Tres Reyes

so the 6th of January is the three kings holiday, basically where you can give gifts if you didn't on Christmas or you can give more if you did. so on the 6th, our neighbor lola came over and she handed out some gifts. she gave me and ana a shirt, and I don't remember what else really happened in the morning, I was pretty tired. but then we all walked to the bar thing that down a couple blocks and met with my moms brother and had some chips and such, then we all went to a Chinese restaurant to meet with  more family and eat. and I loved it. I've missed our monthly visits to the china buffet that we do in Wisconsin. but anyway, after that we came home and I watched some glee, then we went to our grandparents house and ate a lot of roscon, the desert of reyes. basically it a sweet bread, and there was also one with nata (like frosting/cream/sweet thing) in the middle. so that was delicious. so that was cool. then we came home and I was tired so I went to bed.

howeverrrr the day before, there's the thing called 'cabalgata', the big reyes parade. there was one in pozuelo, but a few other exchange students and I went to the huuuuge televised one in Madrid. we got together early to get a spot, but ended up still a few feet from the front. but it was great getting to talk to the other exchangers. so then we went to vips for milkshakes. then went home because my feet where dying. so that was fun day as well. here are some pictures of the parade:

 

the two awesome girls I was squished between because of all the people. grace and charlotte

 

some floats and balloons and such

 

this was a metal elephant and it was actually pretty sweet

 

they threw out candy, but we were all so squished that you could hardly move to catch it or pick it up, so people got creative. they threw out wrapped jelly beans. like one jelly bean in plastic. but I guess they were good jelly beans... also note that it was raining a but. more like misting, but we were still kinda wet.

 

the people on the other side. we were at the end of the parade, so there were this many people all the way down the street, and there were even more people on our side. when we headed out, we had to go through sooo many people

 

train blowing out steam and confetti. poor street workers afterwards...

 

our group. I was taking the picture so...

 

 

*all credit for pictures goes to grace. i stole these from her

 

 

so then today I met up with friends and went rebajas (sales) shopping because the holidays ended. and tomorrow back to school. darn. but im ready to start going back to school and get up on time again. actually no, i'd like to sleep in everyday. that would be sweet.

 

 

so that's that. happy new year!

 

M