INESLE Madrid

SO

First week of classes was rough. Very rough. There’s a language barrier with several students, and those who speak English well are older and have some attitude towards anyone who wants to tell them what to do.
However. By the end of the week. The kids were obsessed with several things I’d taught them and started yelling “YEEHAW” when I’d walk in the class. Progress. They also performed in our weekly talent show and it almost made me feel better about what they’d put me through all week.
Almost 😏
Luckily Barcelona was planned for the weekend and when I tell you I needed it... I needed it. We took the train at 9 am from Madrid and arrived at noon. We checked into our hotel where some friends that work at INESLE with us were also staying. We all got changed, had lunch, and walked down Las Ramblas before taking the metro to the beach. We all fell asleep in the sand and didn’t leave until 7:30.
We had a little bump in the road that night. While we were out at the beach, someone broke into my coworkers’ room and robbed them. Nothing important was taken luckily. My friend Ceci said she realized how real God must be since she went back for her passport prior to leaving. We were planning to go explore some more but everyone was pretty shaken up so instead we got pizza and hung out at the hotel together.
The next morning at 11, we checked out. We got breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and took the metro to Park Güell (and by “took the metro” I mean I nearly killed myself and lost both knees trying to climb all the way to the top). We looked around for a bit but didn’t get to go where we really wanted, which is the more colorful part of the park that coincidentally was a filming location for the Cheetah Girls 2. I’m not saying that’s the only reason I wanted to go... but Amigas Cheetahs forever right?
After Park Güell we went to the Sagrada Familia. We were short on time so we didn’t go in but that’s okay. I felt pretty uncomfortable being there anyway considering I’d been told several times within the hour I was there to hold on to my stuff carefully because of people trying to steal stuff. That wasn’t s fun feeling. But I can confirm: Burger King here is much better than the US.
We dropped our friends off at the metro station so they could get to the airport early to catch their flight. Our train didn’t leave until 9 pm, so Lucy and I went to Camp Nou to tour the soccer stadium. Even for someone who doesn’t necessarily know about soccer, that was pretty cool.
We got our things from the hotel lockers and took the metro to the train station. We got back to Lucy’s house around midnight, which was insane considering we spent today with 180 kids at an Amusement Park. But now I feel gross and I’m very tired so... see you in a week!Lue lisää