Las ingeniosas hidalgas de La Latina

So, yesterday, I didn't do much. It rained a lot of the day, which made it really unappealing to go outdoors. I ended up staying in at night, which was probably a good idea, seeing as it started POURING at around 9:30. Thunder and lightning and everything. I'm so not used to intense rain, though; when I heard the sound, I actually stopped and wondered what it was. I guess the only really noteworthy thing that I did yesterday was to return to La Sorianita, the amazing panaderia. I bought a cookie that is honestly the tastiest cookie I've ever had: shortbread-y cookie, hazelnut cream in the center, dipped in chocolate on one end. I want to live in that cookie.

Today was much more eventful than the past three days. I had my Lit class this morning, but we've finally started what will be our brief stint with Quijote, so it was much better. Though we DID spend an hour watching a Quijote movie, and during the middle half of our viewing time, I was falling over asleep. I guess it's just the end of the week. But I love Don Quijote, and would love to read it all someday, so more exposure to it is never a bad thing.

In the afternoon, I met up with Sophie in Sol to go to the Bellas Artes museum. We were going to go with a big group, but a few girls found out that Kesha (singer of Tik Tok) was going to be doing a free (using some Myspace promotion) semi-secret concert tonight. So all of the group except Sophie and I decided to go check it out. I desperately wanted to be outside (since I'd stayed in since Monday) and to go sightseeing a little bit, because I just want to see more of the city. Sophie felt the same way. So off we went. We only spent about 20 minutes in the museum, because it turns out it closes way earlier than we thought it did. But we managed to look around at some art, and it was free anyway, so we didn't lose anything by going in. From there, we took the metro to Plaza de España, because I hadn't really seen that area yet. There, we found a nice open plaza, with a pool thing and the monument to Cervantes/Quijote (so appropriate, after my lit class). So I got my moment with Quijote and Sanchito. We sat in Plaza de España talking for a while, because we hadn't seen each other in SO long. So we updated each other on our time in Madrid so far, and talked a lot about our respective weekend trips (last weekend). I love talking to Sophie, we get along so well and seem to have very similar values/concerns/interests. I definitely missed her because I hadn't seen her for so long, so we had a great time finally talking, one on one. After a while, we decided to just wander around, so we actually walked around pretty aimlessly. We ran away from the rain at one point, because it started raining hard all of a sudden. And five minutes later, it stopped; it's totally like Colombia, especially since 15 minutes later, it was sunny and kind of warm. Anyway, we saw lots of different streets around the Palacio Real/La Latina/Lavapies area. And we didn't run out of things to talk about, so it was a really awesome walk, looking around and sometimes not knowing were we were, and then at one point agreeing that we were both totally hungry and down for a snack.

We ended up stopping at this cafe recommended by a Madrid book that I found leftover by a previous student in my room. It was cute, old, and the food we got was awesome: coffee with chocolate in it, and a slice of really excellent chocolate cake. We stayed there for almost an hour talking (I feel like I did a lot of talking...what else is new? But still, it felt like a good conversation because I never felt like I was keeping Sophie from talking, and she certainly shared plenty with me). When we left, we walked back toward the La Latina area, where we met up with Kevin, Kentrel, and James. We wandered around La Latina trying to figure out where to eat for a while, and finally settled on a tavern restaurant that Kevin's señora had recommended to him. The food was not bad (the ravioli appetizer thing I got was really good, as was the tinto de verano), but the company was the best part. I laughed so hard talking to the boys and Sophie. We were all just so comfortable with each other, even though it was the first time I had really talked to Kentrel. But it became clear that we get along well, and I think these three boys like talking to us more than to some of the other people in the program, or to bigger groups in general. So...potentially the beginning of a beautiful friendship, haha.Had to come home to Spanish hw (blah) and to getting stuff ready for tomorrow...but no complaints, because tomorrow night I'm flying off to London to see Ana! And on Saturday night, I'll be there with her and her friends watching my first game of this World Cup, USA vs. England. In England. It's going to be sooo good. I'm really, really excited about London. But...I should probably get some sleep before London calls!