Entry 9

Salut! Ok seriously... the weather needs to make up its mind here. The week after my parents left it got really cold. I woke up one morning and didn't want to get out of bed because my room was so cold. Then I looked out the window to see it was like a blizzard outside. Being from Texas and fascinated by snow... I jumped out of bed and went to a coffee shop for a cafe and an amazing snowy morning. So it was great for one day. Then I was sick again of the cold. We didn't go out a lot last week because of the cold and rain. My host sister taught me how to dance rock. Its kind of like swing dancing, but there are more steps before each turn. It was really fun and I am glad I am really bonding with her because she is coming to live with me this summer for a month. I helped her parents buy the plane ticket on continental.com. That was interesting because I was trying to explain all the policies etc. Friday, Emma and I took a bus to Lyon where we caught our Easy Jet flight to Madrid. Easy Jet.... well its cheap. The airplane resembles a hooters on the inside. All white and orange. The flight attendants are all dressed in orange. Our pilot thought that you landed the plane by doing a nose dive. Hmmmm. So it was cheap and a little sketchy, but we got there. When we arrived in Madrid, we took a cab to our hotel. Its a huge city. A little like New York. Our cab driver was trying desperately to tell us about all the things we were passing, but Emma nor I speak any Spanish. I know hola and bueno. Thats not really enough to get you around Spain. I had the "I have no idea what you are talking about" look on my face the entire weekend. Once we put our stuff in the hotel we headed out for an authentic Spanish meal. We ended up at the TGI Fridays across the street having a burger. I know I know... pathetic... but sometimes you just need a taste of home. It was incredible. After that we shopped a little and waited for Matt to get in. Matt got in around 11pm and left his bag in the taxi which he chased down the street with no success. The reason we came to Spain was to meet up with Matt's mom who was visiting Matt's cousin because she goes to school permanently in Madrid. So we met up with Matt's cousin and her Spanish boyfriend. They took us to a bar to "pre-party" before the clubs opened up at 3am. Apparently they usually end the night around 8 or 9am... and the really hard core people go to the clubs that open at 8am and stay open until 1pm. We definitely didn't make it that late. Around 4am we were spent. The next day we walked around the beautiful park in Madrid. We took row boats out on the lake and Matt and his little cousins got a caricature. Then we went to Museo del Prado which was incredible. Of course after the stimulating Museum visit we had to shop again. So we did. That night we went to dinner with Matt's family and then went to bed because it was daylight savings time and we were losing an hour. Emma and I had to catch our flight at 7:40am. We slept through our 5am wake up call and woke up when the hotel called and told us our cab was there. Before I knew it we were back in Grenoble and I slept the rest of the day. This week has been warmer and relatively uneventful. I have been running a lot by the river near campus and that has been nice. This weekend me Matt, Glendon, and one of Matt's friends from college are going to Barcelona. I will have to let you know how that goes. Miss you all! Ciao!