Rain, rain, go away

This morning came super early after we stayed up needlessly skyping and blogging in the wee hours last night. Class was good and we did more poetry in grammar and then talked about fiestas in Culture. Afterwards we had our usual Tuesday small group meetings. We ate lunch together at the Museo del Jamon in Sol. This place is delicious and super cheap. I got the crossiant bocadillo mixto (ham and cheese) and some french fries. Of course they piled the work on again and we have more interviews and papers to write. Oh well, no me importa, I'm in Spain!!

This afternoon we met the group at the Museo Thyssen. This is a private collection of paintings and is the best I've seen yet. They have an entire floor of impressionist art, my favorite (thanks Dad). I saw some Monet and Renoir, Picasso and Van Gogh, and the more modern Hopper. This one's for you dad:

The Martha McKeen of Wellfleet by Edward Hopper.

Upon leaving the museum, me and Courtney ran straight into the strikers in the middle of Madrid. Apparently all the "civil servants" are striking and taking the day off of work to protest a pay cut from the government. There's nothing more chaotic than meeting a group of striking Spaniards head on.

We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight. We're leaving at 8pm with our madre to get churros and chocolate. Yep, we're going to brave the rain for this. Trust me, it's worth it. Or "merece la pena" as we would say over here.

While we were eating dinner, our madre informed us that only 1 Swiss guy would be joining us next week. Watch out, here comes the smack down. 1 guy, 2 girls...No worries, she called her Australian friend that is studying here now and invited him over for dinner tomorrow. I just love my madre:)

Churros and chocolate was so fun with our madre and padre. They took us to their favorite place called Valor and it was way better than the famous San Gines. They were so cute going out with me, Courtney, and Ann. They inhaled their chocolate. You could tell it was a treat for them. They ended up treating us but we'll definitely treat them next time. They told us all about their first date and lots of funny stories. They are precious together. It was such a fun night with our padres!

Our madre, Carmen, and padre, David!