A cute pic of me and Alcyn that I wanted to include:



Day #2 (Saturday)
This was a LONG day. But very fun! We started out the morning at around noon. I got a bocadillo (baguette sandwich) at the mercado (market) and Linda and Alcyn (my roommates) got some fruta (fruit) and yogurt. Then we headed for our first trip to the Metro to go to the US Embassy to register there so the embassy can keep track of us. Our metro pass for 10 trips was 6.15 euro (we think the school is giving us free monthly passes so we're excited for that).
We got to our stop and headed towards the embassy which was about 8 blocks away-a little bit of a walk. And we realized that not only was the embassy closed but we can only register on Tuesdays!!! What a wasted trip. We stopped by this cool section filled with sculptures and stuff under one of the roads. The waterfall is really neat. We stopped a few places just kind of looking but I kept my eye out for a plug adapter for my computer (I have an adapter for other things but my computer has 3 prongs and the adapter I have only has 2 holes for prongs). Something interesting is that apparently in Spain, the "victoria's secret" type store is called Women's Secret.
We then went on our way to Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. Plaza Mayor is a big "square" of restaurants that are pretty expensive but it's a tourist type of place and then Puerta del Sol is very close and it is a big plaza type place with many shops around it. There's a big statue with a guy on a horse. I'll have to get pictures of both places later. Anyway, we were on our way to the Plaza but then asked a lady how to get to Eroski (which I read is Spain's equivalent of Walmart) so we decided to go to Eroski. We had to ask 3 different people how to get to it and FINALLY found it and it is NOTHING like walmart. It was basically a grocery store. Too much work for groceries. However, they did have a 6 packs of good canned beer for about .50 euro (65 cents). SWEET!
After our trip to Eroski, we had to get a phone for Linda to use while here. We had a horrible time trying to understand the lady and what the phone was all about but we finally got it. Then we were on the hunt for an adaptor. We learned the words enchufe (outlet) and clavija (plug) during this search. We were looking for a clavija adaptadora but we didn't know that until we found it. So we went to the Cortes Ingles (the Sears equivalent) and they told us to go to the other building a block away (what a huge place-2 buildings!) and it would be there. We asked about 3 people what department they were in and we figured out they were in the ferreteria (hardware store) section. We asked a worker there to help us find it and we found them!!! So once we were up at the counter to pay, an older more knowledgable worker refused to let us buy them (in a very nice and good and helpful way) because they were the wrong kind. He actually went to the back room to get them because they were out of them on the shelves (the reason we got the wrong kind in the first place). 11.70 euro for an adapter! Oh well, it was necessary and so much work.
So then we tried to find some food-we wanted Paella (traditionally rice with whatever spices and some veggies and seafood) without the seafood. We didn't know what exactly we wanted so we looked around for a bit. There was a guy playing music on wine glasses which was really neat.
Finally we asked a police officer that was standing around if there was a good place with cheap paella around. He gave us directions and of course we got lost! So we found them again and escorted us to the spot he was talking about with many restaurants but we thought he was talking about a specific restaurant so kept looking and found another place which ended up being 10euro a person to share a HUGE serving of paella. O yeah, P.S. there was a beer tap-at our table!To back track, we did end up making friends with the policeman (se llama Israel-his name is Israel) and he gave us his number and we gave ours to him and he said if we ever needed help with anything we could call. We're still trying to figure out if he was hitting on us or being nice.
So after dinner we went home and thought our night was over. But Alcyn and I decided to go have one drink. Well we discovered that wandering the streets, you can get free passes to clubs (which can cost around 10 euro) and sometimes copas gratis (free drinks). So we went into 1 club and got our free shots (of probably juice-very little alcohol). It wasn't very great so we left. We got another coupon this time for a bar called Sala Heineken (there was also the name LoveStation.com on there so we were a little worried). We figured we'd go and get our free drink and leave if it was 'scary.' We got lost again so we went back to the hostal and Alcyn changed her shoes and we grabbed Linda (who was going to go to sleep) and tried again to find the "love station." After a long walk we finally found it (not before stopping at another bar for a free shot-with a little more alcohol this time). It was a pretty upscale disco with 2 dance floors (downstairs-techno, upstairs-spanish pop). We each grabbed a drink (6euro for a beer and 8euro for a gin and tonic and 8euro for a vodka tonic) and danced the night away. And into the morning until about 5am!!! We finally headed home and went to bed at about 6am. How crazy of a night was that?!!! I'll write about Day #3 tomorrow (during day #4) until I'm caught up. Les amo mucho! (I love you guys very much).
Aly