9-11

hola!

so recently I haven't been too busy but i'm having a great time! i'll give you a glimpse of my schedule: every morning I have to take the dog, bella, out on a walk. this is definitely helping me get to know my neighborhood and how to get around. and the dog is awesome, so that helps too. the weather here is fantastic, but it gets pretty chilly in the morning. so then I get home after about half an hour and have free time to do whatever because my parents are at work and my sister ana is at university until 12. so I usually get out my camera and get pictures of different things, or go on facebook, or take another walk. then ana gets home and she usually hangs out with one of her friends, they talk and I try and understand, but they speak very very quickly. however, I am getting better already. also, ana is super nice and knows English really well (she went to Ireland for a year) so she helps me out a ton. so then around 230 or 3 we have lunch, ana, her friend, and I, usually salad or spaghetti, something simple because we have to make it. then ana takes the dog out, and sometimes I go with her, sometimes I stay home with my dad, who gets home around that then. also, that's siesta time, so I take a nice long nap :) happy nap time. anyway, since im not quite used to the time difference, I sleep for like 3 hours. so I get up around 6, and go downstairs, papa is probably watching tv, so I join him. basically just hang out until 9ish- dinner. then we might  watch a soccer game or the news, which is fun. I like soccer. but if we watch some other show I have no idea whats happening. and what really stinks is that the shows are dubbed in Spanish. and im not a huge fan of dubbing so that's kindof annoying. anyway, then I go to bed. yay sleep.

buuuuuut today, I did something totally different. so first I woke up at 8, because bella was barking -_-  and went down and ate breakfast. so I had cereal, frosted flakes to be exact, which is great, except the milk here is really odd. its not as sweet, and it has just an odd taste. but I guess i'll have to get used to it. also we have a milk stash, so apparently milk doesn't go bad here or something. I don't know. anyway, I ate breakfast, and my mom took me to my school and I registered! yay. so that was pretty easy to do. then we came home and ana said we were going to eat with her grandparents. my moms mom. so we got ready, and headed out. abuela lives in Madrid, so we had to take the train. yay my first train ride here! so yeah the train is only like 2 blocks away so we got there, bought the ticket, and got on. aravaca (where I live) is just outside Madrid so it was only like a 3 minute ride. so we got off and got on the metro! yay first metro ride. no.  it was basically the same as the L in Chicago so it wasn't that exciting. so yeah, we took the metro and walked a few blocks to abuelas. there we had a snack, and waited for lunch to be done cooking. we had chips and salchichas (basically sausage but this kind was in slices). so then abuelo arrived. he is pretty cool. at random times he just falls asleep so it was really cute. anyway, we talked for a while, well, they talked for a while. then lunch was ready. first we had this bean stuff. and for me, I only like cold bushs baked beans, so this was not very exciting. I felt really bad for only eating a little and when asked if I liked it saying nada mucho. but really I don't like that kind of thing. and apparently its very Spanish food so I might have to get used to it. but that's okay. so when ana and abuela were clearing the table for the next round, abuelo and I talked. he doesn't know English so it was fun. we talked about iowa and my family and such, every once and a while him falling asleep ^.^ so then ana and abuela brought out this beef dish thingy. it was really good. the sauce was really sweet and just overall I liked it. so then we had fruit for dessert. I had an apple, and I tried this new fruit that I still don't know the name of. it was some kind of white melon. Im not a big fan of melon but it wasn't too bad. so yeah, abuelas was fun.

also, abuela needs dialysis, so we then went to the hospital. by taxi! so many new ways to travel. the hospital was pretty small and simple, so we just went in and sat down to wait for her to go into the room. ana told me that sitting a few chairs away was a ex-prisoner, who had apparently killed his wife 0_o wow. so yeah we saw some guards around him. but he needed dialysis too so what can ya do. so yeah, abuela went in, and we waited for mom to pick us up. so we drove home and here I am, writing my blog. I wish I had pictures, but it was raining today. i'll definitely get some tomorrow.

hasta luego!