The Last Hurrah

The last two weeks of my abroad experience was spent exploring the last bits of Madrid and spending as much time as possible with my friends and host parents. Somehow we all got through this semester. There was so much that happened these last two weeks that I can really only give some highlights but here it goes!

~ Christmas tree shopping with Luis!  Sarah, Betty and I headed out with Luis to find the best Christmas tree out there. There aren’t any lots full of tons of trees in Madrid, and also the biggest tree we saw was about 5 feet tall. That didn’t stop us though because even though Luis kept telling us it wouldn’t fit in the house we chose the perfect tree. They may think it’s big but hey it fit in the house, juuust touching the ceiling. Decorated it with lights, bows and ornaments; it started to feel like Christmas time in the house.

 

~ Mike took me out to Plaza de Mayor for a going away dinner date. Not only was the place and food fantastic but so was the company J We had an amazing time walking around the plaza and the city looking at all the Christmas lights. His favorite was the giant tree and multicolored boxes in Plaza Mayor.

 

~ Gina’s in Town!!! Our friend Gina from back at SLU decided to surprise us and join us for the weekend! She is one of the friends I missed the most this semester so it was so amazing to show her Madrid and have her get a taste of what we did all semester. We got chocolate and churros, an amazing brunch and we even treated her to a night out at La Independencia; Christmas themed club music and a ton of dancing.

 

~ KAPITAL. It wouldn’t have been the last week unless we went to Kapital one last time to go out with a bang. Yes, we were brave enough to venture into the seven story club just once more before we all left. It was pretty great because I think ALL of SLU Madrid made it there that night.

~ Christmas time in Madrid! Santa came early at Maria and Luis’ house. We had a Secret Santa with our house and it got pretty silly; no serious gifts allowed. Boy did Maria and Luis get the idea of funny gifts they were hilarious, reindeer antlers and selfie sticks galore. It was also Maria AND Luis’ birthdays that week so we had a Christmas Birthday duo party.

~ We ventured over to parts of Madrid we had not been to before and checked out Malasana and Casa de Campo. In Malasana we went to a Hummusaria, a restaurant for strictly hummus and we also munched on some homemade popsicles. At Casa de Campo they have a gondola that goes over the whole city and leads to an amusement park and a zoo on the top of the mountain. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for the parks but the views were indescribable. After, we headed to Temple Debod, which has a perfect spot for an incredible sunset. Of course it was a bit cloudy to a see a good sunset but we still got some pics and reminisced with our other SLU friends about the semester on our very last night in Madrid.