​Have you ever wanted to see huge cartoon sculptures in a beach city illuminated with Christmas-like lights? What about walk through city streets with fireworks exploding without warning in front of you, behind you, around the corner, down the street? If that sounds appealing to you I have the perfect festival for you! Las Fallas in Valencia.
 
As negative as that may have sounded, Las Fallas is a festival that everyone should experience once in their life. For more information on the history and traditions visit this website: https://www.visitvalencia.com/en/events-valencia/festivities/the-fallas.
 
Derek’s friend from UMass, Pete, spent the week with us in Madrid and then joined us for the weekend in Valencia. Unfortunately, the weather on Friday and Saturday was not ideal with scattered rain showers and otherwise gloomy days, but Sunday’s weather was gorgeous and everything I was hoping it would be. Friday and Saturday included eating dinner at 12:00 AM, exploring the streets of Valencia into the early hours of the morning, and Pete drinking Spanish hot chocolate, which has the consistency of melted chocolate frosting and resulted in a couple stomachaches.
 
Las Fallas lit Valencia up and made an already beautiful city into a charming town filled with happy, drunk people and crazy, sugar-infused children throwing the loudest fireworks into the street. There was a concert on what felt like every street corner and sculptures depicting different people, characters and scenes. Although we did miss the burning of these sculptures on Monday evening, we saw everything else and are beyond satisfied.
 
Pete might have gotten a little annoyed with us in some instances. For example, when we wanted to go to Port Saplaya, a "mini Venice" near our Airbnb, I may or may not have put in the wrong address and took us 45 minutes in the wrong direction. Once Derek discovered my error based on a clear lack of seawater in sight, we decided to stay where we were and make our way into city center. However, parking spots were understandably limited and after driving in circles for 30 minutes, we decided to head to our first destination, the port. About 30 minutes later, we had made it to the port.
 
A little side note, Spain, especially Valencia, loves circles instead of “normal” intersections. That being said, we pull into the port in the main street which ended in a circle. After missing the turn for the parking lot, we ended up back on the highway and another 17 minutes away from the port. Derek and I were crying laughing, but I don’t think we can say the same for Pete. Sorry Pete!!!!
 
The weekend ended on a higher note with the most gorgeous day and the bluest sky I have ever seen. We spent time on the beach. I took pictures and Derek and Pete grappled. If you saw my snapchat stories, you know what I’m referring to. Every place we went I had to watch them practice jujitsu (grapple) and pretend like it was normal.
 
Unfortunately for Derek, producing videos takes about 100x longer than writing a blog post. So, just like the post about Malaga and Mom, no video today, but enjoy some photos below and try to relax as you anxiously await Derek’s video.  

Next up on MandyandDerek.weebly.com, DAN COMES TO VISIT!!  As I mentioned in my last post, Dan and I will be traveling to Portugal for 5 days. We will be renting a car in the south of Portugal, a city called Albufeira and then drive to Lisbon, and then finish our trip in Porto. 

To commemorate our week with our mom in Spain, Derek has created a short video below. 

Thanks again, Mom. See you soon. ♥︎

Quick update on Mandy and Derek this March. Pete, Derek's friend from UMass, arrived to our apartment this morning. He is spending the week in Madrid with us and will also be joining us for our trip to Valencia for Las Fallas this weekend. 

Pictures, post and a video to come soon!

​Back from our two-month hiatus. Who knew December and January were going to be so busy? Not I. But I do hope everyone enjoyed their time home for holidays as much as we did. Living so far from home and after an extremely busy month (December), being back home with family and friends was needed and appreciated.
 
A quick update to bring everyone up to speed from November to February:
I am about halfway through my second term with just as many projects, assignments and stress as the first term. Derek has started his Spanish classes and is continuing to work with his clients and continue on as Professor Derek.
 
In more exciting news, we had a guest with us this week! Our lovely mother graced us and Madrid with her presence this past week. She arrived on Saturday morning to Terminal 1 where we met and hurried over to Terminal 4 to catch a flight to Malaga – a beach city located in the south of Spain. We spent Saturday and Sunday soaking up the sun, walking along the windy port and hiking up to Alcazaba and Castillo de Gibralfaro. Not only did we get the vitamin D our bodies were desperately in need of, but we also enjoyed delicious food and being back at the beach. See some pictures below as well my new photo series “Mom in front of a wall”.

The rest of the week included the usual tour of Madrid, hitting all the touristy spots and eating lots of yummy food out of our normal budget. (Thanks Mom and Dad) Derek and I are working on our tour guide skills before the rest of our guests travel through. 

As February ends and March begins, we have reached our halfway point of our time in Spain. (*silently crying*) The first five months have been all about getting to know the city and enjoying our new home, but the next five months will be much busier than the last five. Here’s why:
 
Upcoming trips:
March  – Amanda and Derek in Valencia for Las Fallas
March (Spring break) – Amanda and Dan in Portugal (Albufeira, Lison, Porto)
May – Morocco and a possible birthday (Mandy's) weekend trip
June – TBD
July – Northern Spain; Italy with Mom and Dad
August – TBD
 
Upcoming visitors and friends traveling through Madrid:
March: Dan 
April: Aunt Jewelry and Uncle Bob
May: Olivia
June: Stephen Howard (and his parents)
July: Mom and Dad

​Derek visited London on his way back home in December and he has created a video from his 7 hour layover in the city. See below!

If any of you have noticed, Mandy and Derek in Madrid has been a bit inactive. We apologize, but we haven’t had much to post about. 

I’ve been in the process of making a short film about a layover I took in London. Over the past few weeks I have been making then deleting and then remaking this short. 

Long story short – I’m just happy I finished it and can move onto the next movie.

Shout out to my main man Jared aka @Blunt_Action for helping me make the clock animation.

Hope you enjoy the movie and understand why I went.

-Derek

Happy belated Thanksgiving and welcome to the blog post I’ve been trying to write for the past two weeks. The day after our last post, November 15, started as a normal Wednesday – a sleepy Amanda heading to campus for a long day of work, but everything changed around 10 AM. Before heading to campus, Derek bolted out of bed and made his way out of the apartment for “coffee”. Although he has never gone out of his way to get coffee especially at 9:30 AM on a Wednesday, I thought nothing of it and 15 minutes later grabbed the garbage and headed downstairs. As I turned right on the sidewalk to head to the metro, I saw Derek standing on the corner talking to someone. He saw me coming and started walking towards me stammering on about how the bakery right across the street from us doesn’t sell coffee so he was asking people on the street where to have coffee. I was very impressed with his confidence to practice his Spanish. Even more impressing, he offered to take the garbage and throw it out for me. You’d think at this point I’d realize something was going on. Nope. I say bye and start walking to the metro. As I turn the corner, I run into someone standing right next to the building. Annoyed at the inconvenience, I looked up and that annoying stranger was actually my annoying best friend!!!!!!!!!! (Kidding Cara – you’re not annoying) Cara surprised me! So. Badly. I can honestly say this was the biggest surprise and most shocked I have been ever. The surprise can be heard in my voice. Let me know if you have ever heard a voice so high. I finally accept Derek’s nickname for me “little mouse”. Oh, and then Derek proceeded to hand the garbage back to me so I could throw it out. 

​Derek and I had planned our trip to Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, back in October and shortly after Cara surprised me I panicked thinking she wouldn’t be able to come. Those sneaky snakes (Derek, Cara and my mother) had already planned everything out and Cara had her flights to come to Tenerife with us! So, Friday morning we left Madrid for our weekend getaway. Following my well-constructed itinerary, we had a packed schedule. Friday afternoon we explored the area around our hotel and enjoyed some dinner by the sea. We ended the night rather early as we had a 6:30 AM wake up call to go see Mt. Teide, the island’s volcano. They have a cable car that stretches up the volcano. This was the most anticipated activity of the trip (minus the Monkey Park for me) and we wanted to make sure we would have enough time to explore so we arrived one hour early before our scheduled departure. We rented a car for the weekend so we could see as much of the island as possible. So, we drove the hour and a half from the hotel to the base of Mt. Teide, arriving at 8:30 AM. The difference in temperature from the coast to around Mt. Teide was drastic and my “winter” jacket did little to nothing for me. Shivering and sleepy we waited and waited and waited. Finally, at 10 AM, one hour after the set opening time, we decided maybe we should ask someone what was going on. The cable cars were going up and down with staff on board, but no one else was allowed on. Turns out, the cable car was closed for the day due to ice. We were furious, disappointed and cold. 

​We hopped back in the car to drive the hour ride to a town on the west coast of the island, called Garachico. Discouraged but warm, we parked our car and made our way towards the water where we enjoyed gorgeous views, the bluest sky, reflections in the natural pools, and some paella. Our lunch was delicious and interestingly enough, the pigeons were really keen to join our lunch. Cara, with a preexisting fear of birds, almost flipped our table twice and Derek had a pigeon legitimately grab his arm. We are still unsure what the pigeon’s end game was, but either way I don’t think either will ever look at a pigeon the same. Me, on the other hand, I was fine. The birds definitely recognized my calm aura and love for animals and decided not to torture me.
 
Ornithophobia (yes, I looked that up) aside, we left Garachico after a few hours of enjoying the sea and the sun and made our way down Playa de los Gigantes. About an hour drive from Garachico, the beach was located closer to our hotel on the south coast. We made it in time for the sunset and enjoy the remarkable view. Side note: my camera’s battery pack has been broken, but I finally got a new charger just in time for this trip and Playa de los Gigantes did not disappoint. After enjoying the sunset, we drove back to our hotel and collapsed into bed. 

​Sunday, our last day in Tenerife, was beautiful. We headed to the beach in the morning for about an hour and soaked up some much-needed vitamin C and then packed our bags and made our way to the Monkey Park. Monkey Park is basically a zoo, but one of those zoos that you can interact with the animals. In this instance, as soon as we entered the zoo we were met by, I kid you not, at least 100 guinea pigs. Although separated between three different enclosures, the guinea pigs were able to squeeze through the gates and move freely between the slots in the gates. I never realized how much I loved guinea pigs until this day. I fell in love with all of them and never wanted to leave. We were also able to feed little monkeys; however, they were extremely sneaky and smart. They knew what we wanted, to have them climb on us as one naturally wants a wild animal to do, but they just wanted the veggies we had to feed them. It took a little practice, but we all ended up having the monkeys on us. As adorable as all the animals were, we were very disappointed with ourselves for supporting a zoo and I still have regrets about it. Before heading back to the airport, we drove to a nearby beach town and enjoyed the view once more and inhaled some delicious tapas. Our trip seemed to fly by, but it was one of the most beautiful places I have visited and I wish we had more time there.

​The rest of Cara’s time here was just as fun. Unfortunately, I had class all day, but Cara was a go-getter and explored the city on her own. She also met up with family friends because the Singers know someone everywhere! I wish I didn’t have to go to class, but we made the most of the rest of our time together and I couldn’t be more thankful for our very first visitor!
 
And now for the condensed version from Cara’s point of view:

​

​And now Derek finishes up his next two weeks in Madrid before heading back home for a month or so. I will try to survive my final projects, papers and exams before flying back home for Christmas. See Grandma, I told you it was go fast.
 
Enjoy Derek’s latest from Tenerife. Hasta luego. 

It’s been a quick minute – sorry about that! Derek and I have been busy perfecting our new apartment and going about our daily Spanish life. It’s funny how crazy moving to Madrid sounds when you’re in New Jersey, but now that we’re here, it’s just home (for now – settle down).
 
Like I mentioned, this past week and some has been all about purchasing everything we need for our apartment, finding our rhythm and enjoying much-needed quiet time. Some may argue (Dad) that this is a vacation, but let me assure you, while it is definitely not commuting into NYC 9-6 every day, it’s not exactly the same experience as my time in Barcelona. As expected, my master’s program is intensive and many times means 12+ hour days. However, when our classes were cancelled this past week, my classmates acted like middle schoolers the day before summer vacation. You would’ve thought we were given a full reimbursement for the degree – a girl can dream. Because my program is a short 10 months, we have “crash courses”, which involve a week focused on one class for 6 hours a day. Our first crash course on ethics and corporate governance was supposed to be this past week, but due to the professor’s illness, the course was rescheduled for term 2. When I heard the news, I immediately looked up flights home and then swiftly talked myself out of it and appreciated the $900 I didn’t spend on a flight. But of course, I still miss my people.
 
So instead of flying home, I spent the past week doing many errands that I had been putting off, as well as exploring our beautiful city. We shopped around the weekly El Rastro Market, explored the Tabacalera Promoción del Arte, and visited the stunning Royal Palace. Derek, my friend Ale (pronounced Ally) and I spent the whole morning and afternoon enjoying the elaborate decorations and rooms filled with armor. Fun fact - although the royal family does not currently live in the palace, the palace is still regularly used to host other important people to drink very important tea.  Waiting on my invite - will keep you all updated.

Most recently, we spent our entire Saturday in the charming city Toledo. Located about a 30-minute high-speed train ride away, it is the perfect day trip from Madrid. We spent the day walking through the streets, admiring the many religious buildings and taking our jackets on and off. It was an insanely gorgeous day in the sun and a very chilly day in the shade. Don’t you worry, I wore three layers and a scarf. While we do enjoy visiting the many tourist attractions, Derek and I have a deep appreciation for nature and enjoying the quieter parts of the cities we visit. We visited a common landmark, Mirador del Valle, that allows visitors to enjoy a full view of the city. While we admired the city and I popped an excederin for my migraine, Derek saw some rocks up a mountain and decided that was our next destination. My headache didn’t improve on the way up, but somehow was magically better once we reached the top. Haters will say it was the excederin. I say it was the warm sun, comfortable rock and silence. We left the top of the rock, made our way back down to the center and nibbled on some tapas to hold us over until we were back in Madrid.

Enjoy some pictures, but more importantly don't forget to watch Derek's video!

CONTEST ALERT
Despite the brevity of this blog post, we do have something exciting for our lovely readers! In the last video Derek created, he hid a set of numbers in one of the scenes. Now the ~fun~ part, if you are interested in a receiving a tiny gift from Spain, go back to the last video from Manzanares el Real and pay careful attention to when I am shopping in the local market. When you find the set of numbers, comment them below. The first person to find the numbers wins the prize! Confused? Too bad. Best of luck!
Xo.
 
Ps. Our weekly special people shout out below. 

Sorry for the delay! Here is the video about our trip to Manzanares el Real. 

-Derek

​Happy one month anniversary to us! As of yesterday, October 28, it has been exactly one month since we arrived in this beautiful country.
 
Last weekend Madrid held a free art festival called Luna de Octubre. The program converted various parts of the city into canvases for different art exhibits that lit up the night. The event started at 9:00 PM and ended at 3:00 AM. When we originally saw how long it went on for, we laughed, but it turned out every minute was necessary. We arrived at 10:00 PM and left at 2:30 AM and didn’t even see every exhibit! Why go into more detail when Derek has created a video to show you guys what we saw? Enjoy.

​This past week has been very busy for me as we get deeper into the program. I spent majority of my days on campus, as expected, and used my free time to read, eat, sleep and turn off my brain for a bit. I can’t believe I used to think an hour class was long. This past week has also been very busy and exciting for Derek! He has decided to get his student visa and do a Spanish language immersion class starting in February 2018. He will go back to the states early December to get his visa in order before returning to Spain in January. The program he is doing will allow him to take classes as well as make money as a teacher/tutor. In the meantime, he has lined up various tutoring sessions.
 
This past weekend wins as best weekend in October. Friday night, Derek and I checked out Stock! Feria Outlet Madrid, which was located a little bit outside the city in an area called Casa de Campo in a glass pavilion. It was basically a huge flea market, but with brands like Vans, Levi’s, Calvin Klein (Derek’s favorite), and more. Sure, there were better brands at big discounts, but it was just as crowded and claustrophobic as a flea market, which is probably why Derek and I didn’t try to seriously shop – minus looking for a pink furry jacket which I still have not been able to find. (Santa?) There were also about 10-15 food trucks there with live music and cotton candy! Failed shopping trip, but fun night.

Saturday is the real reason why this weekend wins as best weekend in October. We woke up early to take a 45-minute bus outside of the city to a town called Manzanares El Real. Located at the base of Pedriza, a part of the Sierra de Guadarrama (Guadarrama mountains), this little town is gorgeous. By the end of the day Derek was done hearing me call everything cute – from the old man we met to the other old man we saw at the bus stop to the birds that looked like mini-seagulls – you get the point. Regardless of my lack of synonyms for cute, we had a very busy day visiting one of the castles in town, Castillo de los Mendoza, as well as hiking along the Río Samburiel, the river that leads into the big reservoir, Embalse de Santillana and enjoying the local craft beer festival and flea market, Feria de la Cerveza Artesana. Once again, rather than going into more detail, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Derek is working on a video and we will share it as soon as it's done.

The only thing I do want to share with you is my near-death experience and the dumbest moment in my life thus far. As we hiked to the river, we came across a cow or so we thought. He was in the middle of the field along a stream leading into the mostly dried up Rio Samburiel. First thing I said was “Oh my gosh. Look at that cow – how cute!” We decided to walk on the field at get a closer look as well admire the beautiful mountains around us. I assume the river was at one point huge considering there were various entrances onto the field/river for fishing. Entering through one of those gates, we sat down to take some pictures and watch the cow graze. Photographer Mandy saw what a cool picture it would be to have the cow and the mountain range in the same shot and animal-loving Mandy wanted a closer look at the cow. So, I make my way down towards the stream he is grazing by and stood opposite him. I took a video of the scene, which you can see below. Watch until the very end.

In case you missed the last second.

 The very last second of the video you see the cow turn his head and look directly at me. My stomach dropped and I slowly backed away as he continued to pierce my soul with his big eyes. He didn’t take his eyes off me for about 30 seconds and I forgot to breathe for about 30 seconds more. Fast forward three or so hours later on our way back to the town, we see the same cow from the bridge that goes across the river, now field. I obviously start jumping around and successfully trying to get his attention. He sees me and starts running under the bridge to the other side of the field, which immediately makes me wonder – why is this cow running? I then send the two videos to our family group chat to which my dad asks if the “cow” was a wild bull. I finally put it together – cows don’t have horns, they don’t have bulging muscles, they normally aren’t all white, and they definitely don’t run. I then immediately realized how stupid I was by getting so close to him. Derek thought it would be a good time to go through what would happen if the bull decided to run after me and attack me. Just a short excerpt: I’d be lying mangled in the field as he ran and tried to distract the bull and then we’d both be lying mangled in the field. See below for the video of the bull running and me being excited like the oblivious girl I am. 

This week's blog is dedicated to three very special fans. To be featured in next week's blog FaceTime us, Whatsapp us, wire us money or send us a letter.

Thank you for being so patient this past week. I know you have been anxiously awaiting our newest blog post and so here it is. It’s almost the weekend and you still don’t know what we did last weekend! Que lástima. Below are the highlights:
 
Exactly one week ago, October 12, I had off from classes for Spain’s national holiday, Fiesta Nacional de España, which is Spain’s Columbus Day. Just like in the United States, they have a day to “commemorate” Columbus arriving in America to enslave the Native Americans and spread diseases! All “jokes” aside, the fiesta felt more like a celebration of Spain rather than a celebration of Christopher Columbus. Either way, the parade started around 11 AM and it was packed. Gabriela’s apartment is very close to the plaza the parade ended in, so we were nice and close to the festivities. From what I could see of the parade from my viewpoint (see photo below), it consisted of rows and rows of military cars, trucks, tanks, and boats, but more importantly a car with a dog standing on the hood. Yes, a real-life dog STANDING on the hood of a car as it drove past. If I didn’t think Spain was cool already, you can only imagine what I think now. I also was able to watch all the horses unload and get put back in their mobile stables. (Honestly, unsure if that’s what the truck is called, but you get the point.) ​Because it was Spain’s national holiday, museums were free! So after the parade, Derek and I headed over to Museo de Prado to save the normal entrance fee of 18 euros and see Madrid’s most famous museum.

Friday blurred right into Saturday and began with a taste of good ol’ America (cereal). Derek and I visited Cereal Hunters Café in Malasaña, a hip, young neighborhood. Due to a mildly cold refrigerator, I have consumed less cereal in these past few weeks than I have ever in my life, which is probably for the better. Regardless, mildly cold milk couldn’t keep us away from a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and pink milk (for an extra .40 euros)! It was the most expensive bowl of cereal we’ve ever consumed, but the pink milk was a beautiful touch. After we had our cereal, we shopped for a bit in the area and stopped in Telefonica’s Museo de Telecomunicaciones. The museum walked visitors through the history of telecommunications as well as featured a 3D printing exhibit with some trippy pieces that Derek enjoyed.

​After the museum, we were starving because our medium bowl of cereal didn’t quite fill us up – what a surprise! We stopped at Oven Mozzarella Bar for some delicious pizza to fuel us before our trek to Parque del Oeste. We wanted to go on the park’s cable car that has city-wide views, but once we arrived we found the line to be so absurdly long that we decided to make the cable car a weekday activity. On our way through the park, we came across a beautiful garden with rows and rows of flowers, as seen in Derek’s video. We also stumbled upon some zombies chasing after a group of people dressed all in black. Don’t ask what was going on because we don’t know. So many props to the zombies for staying in character, getting that limp down and really giving their moans and groans all they had. Our final destination of the day was Templo de Debod to witness the sunset as it set behind the 2,000+ year old temple that was gifted to Spain from Egypt. Unfortunately, everyone else heard the temple has great views at sunset. Even more unfortunate, the sunset was terrible. At least we had a good time watching teenage girls have photoshoots to presumably be posted on their Instagram pages for over 100 likes or else they’re deleting it. 

​You’ll never guess what Derek convinced me to do on Sunday. WORK OUT! Gabriela’s apartment is close to Parque Santander, which has an extremely large “footing path” as well as an outdoor workout park. Too many pushups later, I was out of breath and barely holding onto life, but hey I finally stopped being sore today. Fun fact about Parque Santander – they built a humungous activity center in the middle of it, including a golfing range, a chip and putt, and soccer fields, but closed it when they realized no one in Madrid plays golf. We ended our Sunday and weekend sunbathing by a pool filled with fountains.
 
Before closing out this week’s blog post, Derek and I have chosen an apartment! Yay! It is still a 15-minute walk from my campus and located in a safe area. We will be living in a studio apartment and will have a shower that has a tanning bed, spa jets and music. Confusing, right? We don’t have a picture to show right now, but use your imagination and expect one sometime in November. 

It hasn’t even been two weeks and it feels like we have been living here for months. Now that we are moved into our homestay, we are much happier and much more comfortable. However, the past week has been very busy for both Derek and me.

It was orientation week for me, which included a trip on Monday to IE’s Segovia campus, some networking events, and a lot of workshops. The workshops mainly focused around ethics, “career fitness”, and technology. My ethics professor is actually a graduate from UMass and has been living in Spain for over 6 years with her Spanish husband and kids. A big trend I have noticed with many of the non-Spanish students and faculty, is that a significant number of them moved here either for their significant other or with their significant other. (Dan, where are you?!) I have been getting to know my classmates more and more each day and I am learning so much about the world, especially in the geography department. It is quite embarrassing how terribly inept I am when it comes to world geography or even the geography of the US. Because I have new friends from countries I have never met anyone from before, I may or may not secretly visit google maps to find their country. Yes, embarrassing, but at least I am learning! Although the true learning had not yet started, I was wiped at the end of each day, which made our 9:30 PM dinner time even more challenging.

Derek spent last week job hunting and possibly even a little bit of soul searching. He visited over 15 schools to submit his CV (European equivalent to a resume) and heard back from two schools so far. He interviewed with a language academy and was offered a position to tutor two young boys as well as employees of a Spanish company. The job required a full commitment until June 2018, and Derek isn’t sure where he’ll be in June 2018, let alone January 2018. So, he turned down that offer and had interview on Monday with another language academy.

After wrapping up our first full week in Madrid, Derek and I spent the weekend exploring the city. Saturday, we finally visited the botanical gardens, Real Jardín Botánico. By finally, I mean that we tried to visit the weekend before, but the gardens were about to close and the line was so long. And if you know anything about me, you know that any garden is the first place I want to visit, especially in a big city. However, by the time we got to the garden on Saturday after stopping for some lunch and waiting on the line, we only had about an hour inside before we were kicked out via really loud whistles. There were many beautiful flowers and super cute bonsai trees, but in reality, I wasn’t impressed. I’m giving the garden the benefit of the doubt that because it is fall, even if it doesn’t feel like it, the flowers are not in their prime. There is no question, however, that I will be back for my student discount and a longer visit.

Sunday, we spent the first half of our day at the Mercado de Motores, a flea market located in Madrid’s train museum, which was created inside an old train station. The market is held the second weekend of each month. Inside the museum, different local stores set up their tables with either clothing, food or jewelry. To the right of the museum was the true flea market with tables of antiques and your normal flea market treasures. There was a 6-man band entertaining the crowd as they ate from food carts and danced. Spanish people LOVE dancing. It’s great to watch. Derek and I sat there for about 30-40 minutes just enjoying the band’s remake of “Baby don’t hurt me” and watching the people dance. After the market, Derek and I made our way to Parque de El Retiro. The park is 350 acres, which is small compared to Central Park’s 843 acres, according to Wikipedia, but it felt huge. We wandered our way through the park, stopping to watch a men’s league football (soccer) game, to take some pictures and videos and to most importantly, walk through the adoption event the city was holding! Talk about a great surprise. By the time we finished ogling the dogs and cats, the sun was about to set and we were starving.

​This week is my first true week of my program. Throughout my program I will have workshops, intensive crash courses, and of course, a set schedule of classes. My first group presentation is next week, so needless to say I have some work to do. 0 to 100 real fast.