madrid, mushrooms, and missionaries

Such a great day today.  Our host mom, Pilar, made us a very traditional Spanish almuerzo.  The first dish was a broth with something in it...she said it was like couscous.  It seemed kind of like something between rice and noodles, but much better because I hate rice in soups.  Then we had patatas (potatoes), churrizo (sausage), carne (kind of a roast beef), and garbanzo beans....it was actually really good!  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the other day I ate a mushroom!  Well, it was in a Spanish tortilla (basically an omelette), but still, it was a huge step for me because I'm quite the picky eater and I'm not a fan of mushrooms.  But my dear host mom, bless her heart, is very kind to not feed me any fish or olives.  Gotta love her.

After our delicious almuerzo, we went to Madrid again.  This time we mostly just roamed around and took pictures, but it was a lot of fun.  We went to a chocolateria called La Chocolateria San Ginés and got some extremely delicious churros and hot chocolate.  The "hot chocolate" was nothing like in the U.S.  It was more like just melted chocolate, it was so chocolatey and thick -- nothing like Swiss Miss or any of that lame powder stuff in the U.S.!  Anyways, then we went back to the Palacio Royal and took some fun pictures then met up with the rest of our group to get some more to eat at the Mercado de San Miguel.

It was such a fun day in Madrid, I absolutely loved it!  Okay, but here's something funny -- well, at least I thought it was funny.  The whole time we were in Madrid, I kept thinking I saw the missionaries!  I saw one guy walk past us with some writing over his chest pocket on his jacket and I thought "name tag?  missionaries?!" but negative.  Then I saw this kid with a school blazer with an emblem over his chest and I jumped a little, hoping it was a missionary, but no!  I love seeing missionaries in different countries because it always makes me feel a little more at home.  So then on the train, just as we were pulling up to our stop, I saw two missionaries walking down the steps and I was like, "Look, missionaries!"  But then I paused because I didn't have my glasses on and I wanted to be sure but this time they really were the missionaries!!  Haha I was so excited!

The view through one of the archways in Plaza Mayor

With some street performers

In El Mercado.....We'll be going there many, many more times!