bring in the ringer

as i mentioned in my last post, my family came to visit me this past week here in madrid. so much excitement/happiness for familiarity and to be with my loved ones!

i got home from sevilla on sunday night and went to meet dad and steph in their apartment in la latina. SO beautiful! a little four story, spanish apartment bliss, overlooking the royal palace in the distance. it was nice catching up with them and we went out for a quick glass of wine. cava alta the street where they were staying is famously known for some of the best wining and dining places in madrid so we only walked a block and found a nice little nook of a place.. a poetry reading/artsy looking place if you will it was pretty quiet for a sunday night. and all of a sudden these loud guys walk in and they're dancing/singing with their instruments and shaking their hips and what do you know..i made a new friend! a life loving-cuban man who obviously knew i was dying to dance with him..........

i can't dance like you im sorry to disappoint cuban man

besties

after the fun died down we went back and began talking about all of our plans that we had in mind for the week. i felt like a princess all week with my own room and bathroom, and a bed with about 10 pillows. i slept soooo well all week long siestas included. on monday morning, we all lazily got up around 11 and made our way over to the royal palace and explored a bit and then had an early lunch of tapas and macaroons- my FAVORITE for dessert- at mercado de san miguel and then walked around plaza mayor and sol for a little bit before i had to go off to class.

royal palace (palacio real)

plaza de oriente 

after class we went and got some tapas in the neighborhood again. and steph and dad said they were very thankful to have me because i could speak spanish and order for us. this is where the joke of the week started. they called me "the ringer" all week, and "la profesional" because they needed some help in the language/communication department. sometimes just the thumbs up sign doesn't do the trick in all instances right guys? we didn't really know how to translate "the ringer" in spanish aside from "la profesional" but it was funny when they tried looking it up in the english/spanish dictionary and steph asked me what tono de llamada meant....which means dial tone....which was what ringer was put as in the dictionary haha too literal of a translation i suppose!  after our bomba tapas, i decided it was completely and utterly necessary to take them to my stomping grounds. that's right i took them to tia cebolla. of course the waiters were so excited that i had brought my parents and things got a little crazy. here are some photos to explain what went down where words might fail:

 thumbs up dad. crying laughing at your face.

lordy lordy

like a champ

good food. damage.

time to go home now

needless to say waking up on tuesday morning was a bit of a struggle for everyone. the following days i was feeling pretty sick and now still have a head cold in result from a combination of lack of sleep/not taking the best care of myself. being sick for the second time in madrid in a two month span? great. i'm feeling much better now though so all is good. 

wednesday, i didn't have class so we walked to starbucks mmmmm and walked through gran via and up through plaza de espana (getting a little lost along the way) and finally made out way to the museum of the americas where we saw so many awesome artifacts that the spaniards brought back to spain after their conquests in the americas. 

our little door :)

touristy/american/don't care

sometimes even madrilenas get lost

the rest of this week consisted mostly of me being in class while dad and steph did fun things like explore the city and enjoy some of the best museums in the world in the heart of madrid. the weather this past week was not the best, especially for visitors...lots of rain, wind, and cold. but luckily the last few days were very agreeable. 

i think i have my days confused because i was sick/slept for a lot of my days but, i think on saturday i was finally feeling a little bit better. dad and i walked through sol, and down callde de alcala and we enjoyed my favorite place in madrid-retiro park- for a few hours. a little dad and daughter time if you will. we had a wonderful talk on the steps overlooking the pond. 

cool artwork they are currently featuring in the park

art in the glass house in retiro

glass house

my place

the best place ever

after the park, we walked through plaza mayor to get home and obviously bubble man was there. i snagged this sweet picture of an adorable spanish chica :)

after our day we went home, and then steph and i did a little shopping at zara, and we went to another stomping ground of mine: 100 montaditos and then we made it an early evening so that we could all wake up early for........................................EL RASTRO!

el rastro is a huge flea market-esque event that happens every sunday in madrid in la latina. think of the biggest flea market you can think of and now double or triple that and bam. el rastro. so much to see, including people watching at it's finest. i indulged myself in some sunglasses and headbands. not too  surprised by myself on that part. it was such a warm day that we enjoyed walking every which way! so much fun. 

rastro with dad

oh and i forgot that we made some lovely french toast this morning. and i also concocted the extremely complex favorite of mine: cinnamon oranges. needless to say they were loved by all.

watch out i have a beeeeg knife

view from our balcony

it was such an awesome week, and i was sad that it had to come to a close, but luckily for me after i said goodbye it really wasn't the last goodbye. fakeout! as i was walking to class my dad called and said that their flight had been cancelled so after i was done with class, i met them outside of retiro for a few tapas and to say goodbye again. what a whirlwind of a week! i can't believe they are gone already. i miss them so much, and had so much fun. we can't wait for our future trip back to madrid!

some things to look forward to:

-only two more days of school this week and then i'm off to my spiritual retreat on the northern country with my lovely friends who i have missed so dearly! everyone went to valencia this weekend while i was sickk/with my parents so i'm getting excited for friend time.

-ireland in 8 days with my sisters!!! over marquette's spring break. so excited. hardly any words at this point.

-nice weather outside-means lots of park-ing it up and enjoying madrid during the beautiful springtime.

in other news:

-tomorrow is the two month anniversary of me being in spain! it seems like it has been so much longer...yet i can't believe i am only here for a mere 2 months and 3 weeks. PHEW! so much traveling inbetween those weekends.

-i turned in my first homework assignment last week ha! loving the spanish culture when it comes to school...all my profs stroll in 10-15 min late everyday too entonces

-shoutout to the best blog follower ever (according to ronnie raz aka my father) uncle dave! glad you like my blog so much :) we were talking about you this week and love and miss you lots! wahoo shoutout!

seeing my family this week made me realize how much i love and miss you all! i know i say it quite frequently, but it doesn't mean i don't mean it ANY less. enjoy the comforts of home, your loved ones, and america! there are things that i miss, but especially all of you wonderful people that make the longitudes and latitudes in my world :)

"so don't be afraid, little flock. for it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom." -luke 12:32

"God has brought me laughter" -genesis 21:6

god is good. te amo xx