"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

I'm sorry, I'm falling out of the habit of writing consistently. Other than Laura coming to visit, which unfortunately was a little less social than we hoped, nothing much has happened.

Laura came to visit. She arrived Thursday night at 11ish, and we came back and went to RedSprint for her dinner, a dinner of champions. We went to bed once we got in, because Sara was already asleep. Except instead of going to sleep we talked and caught up for a while. The next day we went to school to check email and such as my internet was, surprise surprise, out of commission; and I took her to La Tienda Verde for lunch. Then we took the metro to the Alberto Aguilera Zara and El Corte Inglés, spent a while in Zara and walked around 5 or 6 of the 7 floors of El Corte Inglés. Had to show her Madrid's clothing culture at Zara and the ridiculously expensive convenience of El Corte. We walked down towards Parque del Oeste, which is really not much of a park, past Templo de Debod, which is under restauration, to the Palacio Real. She took some lovely pictures, like she tends to do, and then we snaked through to Sol by way or Calle Mayor, where I did my first real souveneir shopping and ended up with next to nothing. I showed her Km 0, and we walked back north to my residencia, where we sat and caught up some more before eating dinner. Not many people were in town for the weekend, so I didn't really know what to do at night; and those who were home were not really interested in going out. We ended up having a botellón (pre-game), with €1.50 Don Simon Sangria, in Segundo's room in the residencia with some Spaniards and Americans. We hung out there for a long while, until we realized we were kind of tired and people started to leave and, despite pre-gaming there was no game, so Laura and I went to bed.

The next day we got up and went for a tour of Santiago Bernabeu Fútbol Stadium, where Real Madrid plays. It was a drizzly day, we bought the tickets and then waited in line for a good 45 minutes. We saw the stands and the benches where the players sit during the game. We were apparently supposed to see the locker room (to smell the sweat of Sergio Ramos and David Beckham!) but it was closed because it was a game day. We went through the trophy room, which was ridiculously jam-packed with trophies, and to the official store. So many clothes! I wanted to get a Sergio Ramos replica shirt or a long-sleeve blank replica shirt, but there were no price tags. So we had to get in line to get to the register and see how much they were... a slight miscommunication and when I thoguht I bought the cheaper one for €45, I ended up with the more expensive one (the long-sleeve) for a rather exorbitant amount of money that I'd rather not say until I've had the chance to explain to Mother and Father. I may return it still, but I may keep it because that was the one thing I planned of buying before I even came. After that, Laura and I took the metro back and ate at Rodilla, a sandwich shop and then went to the residencia for a rather long siesta. I didn't actually get to the sleeping part, but Laura did. Then we ate some residencia dinner and tried to figure out what to do. Once again, I couldn't get anyone else to come out, despite great efforts, so after a long time we decided on going salsa dancing in Sol. But first, we bought some coke and some red wine and made calimotxo, yum. Then my internet started working and we thought of how fun it would be to call some people back home through Skype. We talked to Kasie and Brianna for about 1.5 to 2 hours (it cost me about $2, how great is that?!) and then went to Sol at midnight. Oh, I will also mention that Brianna was walking with a freshman rookie on the rugby team, as in a new player we haven't met, so we had Brianna put her on the phone and we introduced ourselves. She'd heard great things about us and was honored to meet us... telephonically. This satisfied our egos quite well and we went on our way to salsa. It was fun, like always pretty much. Guys always ready to dance with American girls who they think are easy, so they are pacient and teach you how sort of and then, at the opportune moment, you go to the bathroom and "get lost" for a bit and find a new partner. But we just left after the first partners, we'd been dancing for an hour or so, plus I got us in for free by acting uninterested in a club you had to pay for. We went for churros at 2:30 am, it was packed, they were yummy. We went back to the residencia, Sara was still hanging out with the Spanish guys in the residencia, and we went to bed. Laura had to leave the next morning at 11 to catch her flight back. It was a good weekend.

I had texted Lucía to ask about getting a tour at the stadium because Ana works there, and she gave me the info and asked to meet for lunch on Sunday with her sisters. So I met them at El Corte Inglés on Alberto Aguilera and C/ Princesa, and we ate a Gino's. It was fun... I kind of felt like the really quiet, adopted 4th sister almost. They were teasing each other like sisters do when not in the presence of parents. I told them about my Spain's languages/dialects paper, and they told me they'd studied that in Bachillerato (high school) so they brought me back to their piso to borrow some books. I borrowed one from each of them. They're actually really interesting. I went home and that was that. I regret being as quiet as I was. Why am I so awkward?! How come I can write for years, but I never know what to talk about? I'm better at monologues, I guess, singular activity. But I tried to keep the conversations going as much as possible, I know I was too quiet though. I was also out of practice of Spanish. Sara is so used to speaking English to me now, as it is the language she naturally speaks to most of her friends and her sister, and it's hard to get to speak Spanish. And because she doesn't speak Spanish, I'm too insecure to start into it. So I'm working on it.