A visit from my dear Swedish friend.

 

It was awesome to see Kim! She lived in Utah two years ago and we because great friends. She flew out from Sweden and spent the weekend with me here in Madrid. We went to the boat pond and did a little photo shoot by some columns and went the the very top of a building in Madrid to see the beautiful view. Then we came home and reminisced about the good old days of good old war and shopping at thrift stores and buying really ugly sweaters that my mom openly hated but secretly loved. It was definitely a highlight of my month seeing her.

This is me doing my "American Smile" because, according to Kim, American's do a really big smile in pictures. I guess I may look overly enthusiastic.  But I hadn't seen Kim for 2 years!

 

  

 

 

El Escorial & A Castle

 

This little boy has class! Loafers and a quilted navy coat. 

 More people were taking pictures of the lamborghini than of the castle.

Madrid, Spain IV

 

  

The lovely Retiro Park once again.

 

All of you probably miss my boisterous laugh SO much..

REAL Madrid Soccer Game

REAL Madrid was great. It was actually very exciting, and the hour and a half long game literally only felt like 20 mins. It was the strangest thing. Pictured above: Abby, Megan, Alexis, Leigh.

GOOOOOL!!!

It's like the Conference Center...but way bigger.

Yelle Live in Madrid!

I cannot believe I saw Yelle live. Amazing. I realized I have so many great memories of Yelle. I'm getting sentimental so I'll share one of those memories. The first time I did poorly on a test at BYU (and the last...just kidding) I was traumatized and so my cousin Nicki and I drove up to the top of the Zion's Bank parking structure in Provo and had a private dance party to Yelle. It was one of my top 5 dance parties. I wish Nicki could have danced with me at Yelle. One of the many great events of the night was when I asked this stranger (pictured above) to take a photo of us because Brittan and I forgot our cameras! And the kind stranger actually remembered to email me this photo. What a great guy. Oh and the other great part about asking this stranger to take our picture was that he spoke English. And 5 mins into our conversation with them Brittan asked me "Wait, what language are they speaking?" It was really loud in there.

 

For those of you who aren't familiar with Yelle, their most popularly known for "tecktonik" dancing (which is all the rage in Europe). This is the video which first introduced me to Yelle.

 

And this is a video from the concert (found on YouTube). Good thing everyone else remembered their cameras.  I was there you guys! Dancing tecktonik in the corner.

Madrid, Spain III

Rastro Market, Madrid. It was amazing. My favorite part (besides the baffled spongebob balloon owner) was all of the cute clothes I bought which are going to make my suitcase really heavy. And I also loved the old lady to the right. I went and talked to her for a few minutes. I probably want to be her when I grow up because she was really nice and she creates beautiful works of art. I wanted to buy one of her paintings but I accidentally spent all my money on clothes. (You guys, I got some really great things.)

Okay, the Reina Sofia Museum may or may not be better than the Prado Museum. It's a close one. Basically I was really inspired after the Reina Sofia, and I probably want the entire third floor's collection hanging in my future house. It was so fun! Wow. Everything is fun here. I feel like I have the new best day of my life every new day!

 

There was a man who lives in this apartment waiting for us to take the picture so he could go into his house. Hence the awkward surprised pose in the photo. However, the door was beautiful and I had to capture this day to remember it always. 

Now I'm going to make a list about how much I loved today (it started out as a sentence but I loved today too much that now I have to make a list):

• The sun was shining so perfectly and the weather was not too hot or too cold. 
• I wore the boots that Luisa just gave me. Her daughter did not want them anymore - lucky day, right? I got three pairs of great new shoes for free! It's because my aura attracts cheap/free things.
• Our class got let out early! Plus I love my grammar teacher because she rambles and she has a great personality. 
• My wonderful mother sent me really cute postcards that I hung on my wall. Receiving those definitely added to the quality of my day. (Mom, you're the best.)
• We ate a delicious lunch of tuna (Spain tuna is amazing) and pasta and Manchego cheese (I want my wedding cake made out of Manchego cheese).
• Then we went to the bus stop and the weather was still amazing and I felt like everything I looked at was so beautiful - even the man picking his nose as he drove by. Oh and there was a really mini old little blue car that I wanted to put in my suitcase to bring home with me - why not, it's already going to weigh a ton! (literally, it could weight a ton.)
• The train ride to Madrid was great. Megan and I had a casual heart to heart and we ate a delicious mandarin (the fruit here is amazing).
• The Reina Sofia Museum matches my lifestyle so I loved everything there. 
• After the museum, Megan and I bought chocolate milkshakes (with whipped cream on top) and ate them on a cute little table on the plaza and there were birds flying all around us and interesting people everywhere and Mary Poppins singing "Feed the Birds"...actually Mary Poppins wasn't there but she could have been that's how unreal life is!
• We got home and ate some fruit and cookies.
• Then Luisa came home cooked us/commanded us to eat more delicious food and then told me I had to finish off the rest of the whipped cream from the can which was easy since I love whipped cream (it will top my Manchego cheese wedding cake - my two favorite things)
• I bought a great new CD for our weekend trip to Avila, Salamanca & Valladolid. We are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning.
• Then we ate some flan.

I'm thinking serious thoughts as I eat a delicious breakfast tortilla. It's a crepe and pancake fused together. Definite favorite.