"We do not look in our great cities for out best morality."

DIOS MIO! I got to Madrid 2 hrs late because US Airways decided the minute everyone was seated in the plane would be a good time to delay the flight 2 hrs on account of inclement weather. The group of about 18 kids in the Fall API Suffolk Univ program, myself included, stayed in La Hotel Regina for 2 nights for orientation. We went to the Palacio Real, which is the Royal Palace, but the king and queen don't live there anymore because it's too big and opulent. I took a ton of pictures that I most unfortunately cannot upload right now because I'm in La Biblioteca de Computadoras, and I forgot my power strip for my lappy. My friend Courtney is rather artsy and she kept taking really artsy pictures of art in the palacio, so another girl (Looora from Long Guylind) and I tried to be artsy too but we got tired of it really quickly. Some of the girls and I went to a little outdoor cafe for lunch and towards the end of our meal, which was accompanied with some tasty sangria, a grandmother and granddaughter (about our age) sat down next to us. The grandmother turned and asked in a German accent "You are Americans too?" We were sort of thrown off for a minute or two until the granddaughter spoke in an American accent. They travel to Europe every two years for 10 days, and they came to Spain this year. The granddaughter takes online classes while she's here to keep up with college, and she asked us all about study abroad, so as old pros to study abroad (this was the 2nd day and most of us felt like we should be dead asleep at the moment from jet lag) we were only to happy to talk all about ourselves. Turns out they are from Baltimore too, only I forget where but not too close.

And that reminds me, everyone is from New England. Boston, Rhode Island, and NY. There are the 2 Minnesoootans, a girl from Seattle who goes to William and Mary, and a girl from South Carolina.

Anyway, Friday we went to El Museo del Prado and I got to see the actual Las Meninas and Las Lanzas by Diego Velazquez. I did a presentation on Velazquez in 11th grade and it was quite thrilling to finally see the originals. We moved into our places of residence Friday afternoon. I live in Residencia Palacio de Barradas. I don't how the royal palace and my residencia can possibly have the same word in their titles (palacio). I'm pretty sure I've somehow turned in Harry Potter and been given the cupboard under the stairs to live in with a roommate. I saw the other API students' rooms at Barradas, and they're nowhere near as bad. Their armoires are twice our size, they have a mirror, they have shelves, all their power sockets work, and they have more than one shower/toilet/sink to share with 10 people. If all our rooms looked like this, I would suck it up, but I seem to have gotten "wicked shafted" as the New Englanders say. Also, my roommate is Gisella, one of the girls I had shared a hotel room with, and both of us really wanted a Spanish roommate. Plus the API director, Quique [ki'ke], told us they wanted to put everyone with Spanish people. So Gisella and I are going to ask if something can be done about the roommate thing on Tuesday when the residencia director will be here.

Thursday night, we went bar hopping... literally. We all went out to dinner at some Spanish chain restaurant Zahara. And we ordered 5 jarras (pitchers) of sangria, which is Spain's specialty drink, red wine and brandy and some fruit juices and such (it's really just spiked KoolAid). We decided to just split the bill up evenly, and I only ended up having to pay for my dinner, not the sangria. Then some lady gave us cards to get into a new club Comma with a free shot. We went in, took the shot and left because the place was really too funky and gothy. Then we went to a place called O'Connel St or something like that, which was supposed to be an American/Irish pub, the Yankees game was on. We stayed there for a while, then went next door to Dubliners, another Am/Ir pub, where the New Zealand Austrailia rugby game was on. I did next to no socializing in Dubliners because I've never seen a real rugby game, on tv or in person. (I feel that college rugby does not count because most of us are just learning.) Then we left and someone else gave us a card for Joy. Some weirdo American hollywood wannabe club with 10Euro beers. I was not into this place at all and we only stayed for about 15 minutes because one guy (Rob's) camera fell and broke, and around the same time, another guy (Max from Long Guylind) got into a minor argument with the bouncer who then proceeded to slap Max which knocked him to the ground. Max and Rob being drunk and pissed off males from NY and Boston, we left before they killed people. A girl, Kari, had her wallet stolen out of her purse. But honestly, she's a little superficial and not too street wise, so I don't think she was at all focused on her purse at the time. Then Rob was standing outside the hotel trying to fix his camera with a few other people and some 13 yr old kid came running by and stole his camera right out of his hand. Madrid stays up til 6am, wakes up at 11am, lunches/naps at 2pm, eats dinner at 10pm, and goes out at midnight. We got home that night at 4am. We are not madrilenos yet, we can tell by how tired and cranky we were the next day. How do they do it? I'll try to find out and let you know.

I called Lucia yesterday and we talked for a while and she said she'd call me today about spending the day with her and her family tomorrow. She hasn't called yet, but it's only 6:15, not even dinner time. She is actually going to Universidad de San Pablo CEU or something like that, which is actually like a sister school to Suffolk University. They are right across the street from each other. She starts classes Mon, I start Tues. We're like sisters!!! Only she's one of the million gorgeous spanish women, and I'm just an American trying to blend in.

I think I should go now, because I've been in the computer lab for an hour. People keep poking their heads in, it seems almost like I'm not supposed to be here right now. When we get the wireless working, I'll be more available. Til then... Que te vayas bien! Adios! Salud!