and finally....Spain!!!

Beautiful

Me rowing!!

El Parque del Retiro

El rastro....leather!

A fishing net?

The pool.

Puerta de Alcala

Well I have been here for nearly a month now! And have pretty much adjusted to all the differences here. There are a lot! On a school day I wake up at 7.30 and school starts at 8.30. For breakfast there is never toast with vegemite! Although I did bring my own jar all the way from Australia, on weekends I have it! Spaniards usually have a glass of warm milk and a doughnut or something sweet, but I stick to my tea (which I brought from England) they don't drink tea here...only coffee! School consists of 6 lessons for 45 minutes, and we only have a half an hour break the whole day, challenging for me! Here they learn a lot more history than in Australia and for music we are learning flute........................!

So after school, 2.30, I come home and have lunch. Traditionally after lunch is when you have a siesta I have had one but not really my thing, usually I update myself on all the goss in Australia :) All the shops also close then so if you want to buy anything they re-open at 4.30/5.00. There is a semi-big shopping center about 10 minutes walk from my house called La Vaguada which is also fun to go to! And when I say semi-big I mean three stories.

My family are very nice and big, 4 daughters and the parents, and of course Nala (the dog). I have done quite a bit of exploring the city and am a regular metro user!

And for all you people that like soccer/football my flat is right next to the hotel that Real Madrid stay in and I have seen a few of the players around...unfortunately no Ronaldo yet!

When I finished all my books (a big disaster for me) I had to go in a search of an English bookshop! Google helped me out and I found one called J & J's books and coffee, owned by an American and her husband with heaps of second hand novels and a very good atmosphere! The bartender was also from Australia, he moved here two years ago from Adelaide. I met some nice English people there and had a very (strong) latte! I recommend for any book readers in Madrid!

My Spanish is gradually improving and trying to learn a few new words every day, but it a lot more challenging than I imagined, they have about 100 words for 'you', seriously! why bother?

I have made some friends at school, and tonight we are going out to a concert at La Vaguada because this weekend is El Fiesta del Pilar, which means it is also a long weekend! And of course my birthday.

So I am planning a good weekend!

English is my least favorite subject here! My teacher is so annoying and always tells me that Australians have bad accents. Huh! She should hear herself.

It is really entertaining hearing people hear trying to pronounce my name and every time I order a drink from Starbucks I have to spell it out. In role-call they used to call me Grace because it is my second name and I think that confused them a little!

Anyway, I will keep you write again soon!

Mucho amor!