"Please describe your idea of a perfect date." "That's a tough one. I'd have to say April 25th. Because it's not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket." -Miss Congeniality

. . . . Or it would be a day in Retiro Park. Seriously, it is the most awesomely awesome place. You can walk around the park, row boats, look at the fountains, feed the ducks, go in the gardens, lay on blanket and have picnic in the grass, cuddle on previously mentioned blanket, get some ice cream, and ride bikes. Totally cliche and straight out of a rom-com cheesefest? Yes. Do I care even the slightest? NO. It would be too amazing. But before I continue gushing about Retiro, I'll back track to last Saturday and catch ya'll up on this past week.

Last Saturday we went to Dubliners again and then to Kapital. Which is 7 stories. 7 stories of club. A club of 7 stories. A club which is made up of 7 stories. 7 stories all of which consist of club. No matter how I put this there is no way to comprehend how massive it truly is unless you have been there. Dubliners was same old same old and perfect for pre-gaming the club.

Blue tongues from sex appeals, a delicious drink for achieving drunk

Floor 1 with the foooggg
( yes i pulled this off of google images)

Floor 7, or 6. . i think 

Then we went on our merry way to Kapital following Guillermo, who we had run into at Dubliners, down the streets of Madrid. He's a native who Lian and I met our first week in Madrid at Dubliners. He borders on club promoter/ a nightlife guide to US kids. He also may win the title for the most consistently happy person in the world. He may have already won and just has yet to tell me he's won such an award. When we got to Kapital it was 15 euro cover charge that came with two drinks. And when I say drinks I don't mean some watered down cop out. I'm talking a glass thats all alcohol with maybe a splash of soda. Maybe. Soo those just made everyone quite happy. Guillermo status happy. But the thing about a seven story club is that if you lose people, they're lost forever. While all the floors we're great, the best was by far the first floor. It had a giant stage and what may have been live music (. . . I know there were people up there but I'm little hazy if they were actually singing/rapping. . . ) and about every 10 minutes a GIANT blast of freezing fog was shot down onto the dance floor. It was so strong that you felt like you were in a wind tunnel and the fog was so thick you couldn't see you're hand in front of your face. Which was fantastic when you were dancing and hot,  but not great when you're following people and you grab the the hand of the person who is front of you and then the one of the person behind you and walk a ways through the mob of dancing people, only to realize once the fog clears that you had joined a chain of random spaniards. Not that I know from experience or anything. By the grace of god I managed to find Lian and Jax towards the end of the night and we decided to go home. We ran into a very . . . ahem "tired" Dom who we dropped off at his house before taking the cab to ours. While in the cab we counted our money and realized we only 11.20 euros. The meter hit 11.20 a couple blocks from our house and we screamed at the cabbie to stop and let us off there. After we paid in exact change we walked home and then slept for almost all of Sunday. 

Guillermo 

Definitely post- Kapital drinks

no one's quite home here

Last Monday was the first day of classes. Gross. But my schedule rocks because I only have 2 classes Mondays and 1 class T/THR. My Wednesdays suck but I'll deal with it. One of the days JJ and I wandered around the area near school and found this little park near school. Unbeknownst to us there is a huge one thats actually closer to school, just in a different direction, but we'll explore that one next time. This one's great because there is a little market selling random gifty stuff at the front of it.

cutie patootie

The rest of the week is a blur of classes, sitting around reading, and talking to people in Starbucks. So far my searching has not found a suitable cute little european coffee shop that has wifi and big comfy chairs like Starbucks does. But I aim to find one.
Thursday night we met up with a kid who studied abroad at USD last year and Jax, Hannah, and JJ know him. He's a Madrid native and he took us over to his friends apartment before heading to a club called Joy. There were 20 girls with us. They were expecting about 4. The looks on his friends faces (there were about 10 of them) when walked in were priceless. His friends were a riot, and after 'skulling' aka the auzzie equivalent of chugging (according to one of them who had just gotten back from studying abroad in Australia), some vodka limonadas, all of our Spanish-speaking abillities were exponentially better and we we are all chatting away. We then headed to Joy with our new friends and ran into a bunch of USD kids trying to get in. The bouncers wouldn't let Dom in because he was in a soccer jersey and not a button down. But he walked away, turned his shirt inside out, came back, and then they let him in. . . . . . . yeahh doesn't make any sense to me either. After dancing for a while and getting sufficiently weirded out by the male dancers they brought out who danced on stage in assless chaps, we headed next door for some churros con chocolate. We said goodbye to our new friends (including but not limited to Bond, Jaime Bond) and grabbed a table in front of Chocolateria San Gines. When they brought out the churros and chocolate the heavens opened up, God came down and said "Maddie, your life will never be the same." He was right. THAT. GOOD. 

The next night I slept. I know, it was Friday and I should be ashamed. But I'm not.

Saturday Jax, JJ and I attempted to go to Pacha but we ended up going back over to Joy. When we got there the line was massive sooo we just went and got more churros and chocolate. No regrets. They we're just as good as the first time.  And after we discovered the ones called porchas that were twice the size and came with cinnamon and sugar and chocolate we deemed it a great night. We then met up with O'Libro, Kev, Vito, Nick, and Melody outside of the churro place and proceeded to walk to Dubliners. I was only one drink in when they closed and kicked us out, which was fine because I was chocolate wasted anyway and didn't really feel like drinking much. While we were all talking outside of Dubliners, Chris and Nick haggled with one of the really annoying street vendors and bought two light up tiaras for a euro each (the guy was trying to sell 'em for four each). So Vito and I put them on and we all walked back to grab some cabs home.

Pretty Pretty Princesses

On Sunday the roomies and I actually got up at a reasonable hour and headed to El Rastro around 10ish. It is a massive flea market kinda thing that has everything and anything. We all decided that to hold off on buying anything until we went again because it was impossible to look at everything and not be overwhelmed. After a stop for a quick croissant and coffee we bought Concha some flowers and headed home. Once home I had a siesta and then woke up for our snack that Concha had made. Fat and happy, Jax, Lian, Hannah and I got ready to go to Parque Retiro. It was decided that we should look cute for pictures so Jax did my hair.  She will regret ever doing it because I loved it and from now on she's doing it for me for every event. And then we had our photoshoot. I. don't. do. photoshoots. I feel awkward. And judged. But I did this one and low key had a lot of fun. But of course, I had my moment of glory.  I flashed the whole park. The underwear I was wearing said Kiss Me on my ass. Definitely one of my classier moments.  Maybe telling the story in pictures would help bring it to life: 

Helping Jax up
 It appears that it would be really easy, but its an awkward height.

After my failed attempt.

What the park got an eyeful of.
Clearly I have no shame.

Attempting to recover some dignity. 

Success! 

The steps that Hannah are sitting on are at the base of a statue next to the lake and a pretty popular place to sit and chill. Ooops, sorry rando park goers.  Although all the girls had fun, Vito wanted to run away and never come back multiple times, and I don't blame him. But he stuck it out as photographer like a champ even though Kev had already left. The best part about the photoshoot is that I now have pictures to give my parents where I'm not clearly intoxicated or in bar. Yeaah, I really need to work on taking pictures in non-drinking environments. I'm not about to post all those pictures, so if you wish to see them go facebook stalk your little hearts out.

Vito putting on his adorable face. 

But, back to where I started this post, Parque Retiro is my jam. See all those pictures above? Ya, thats all this one park and its a 10 minute walk from my house. It's the perfect place to run to and run in, perfect for doing homework and reading, perfect for just wandering around, perfect for just sitting and day dreaming. It may be one of my favorite places ever and I plan on spending a ridiculous amount of time there. 

Today after class JJ, Dom, Colt, Nate and I started figuring out trips to other countries that we want to take and when we should do them, etc. I have this issue where I want to travel all around Europe and see everything, but at the same time I want feel like I'm really living in Madrid, not just using it as jumping off point for other trips  #whitegirlproblems. 

Also, planning really stresses me out. Not a fan. But we're making some progress, and by we I mean Dom, as he's the one finding everything and we just nod our heads in agreement. 

On the way home from school I picked up a Cosmo in spanish so that I can practice and push myself to read and speak in spanish while I'm here as much as possible. It's going to be reaalll interesting when I ask Concha what some of the words and phrases mean. It could get quite awkward quite quick. But knowing Concha it will probably be hilarious. No I lied, knowing Concha it will definitely hilarious. 

It's bed time for me,

 So buenas noches, que duermas bien, y no dejes que la cama niños!

. . . that really doesn't have the same ring to it in Spanish.