It has been a lot more difficult finding time to write and post about my experiences this year compared to the previous two. Between school and helping out with everything at home, my days tend to get away from me pretty quick. I will do my best to sum up these past couple weeks though. The weekend after my last post I went to El Escorial with two girls from my Spanish class. El Escorial was once a residence of the King of Spain that's only about an hour train ride from Madrid. There really isn’t much to do in the city, aside from tour the palace, so after some lunch we decided to head back to Madrid. Although after an entire day conversing in Spanish we were in definite need of a siesta. The following weekend, after completing my first full month of classes, I rewarded myself with a trip to Amsterdam. This trip was extra special since I got to spend it with some of my favorite people: my friend and teammate from last year, Tanya, her boyfriend, Michi and my boyfriend, Derek. The weather wasn’t the most pleasant for touring the city but we managed to stick it out for a stroop waffle and a fresh herring sandwich. Between the 4:45 am wakeup call and the cold, a warm cafe and a cup of coffee was calling my name. After getting some caffeine into our blood stream we wandered on over to our next destination: Foodhallen. There are a few things I absolutely love about Europe and markets easily makes it into the top 3. Foodhallen is an indoor food market where you can grab a quick bite to eat or sit down for hours and enjoy some drinks with friends. We went for both. There are about 15 different type of food stalls and between the 4 of us we can confidently give Foodhallen 5 stars. I might even be my favorite market in all of Europe…at least so far. The weather the next day prevented us from doing much more than just cafe hopping but considering that’s another one of my favorite things to do, I wasn’t too disappointed. And to cap off my weekend trip to Holland: an authentic Dutch pancake and some affordable Belgium beer. For the past month my days have been pretty predictable. Wake up, get the kids ready for school, go to Spanish classes, workout, pick the kids up from school, help them get ready for after school activities, play with trains, make dinner, do some homework and go to sleep. Time to throw in a little variation! The children had a week of vacation so we headed off to Javea for a few days of sunshine. We stayed in a house up on the mountainside with another family and spent our days playing in the garden, hanging out by the beach and just enjoying a few unplanned days. This week I’m back to my usual routine and am excited to start up classes again. I have definitely enjoyed being back in a learning environment and am looking forward to the months ahead as I expand my knowledge of the Spanish language and culture.
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