Gold, sex and shoes

Madrid: Gold, sex, and shoes. These three words sum up this consumer city.  Each building is some sort of clothing store that is a bout as big as a bedroom that reaches up 5 floors (I'd say more escalators than outfits).  Shoe stores dominate the Madrid scene followed by H&M, Zara, and other clothing stores sometimes interrupted with a café, bar, or McDonalds.  I decided to avoid the American chain stores like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts (yes, I wrote Dunkin Donuts).  Instead I got lost in the confusing and ever-winding network of streets and small byways.  As always, my strategy worked extremely well.  At around 3:30 I stopped for a quick lunch in a tiny Bocadillo shop.  About the size of a shoe-box I would say with a line of natives going out the door.  I ordered the numero 1: a warm and crunchy French baguette lined with paper thin layers of jamón serrano (illegally good ham kind of like Prosciutto in the states), thin slices of fresh tomato cut in front of me, a slice of cheese (also cut fresh), all drizzled with olive oil.  This all came out to 2€ which is probably the cheapest thing I've found to eat here besides tapas.  It was absolutely fantastic!  Walking down the cobblestone streets lined with Peugeot and Renault cars and boarded by overlooking European buildings and balconies made everything seem so real. I can honestly say I found happiness in 2€.

We had an amazing dinner which was on the tab of API (thank you very much) at around 9pm.  I chose the seafood soup filled with clams, squid, and muscles.  For my dinner I had Duck Confite (crispy duck topped with a berry and sesame sauce), and a puff pastry with mango sorbet.  I have to admit, Spain is far exceeding my expectations in the food department.  At dinner, all 6 of the students going to Cádiz bonded over my terrible jokes and dry humor.  We had such a great time at dinner that we decided to go out to the discoteca only to find out we were well under-dressed.  Wondering the streets at 11pm we came across a little bar and ordered a jug of Sangria.  I hate red wine but this was absolutely fantastic.  I could have done the whole jug in  alone, but I figured being responsible is always best.  We split it 6 ways which resulted in about a good half of a wine glass each and it was amazing bonding time.  The Seville group has around 40 students but our group of 6 cliqued immediately and seem to have special privileges.  I joke around A LOT here and have our group named as los VIPs between all of the program advisors and amongst ourselves.  We are all excited for tomorrow and are bonding so well.  This trip is going to be amazing!  I could write so much more, but it is 24:30 here and we are touring Madrid tomorrow.  Hasta Mañana!