Feb 16th - Feb 22nd

Alright, caught up with the Morocco blog, now it is time to throw down the blog for the past week. It was a pretty slow week as they go. Monday I was exhausted from the trip over the weekend but I got myself to class in the afternoon all the same. I heard from ASU about my course equivalencies, and that I was not going to receive credit for one of the classes I was in, so I had to get in touch with my Counselor and get the mess figured out. After a little bit of foot work I got it all sorted out and changed my classes for the third time! The rest of the weeks classes ran smoothly.

On Wednesday evening I went out to dinner with bunch of the Portuguese people. One of my roommates Carolina, was moving back and it was a small celebration, or going away dinner. It was really good, we went to Lateral, one of my favorite Tapas restaurants, and I met more of the many Portuguese people that my roommates know here in Madrid. The next night it was Indian food with the guys, and then a night out on the town at Joy Eslava, the club that all the exchange students go to on Thursday nights! Friday I made it to class and then we had a dinner at the neighbor, Rita's house. We were supposed to go out with Carolina and friends after dinner but everyone lost steam and we ended up calling it an early night which was fine by me because I had an engagement Saturday in the early afternoon.

Saturday afternoon, Ismael invited a bunch of us over for a lunch at his house. His family is Mexican, and made a wonderful spread of Mexican food for lunch. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to actually eat some decent Mexican. I had been to a couple of different restaurants and completely given up hope of eating any good Mexican on this side of the planet! Ismael's mom made a Aztec cake, which was like a casserole with corn, corn tortillas, chicken, salsa verde and cheese. It was real good, we also had rice and beans, chips and guacamole. It was real cool to have the whole group together, even though we were missing Alvaro. (The people who were present: Javier, Marc, Kike, Isaac, Joaquin, Pitu, Vicky, Elena, Ismael and myself.)
After lunch, we all hung out for a while and then Marc and I went to his house to watch a movie and then have dinner with his family, or my adopted family!

After dinner it was back to Madrid to have the Final Shebang before Carolina left on Sunday morning. Javier, Ismael, Marc and I all met back up at Ismael's flat at Plaza de Espana to have a drink or two and then we met up with the roommates at a club called Gabana. It was the first time that I had been there, but we all had a great time shaking some tail! (The people: Catarina, Rita, Carolina, Diogo (Carolina's Boy friend), Ismael, Marc, Javier, and I)

Sunday was a day to kick back, did nothing except for help Carolina pack her stuff into the car, and say good bye. The rest of the day I hung out talked to the family, friends and who ever else there was to talk with, watched a movie and called it a day. I guess that is what Sunday's consist of when a few other nights of the week you only sleep 3 or 4 hours!

Well, there is not much else to tell ya'll but I hope this finds everyone doing really well.

Much Love,

Phil

P.S. I MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU TOMMY!