MADRID WEEK ONE

Ok here it is...the first post on our blog. Hopefully everything will go as planned...ha ha. Well our first week in Madrid has been a little cloudy (literally and figuratively) but everything is starting to look up as we woke up this sunny Monday morning and Megan found a working internet connection. We arrived in Madrid Wednesday after taking separate flights from Salt Lake. I (Megs) was a little worried about finding Tyler in Madrid, but there were no problems. My international flight was AWESOME. I had my own TV screen and a list of movies and television shows to choose from to watch. I think I was so excited I watched the beginning of like four different movies. The flight went surprisingly fast and I found Tyler (luckily) in Madrid with no problems (again, luckily). 

Our taxi driver from the airport (yes Megan won the Taxi vs. the Metro battle) decided that the 12 euros it took to find our neighborhood wasn't worth his time and so he had to do several (and by several I mean 5) U-Turns to find our apartment. The 12 euros turned into 26 euros and then the driver tried to swindle us into paying 30 euros because we had a lot of luggage (you try living away for four months in one bag Mother!). The taxi driver should have known never to pinch pennies from a penny pincher and Tyler won that battle, but ended up tipping the guy 2 euros. The next few days were a blur of sleep, a trip downtown, and more sleep. Jet Lag is my friend and Tyler's enemy, as he has his ever growing task list of things to do. 

Our apartment is quite small and our bed is quite smaller, but instead of focusing on what we don't have, I have decided to focus on what we do have. We do have a very strange shower that has a window next to it that opens into some sort of other dimension, I am sure, because it is like a cellar, but not quite, and there is light that comes from somewhere, but I am not sure where...so I am afraid to look out of it. We also have a lovely cat named Nelson. His previous home seemed to be our current home and he loves to sit outside our window and whine until I let him in and then he runs under the bed and stays there until I put my feet on the ground and then he likes to rub my leg and follow me while I do the laundry and jump at cockroaches in the courtyard while I am trying to hang up socks and then get his dirty, ugly, cat hair everywhere. I hate cats. Moving on, as I mentioned we have a concrete courtyard, cockroaches, and a laundry line to hang our laundry. I wonder what the neighbors think of us and our long underwear hanging on the three lines out there. Garments are just lovely. We also have a pig leg in the kitchen. Yes, that is the Leg of a Pig. They are in all the supermarkets here, just legs of pigs hanging everywhere and they make me want to be a vegetarian when you walk into a restaurant/shop and see a 20 foot wall of pork legs. Apparently they are quite a tasty, however the hoof still attached does something to ones appetite. The other lovely thing about the pig leg is that it sits right next to the light switch in the kitchen so every time I go into the kitchen I am quite nervous about accidentally touching the hideous thing when I am groping in the dark to find the light. The other day I was following Tyler into the kitchen and was in the middle of telling him about this fear when he actually touched the thing and nearly knocked it over. If anyone knows Tyler and his fear of getting his hands dirty, you can imagine his reaction. It was hilarious.

On Wednesday night, Max, our roommate and Tyler's best buddy here, was nice enough to show us downtown. Madrid at night was amazing. Tyler and I went to a local restaurant and ate paella, which is a local dish of rice and meat. Our meat was seafood (you can have chicken or pretty much whatever with it) and the shrimp still had the eyes attached. I don't know if it was the eyes or what, but the local cuisine did not sit well in my stomach the next day, so I stayed in bed while Tyler enjoyed his first day of work. He likes the Embassy and is excited to work there.

On Friday we went to the center of Madrid and walked around a bit before feeling under the weather and returning to battle our jet lag. Madrid is a beautiful city and there is a lot for us to see and do while we are here. I love how clean and fresh the city is. I don't notice much pollution and when it is not raining, the air is a wonderful and brilliant blue. I am excited to be here and excited for this summer.

Saturday was a jet lag day. Pretty much slept the whole time and Tyler did the things that Tyler does. I don't understand why he just doesn't want to sleep ;@) 

On Sunday we went to church and found that there is no international ward like we thought, but there is an English Gospel Doctrine taught for us and all the couple missionaries. The temple president, who is an Emeritus Seventy, was there on Sunday and he is very rigid and strict, but his wife was really nice. A missionary couple, the Rusts, from Vernal invited us to go an out city called Alcala after church so we decided to join them. Before going there we had to go and get some lunch because we didn't really have any food in our apartment so we decided to go to McDonald's (We tried the local food already ok?). Tyler, after ordering and all our food ready, was irritated to find out that this particular McD's did not accept credit cards. So he went off to search for an ATM and I stayed behind to let him vent his frustrations. The food was good and I remain firm in my conclusion that Europe makes the best American french fries. 

Alcala was a beautiful place. It is the home of Miguel Cervantes...Pop quiz: Who is Miguel Cervantes and what is he famous for? Come on people! Jackie should know this one...He is the author of Don Quixote de la Mancha. The Man of la Mancha! It was a beautiful city and very nice weather to walk around. The roses were nearly as big as my face and we took some pictures to show Lesli especially. One of the stakes of Madrid was performing in a cultural event so we went into an old cathedral and listened the concert. It was amazing and the acoustics were awesome. I will try and post a video clip. 

So that brings us to today and me and Nelson are at home doing laundry and going grocery shopping. Same old boring day in Madrid! Hope you all are well and we love you!