Just Another Day in Paradise

Well this has been an eventful week and since I posted the Paris blog so late the week before, I didn't post a blog last week. So this blog is long and you might want to sit down as we give you the run down on our latest and greatest...Also, I know I have apologized for my grammatical madness in typing blogs. I can't apologize enough for the pain of reading my mistakes but I have to type as fast as I can because I never know when the internet connection will cut out. Just know it pains me far more than any of you to read this with mistakes...ha ha!

Last Friday, the 30th, we were invited to eat dinner at the Taylor's apartment. Dr. Taylor and his wife are here in Europe on a medical mission for the church and they are friends with the Tyler's family. They were so nice and dinner was so good. Ty and I are really starting to crave good home cooking! It was great to visit with them and to hear about what they are doing here in Spain.

On Saturday, we went shopping for the missionaries. Since the temple missionaries have been so nice to us, we told them we would help get them some things that they can't find here in Madrid. While shopping, I still wasn't feeling great from the previous week's adventures and my mysterious Parisian illness wasn't quite gone. So we went and delivered the groceries and went home.

Sunday we went to church and got another long list from the missionaries and then I went home still not feeling too great and Tyler went out to explore the city.

On Monday we had family home evening with the family we live with and it was great. They are really sweet people and are really nice to us. They help us out whenever they can and are always thanking us for our example.

Later in the week our internet was finally working and then the people we live with decided that they didn't want it anymore and cancelled it all together. So that means no steady Internet connection, just a random wireless connection whenever we can get one. They did sign up for some new cable though and we get a few American channels and you can even watch them in English!

On Wednesday it was Emily's big 24th birthday so I was excited to call her and talk to her. It was so fun to hear about how her life is going and I could hear baby Daniel giggling in the background and it made me a little homesick. That night, Tyler and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate one month in Madrid! Can you believe we have been gone that long already? Even though it cost an arm and a leg, it was awesome food and this Hard Rock even had free refills on soda! Woot! Woot! (Free refills in Europe are rare and priceless).

The next exciting event was on Friday. We went shopping for the missionaries again and then Tyler and I were invited to a reception at the Ambassador's house that night to celebrate Latin American leaders and businessmen who have done great work in building opportunities for Latin American kids to further their education. We were both excited to go and hopefully meet the Ambassador too. Before telling you all about the night's events, let me mention a little side note. Tyler's boss, Judy has been so impressed with his work since he has arrived that she wanted to have him come to one of the daily press briefings that Tyler helps her prepare for. The meeting is with the Ambassador and all his counselors and is held daily. It is basically to update news and events and discuss what is being done about problems in Spain. Tyler's boss wanted Tyler to attend this event, but she didn't know if he could. To me that means that Tyler is the first intern she has had that has impressed her enough to grant an invitation to this very private meeting. I mean she had to ask how to get him permission to go! Well, for some reason or another having to do with security, she was told that he wouldn't be able to attend this meeting. However, Tyler never fails to impress and this past week she said that she was going to email the Ambassador himself to see if Ty could come to the meeting. We were still waiting to hear back on that information when we went to the reception.

Right as we walked into the Ambassador's home, two of his counselors were there to meet the guests. We found out later that these two men were quite important to the Ambassador and the Embassy. Tyler introduced us and said he was an intern with Commercial Services, when the two men said, "Sure! You are the intern Judy has been raving about!" And then went on to tell him they were impressed by his reputation with his office and they were excited to have him come to the press briefing next week! Tyler was thrilled but because there were quite a few people behind us in the receiving line, we had to continue on into the reception without much more conversation. The reception was interesting and there were quite a few people there. Tyler was popular with his fellow interns and they were all nice to me. After the Ambassador had made his speech about the Latin American leaders, the formal part of the reception was over and we were able to just mingle and talk and try the many appetizers beings served.

The two counselors we had met previously were among the large throng of important people and I was so proud to say that each of them sought out Tyler to talk to him for a good 15-20 minutes. Furthermore, while visiting with one of these men, the Ambassador came over to ask him a question and we were able to meet him! The counselor said, "This is the intern Judy has been telling us about," and the Ambassador shook Tyler's hand and said that he was excited to have him come to the press meeting next week and he had heard all about him. I was beyond thrilled that the Ambassador of the United States of America, one of the most important figureheads for the U.S. in Spain, had personally heard about Tyler and was interested in seeing more of him. Tyler was deeply humbled by the experience and I was all the more impressed by him. He is such a genuine person, who works hard not to earn the prais of people around him, but because he knows it is the right thing to do. He is not a show off or a brown noser, but someone who deeply values hard work and is truly appreciative of this experience and wants to show is superiors that he respects them and this job. Gosh, I love him! After the reception was over, we walked around the city and stopped to have a local treat of churros with chocolate. It was a fun night to be out and see the city all lit up and to see Tyler lit up with events of the night was great too!

Saturday we went downtown and I was finally feeling better. It is good that I am only sick in the mornings and that even though I haven't been able to eat much, I am actually gaining weight...it is weird really. I am only kidding! My sister keeps teasing me about being pregnant...which I am not! Anyway, we bought tickets to Barcelona for next weekend and then walked around seeing all the sights of the city. My favorite part of the day was when we found a beautiful rose garden in a park downtown. It was such a peaceful place and all the different roses smelled heavenly! I love Madrid.

On Sunday we went to church and delivered the groceries to the missionaries. They were so appreciative of this little act of service and it made me feel really good to help them out. One of the couples invited us over for Sunday dinner and it was so good! We had roast and potatoes with gravy and vegetables and salad and rolls! It was just like Sunday dinner at home. I also talked to the bishop of our ward and have an interview on Wednesday so I can start working in the temple during my endless amounts of free time.

Finally this weekend we went to our first (and last) bull fight. I was nervous to go because I knew that they kill the bull, but I thought it would be a good cultural experience. It was awful! They start with tiring out the bull by having it run around the arena and then they have these two guys on horseback come out and the bull charges the horse (who is wearing some sort of weird shield) and the man on the back stabs the neck of the bull twice. Well, if the bull has put up a good fight until this point, the judges give a green flag and the bull is allowed to live. We saw six bulls in the arena and only one was able to live. The rest of the fight is just torture. I couldn't understand who the crowd was cheering for, the bull or the matador. Clearly a man who stands in a sand pit in a sparkly outfit with pink tights, waving a cape, dancing around like a ballerina, stabbing at his mooing counterpart has issues! Be ready for my next thesis...Bull fights: Is the Matador really stabbing the animal in front of him or the animal in himself? As for the spectators, well, we were among them so I can't judge too harshly. However, the worst part of this hamburger holocaust is after the bull is killed and they tie it up to three donkeys and drag it out of the arena and send it to the beef market. There is no respect for the animal who just put up a good fight and lost its life for the cause. Needless to say, after the fifth Big Mac fell, I was done and ready to join PETA. Honestly, they should have had a booth outside the arena or something. They would have got me to sign on the dotted line. Tyler found the whole thing "interesting" but I think he was just trying to find the good in the experience and a justification for the money we spent on the tickets. On a brighter note, now I can say I have had the experience of watching five innocent creatures be tortured and slain.

So that brings us to another eventful week in Madrid! We hope that you all are having a great time in sunny Utah and a big WELCOME HOME ELDER JOEY RICE will be in our hearts this week. Keep writing, we love your emails and your comments! We miss you tons and love you more!