August 27 - Day 1 of Orientation

Katy and I got up around 10 for orientation. After we had this AMAZING breakfast in our hotel (okay so it wasn't that great, but it was totally better than I expected.. plus they has this chocolate filled pastry so I was *happy* :-D), Lesley met us to teach us everything there is to know about Spain.

Katy and I on the tour bus

We basically walked all over the city, to get acclimated with our surroundings. It was approximately 7 million degrees here, so we took a bus tour of the city. 2 bus tours in fact, one of the historical parts of Madrid and one through the modern section. We saw all the important buildings and learned a little history about Madrid. 

My taco lunch from VIPS

Between the two tours we ate lunch in this restaurant called VIPS. It's kind of American-ish, but not has a lot of unique items on the menu too! I decided to be a little adventurous and try these tacos that were made with veal. LOVED IT!!! The food here is seriously the BEST!! I plan to come back 300 lbs heavier.. no joke!! Oh and the other great thing about Spain is that they LOVE Coke and not Pepsi!! TAKE THAT CHARTWELLS!!! I'll no longer have to search and search and search for a restaurant serving Coke!! :) 

At this point Katy and I were pretty pooped from walking around Madrid in the heat, so we went back to the hotel and took siestas (naps).

Posing with all our food at dinner

For dinner, the two of us went to this little restaurant right across from the hotel, I can't remember the name. We ordered "tapas" which are typical Spanish appetizers. We had gazpacho, 5 different open face sandwiches (one was ham and cheese, one was zucchini and a weird cheese, one was tomatoes and cheese, one was some fish and sauce, and my favorite was melted cheese over an unidentifiable meat!), and of course we drank sangria! :)

After dinner we walked around La Plaza de Santa Ana and got hit on by all the doorman for the different clubs. They kept offering us free drinks to come in their clubs (discotecas). We were both too tired, but we kept some of the business cards for whenever we finally have the energy to venture out at night. :)

Posing with my bottle of wine

Instead of going clubbing we decided to find a little corner grocery store and buy a couple of bottles of vino (wine) to try. After much debating (neither one of us knew much), I decided to buy the one called El Diamante (The Diamond) for 3 euros - like $4. The only problem was we didn't have a bottle opener.. Therefore we didn't end up drinking our wine that night!! :)