Mar 2nd - Mar 8th

Just got out of class an hour early and figured what better way to spend my time between classes than writing to my HUGE fan base around the world...yes, that´s right, my fan base is international! Last week was a busy one with little sleep. Monday´s and Tuesday´s feel as though they never stop, I have class from 1p.m. straight through to 9p.m. and on top of that I am actually having to do a little bit of work to make sure I pass again this semester. After growing accustomed to doing nothing and passing last semester this is a definite shock to the system.

I got through of the first half of the week, and the second was not much slower. Wednesday and Thursday I don´t have class but they always seem to fill up with things to do. Looking back on it I am not exactly sure what I did either day during the day....hmmmm...ah that is right, I had to do a group project for my financial management class. Not digging my group members too much, well one of them that is, she just wants to do the least possible to get by. I know this sounds like my idea of working while on exchange, but I think I need to actually learn something in this class being that it is my Major back home! We ended up getting the case study done and putting together a presentation to give to our class Friday.

Thursday night I went out with my Spanish friends from my Marketing class last semester. I only have class with one of them, Jesús, so it was good to get together and see the rest of them. It was our friend Sara´s birthday so we all went to dinner and then out dancing to celebrate. Seeing that I had a presentation to give the next day I probably should have called it an early night, but being the friends I am I could not leave all of my friends to have a good time without me! Ended up getting home around 7 a.m. or so to see Mom online and have her ask "Are you just getting up?" after laughing a little bit, I hit the sack for a quick few hours before going to rock out on the presentation.

The presentation went well. Luckily, it is the one class that I have in English and I was able to ge up there and speak better English than any other person that presented and did a fine job at answering the questions the teacher threw my way. The plan was to go home and nap afterward, but as always something better seems to come up. I ended up meeting up with Marc, Ismael, Javier, and Alvaro. We all went out for dinner and then another night out on the town. We were going to go to a discotercha near my house, but arrived in the pouring rain to a huge line so quickly changed plans and went to a slightly smaller one and cut up the dance floor.

It would have been nice to get a good 12+ hours of sleep after Thursday night but that simply was not in the plans. Saturday morning I woke up after a solid 4 hours to meet up with a girl named Amy. I had not met Amy until Saturday...We met Online!...ok that´s a lie! My good buddy Matt Kipper has a girl friend, who has a sister, who lives in Madrid, Amy. We have been trying to meet up to meet each other for some time now and finally on Saturday it worked out. We met at 11 at the Atocha train station and were quickly off to Cercedilla to do some hiking. To get to Cercedilla it is about an hour ride by train. It is up in the mountains near Madrid. We arrived to snow and completely white mountains, but were thrilled to be out of the city and do something out doors. I can´t really think of any other time that I have gone hiking in the snow other than snowshoeing, but man was it fun. We ended up running into random animals such as cows and horses along the way, but had a nice hike for about 3 or 3.5 hours, plus a little picnic of nuts, fruit, and a loaf of bread. All in all, we had a great time and she is a really cool girl.

I got back home around 7 or so exhausted, but just in time to catch the Real Madrid game on TV at 10! Call me crazy but I had to watch the game, not to mention my Sun Devils were playing and I was following the game online. Sunday was the day to catch up on rest! I slept for a good 12 hours and would have slept longer if I had not had plans. Sunday afternoon I met up with one of my professors from last semester, Paulo, who is from Brazil. He is a really nice guy and we met up to grab some Brazilian food for lunch. We ate a mean Fejoada (typical Brazilian bean dish) and talked sports...I was not aware but he also is a sports fanatic. After having lunch, we met up with a couple of his friends to go and see a Monet exhibit near Sol (The center of Madrid). After the afternoon out I got home threw down on my bed, talked to the family and watched movies...and man did it really feel good to do nothing!

Well, it is Monday and I am half way through the day here at School, got out of International Finance a bit early and about to head off to Financial Management. I hope this post finds everyone doing well, and I want to send a special shout out to Andrew for kicking some Major BUTT at a broadcasting conference last weekend. He took home first place for live reporting if I am not mistaken, and I am sure he would have taken the anchoring first place again given the chance to have competed. Well, I am off, look for pictures from the hiking adventure soon.

Much Love,

Phil