap #2

After evening meetings, I decided to ask other people from the group if they wanted to try to go find someplace to eat.. some people in the group said they had seen a place they wanted to try out.. I thought to myself, "Super! That was easy!" (chosing a place to eat in Spain is intimidating.. I always look for places with people who look like they are going to be patient with my spanish) Jaja. Once we arrived to the place, we literally did not know what we were supposed to do.. we didn't know if we were supposed to wait to get seated, just sit down and wait for someone to come to us.. we didn't have a clue.. and they didn't have directions.. after 10min of standing outside with tons of customers staring, someone finally made the executive decision to go elsewhere (the place looked expensive... I was ok with it) We settled on this sandwich place called Rodilla. I had a half tuna with tomato and half salad sandwich.. it hit the spot.. of course a handful of dirt would have hit the spot at that point so I suppose that statement is a bit skewed. So, after all that rambling, you may think to yourself.. "What was the mishap there?" It was that we looked like complete idiots and no one would make a decision.. we wasted a lot of time tonight.

Mishap #3 (el ultimo [accent the u])

After getting back to our hote from dinner, a few of us were sitting in the lobby trying to find something to do (aka looking for "night life"bars, clubs, etc) Again.. not being able to make decisions, I suggested we go get gellato. I'd never had it and I figured that's one thing you can't go wrong with right? Right. So we get to the gellato place and I tell myself "Courtney, you are about to rock this order." I say to the man, "Me gustaria (accent the i) un pequeno (tilde n ) pitachio (my roommate's bf had highly reccomended it earlier today, and I was like "por que no" (why not?). The man replied (with the baseball umpire's signal for "safe") Feen-ished! I thought "CRAP!" and was so disappointed. I then told the man to give me his favorite, thinking it would be something really exotic and spanish-like.. what did he give me? Chocolate chip. It was wonderful chocolate chip, don't get me wrong, but not quite what I was expecting.

After exiting the shop, we noticed a big group of people standing around watching something. Being the curious person I am, I walked over and realized it was 5-6 guys age 10-30 roller blading in and out of little cones doing all sorts of cool tricks. My little group and I stood there for a good 20-25 minutes just watching with amusement. I would have taken pics/vids of the event, but I thought I had left in my hotel room... come to find out.. it was in my purse all along.. (this could be counted as Mishap #4 if wanted..)

I forgot to mention that we went to the Royal Palace today as well (NBD.. it's just where the kings used to live) We had a guided tour with sweet headsets and walkie talkie looking things... it's been 33 yrs since a king has lived there.. and years ago the whole thing burned and was redone. It is ridiculous how elaborate EVERY. SINGLE. ROOM. is decorated. It's ridiculous to the extent of it being really sad. Nevertheless it was pretty and really interesting.

Eso es todo.

Besos.