Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

It hardly ever rains here in Andalucia. But when it does... watch out! I literally almost drown on the way to my carpool this morning. It is only about a 15-20 minute walk normally, but that was plenty of time for it to start POURING. MY umbrella blew out about half way there and by then there was no turnig back and I was SOAKED. By the time I got to Noelia´s car I was completely soaked, through to my socks... even my undies! We put on the heat full blast in the car but I was still soaked when we arrived at school (parts of the highway had flooded, we are lucky we made it). My sweatshirt was wet so hte lovely Noelia let me wear her jacket in the classroom and after I was done with my lesson she sent me to ask for una calefactor (a little tiny space heater). Tehy have enough for almost all the classrooms so while she was teaching I sat at her desk with my feet in front of the little heater. It managed to dry me, my shoes are still a little damp but at least i didnt have to be wet all day long. I normally leave at 1 on Tuesday but today I decided to stay until 3, eat lunch here at school with Noelia and then drive with her ( I am going to ask her to drop me off at my door if it is still raining). I won´t go if it is still like this at 5 when I have to go to one of my private lessons because without and umbrella, I wouldn´t make it. Go ahead, call me a whimp (dad... I can hear you now...) but seriously it was a freaking monsoon and there was thunder and lightning and yeah. I am not going anywhere once I get home!!!

Anyway, Jennifer and I made it Madrid Friday night. We met up with two of our freinds from orientation at our hostal, a charming place with a front door that looked like it could very possibly be either a whore house or a crack den. (Julia booked the hostal, I guess there were no pictures of it online???) But lucklily the inside was just fine, no whores, no crack. That evening we went to find soem tapas but we ended up in a restaurant that was expensive and then the food wasn't even very good. The next day we went to El Prado, to see the royal palace, and we had an amazing lunch at a delicious Indian restaurant. The highlight was though, at least for me, seeing, the broadway adapted play "JESU CHRISTO SUPER STAR".... thats right, jesus christ super star.... in Spanish. It was.... amazing. We didn´t get every word but we kind of are familair with the story, especially me after 17 years of Catholic school so it was easy enough to grasp what was going on. It was an experience. That night Julia and I tried to go out and check out the Madrid night life but when we went to go get a cab it was 2 degrees C· and all of the cabs were full! After a half an hour we just gave up because or else we would freeze. So that was a bummer, but we did hang out for a little while at one bar near our hostal and met some really strange Swedes. I usually like encountering interesting characters but these guys were even freaking ME out. The next day we went to El Rastro which is the biggest flea market that has ever been. Or at least that I have ever seen. I purchased a pair of delightful earrings for 3 euros. Then we headed to another art museum, La Reina Sofia de arte moderna. There we saw Guernica by Picasso. Quite impressive. Then Jennifer and I had to catch the train back to Sevilla around 5. Hayley and Julia stayed for another night and I imagine they will tell us what else they saw this Friday because they are coming to Sevilla from where they live in Cadiz for a Thanksgiving party! It will be at our apartment and wil consist of 5-7 Americans 2-4 Spaniards and 1 German (this girl Lydia that I work with at school). Should be fun! We are going to have Pollos Asados (a rotissery chicken place) instead of turkey because there are not turkies in Spain. Well, actaully, Jennifer and I found one in EL Corte Ingles ( a HUGE department store taht has EVERYTHING you could possibly ever dream of : car dealership, makeup cds, lawn mowers a grocery store, tailor, travel agency post office tvs microwaves.... etc etc) The turkey was in a box and was 70 euros. SO, pollos asado wil do just fine.