I have no spanish..

Truth: the first time i tried to add onto lizzys blog i got as far as hot, then hit the wrong key which took me to some other internet land. rather than try again i just gave the computer to the next person waiting for it.

Liz was not kidding when she said the key boards are not the same as ours in the usa.
many things are not the same on these key boards and one major problem for me is i have no spanish.
my high school spanish is gone, my living in texas spanish is gone. i have no spanish.

But I do like it in Spain very much.
I have no idea how or why i have underlined anything so i can not get rid of it either.
I was trying for a cap and got a line. go figure.

I arrived in Madrid, my phone had no service, the pay phones did not want to let me use the prepaid card (i am sure it was my lack of spanish). I was not sure how I would let Liz know I did arrive on time. My plan was to head for the hotel/hostel. Some man was waiting on his ride and talking into his I phone in english. So I asked him if my I phone needed to be adjusted to another setting or whatever to get service ( as I made a point to get all this arranged before I left, going as far as to drop into the phone office the day i WAS LEAVING JUST TO CHECK. THIS IS REALLY FUNNY. NOW I CAN NOT GET OFF CAPS AND DO NOT KNOW HOW I DID THIS.
AND I STILLL HAVE THE UNDERLINE. WISH LIZ WERE HERE WITH ME. SHE WOULD FIX THIS.
SHE IS IN OUR ROOM, I AM IN THE BUSINESS CENTER OF OUR HOTEL.

SEE WHY I DID NOT BLOG BEFORE NOW. I FEEL A TAD HELPLESS.
I atleast got the caps off.

things always work out. the man said use my phone. i called liz, she was on her way to the airport so good thing i did not go to the hotel/hostel.

Madrid is a large active city. the tour book i read before leaving for europe is mostly wrong about Spain.
They were correct that you do not see women in shorts.
Very little leg shows here.
If they have on a short skirt they wear design hose under it or tights.
they like the design hose that look like your legs are tattooed.
I have seen a few in shorts but we have decided they are not into knees.
They do wear sleeveless tops and they do smoke in restaurants.
the book said they are smokers but do not smoke in restaurants.
I do not know where that person ate but we have walked in restaurants and the smoke was heavy.
If you eat at the counter standing up it is one price, if you sit at a table it is a little more, if you sit at a table outside it is even a little more $.
I like that they do not have tax or if they do it is included in the price.
if the menu or tag says one amount you pay that amount. not that amount plus. and none of the tabs/reciepts have a space for a tip. they pretty much do not tip here. so it is nice. if you have $1.00 (euro) and it cost $1.00 euro you give one euro and no more.

If you like chocolate then you willl love Spain. they are all about chocolate and pastry.
I think of John everytime we go in a restaurant, grocery store believe this?even a McDonalds in Madrid had a fab pastry counter.
we were walking down a busy street and the corner had a mc donnalds with large glass on all sides.
we could see the counter for the normal mc donnald food and the counter for the pastry.
they were all one store and all mcdonalds.
the people in spain like to hang and talk.
there were a group of guys (6 or 8) sitting in the McDonalds (I took note because you just do not see this at home) on big cushion chairs sitting kicked back with arms over the side of the chair drinking coffee/beverages, just chatting and laughing. No one is in a hurry.

It seems no matter what you order you will get bread or get it on bread.
On the train in the dinning car they said they had hot sandwich and cold.
I asked for a hot sandwish and it was potatoe like a hash potatoe patty on sliced thick bread.
I had a potatoe sandwich.
The best food I have had so far is the spanish omlet.
It also had potatoe in it.
I am actually amazed at how much potatoe I have had here.
It is bread and potatoe they like to serve.
Back to the chocolate. They have chocolate cafe', they have places that serve chocolate in coffee cups (not hot chocolate) just thick creamy chocolate.
Some you drink and some you dunk a fab pasty stick into.
Why dont we have this at home. I is something worth adopting.

I think we should adopt the train and metro system as well.
The metro (inter city trains) are great.
Talk about car pooling.
The metro station is never empty. We have never yet been the only ones waiting for the metro. They are often packed but everyone is laid back and cool about such things as people getting on a packed metro train with a hugh back pack on their back.
The metro train can be so packed no one can move and a family with a stroller gets on and it is no problem. No one looks, cares or is bothered. Just shove in a little closer and make it work.
The men and younger people will give up a metro seat to a older woman.
But you have to be older than me and wear a granny hair do with a long granny skirt.
Then they give you the seat.
It is true that they eat late in spain. lunch is the largest meal. and they stay up late.
I have not adjusted to this and probably will not.
I can not stay up all night.
When I go to bed I can hear people on the street.
When I wake up during the night I can still hear people on the street.
When I get up in the morning there is silence on the streets.
They do not seem to be big party dancing people.
They just like to drink, chat and chat some more. and drink some more.
And eat pastry.

Wine is really cheap here.
I have hardly had any alochol during the time I have been here.
We walk so much that I am all about water when we stop.

Walking is how we pass our time here.
We walk every place we go and it seems everyone else does as well.
The streets are always busy with people and I wonder why they are not at work.
Madrid was always busy with people going up and down the streets.
Kissing, no make that " making out", in public is common.
I see couples everywhere that we would tell to "get a room "if they were in the usa.
On the corner, the metro, on the street any place.
They dont just kiss. The get into it and no one pays any attention.
They just like long serious tounge kissing and will stop anyplace to make out for a moment.

We went to Sevilla on the train, stayed for a day and left the next afternoon.
It was really nice because a friend of Liz (one of the guys she met earlier in her travels and that is a whole nother story) named Aaron was nice enough to meet us at the train station, escort us to our hostel, take us on a tour of Sevilla, show us a good place to have lunch and escort us back to our hostel. He was leaving to return home the next day. He is a student at Texas Tec and lives in Austin. A very nice gentelman and having studied for a semester in Sevilla knew all about the area.

We returned to Madrid for one more night and got to attend a bull fight.
(We tried during our first trip to Madrid but my credit cards were put on hold after the first purchase was made in europe. Again I made special arrangments before leaving the states to make sure my cards would be valid for charges in europe during the dates I would be here. A couple phone calls and explaining where and when I would be paying for hotels, food, trains, what ever in europe, reconfirming, thought I was covered. There was no more a person could do to make sure they had phone and open charge cards for a trip to europe and yet I had no phone and no charge ability when I arrived. When I finally got phone ( I love U John) I spend a ton on phone charges to get my credit card un blocked. And again John also had to follow up for me. (thank you again honey) I was a little ticked off to discover they put a hold on my card for a $13.00 charge)

Back to the bull fight..
We made it to the bull fight.
We had our (what tourist we are) spanish hand held fans and my spanish shaw.
We had front row seats and we did not like it at first.
They let the bull out into the ring. They tease it.
Then they have men on horses with the horse blind folded rough up the bull.
We thought it was terrrible that the horse did not sign up for this.
that they blind fold it and take it out to the ring with the bull.
Of course the first bull knocked down one of the horses twice.
So we were really getting upset.
As it went on we discovered that the horse had on lots of padding and the horns were not breaking the skin of the horse.
So we then chilled out a bit and began to get into the workings of a bull fight.
The audiance is hard core and gives no slack.
If the matador is not doing what they think he should the audience lets him know.
It was interesting, gruesome, sort of funny sometimes and I am not sure if I would attend one again, yet last night they had a bull fight on TV and I watched it.
I think I saw Liz on the TV as they film all of the fights and they scan the audience.
A young lady that looked like her with the same exact fan as hers was on for a flash scan of the audience.
It could have been the fight we were at and they caught her as they scanned the audience.

We are in Barcelona now.
After the night in the hostel that Liz booked in Sevilla I told her we were changing all our reservations to hotels.
I stayed in a hostel that I booked and it was OK.
We had our own room and bathroom.
The one she booked was a small room with three bunk beds, one bathroom, no towels provided. (I was prepared for that as she warned me that happens sometimes).
It was not terrible. I enjoyed talking to a couple of the girls we shared the room with.
I got to see what it is like for Liz and how she meets so many people.
I am less worried about her now than I was before I arrived.
I do not need to stay in any more hostels to know what it is all about for her.
I like my own bathroom, not having to worry about packing a wet towel in my back back and not having people come in and out of the room all night long.
But at her age and doing what she is doing it is the best way to go.
Everyone there is doing pretty much the same thing and are very friendly.
I met a french girl that I chatted with and found very interesting at that hostel.
We met a couple of lovely young lady´s in a cafe´ that were from N. Carolina in Madrid.
You do meet other students traveling around as that is what they do here.

next time I blog I will hopefully not have everything underlined.
Still can not figure that out... obviously.

I want to add that the people here are not as fat over all as they are in the us.
I am sure it is all the walking and steps here.
It is true. Americans are over weight and Europeans over all are not.
Especially the kids.
The older people are the only ones that seem to be over weight.
the streets and side walks are all brick or stone so it has to be hard for the older people walking around.

Sevilla was more into fashion than Madrid.
They do wear more dark colors and lots of black.
Skinny jeans are popular.
very tight at the ankles.

I am happy to report:
No ones ass crack shows.
The croch of pants are not at their knees.
It is nice not to see that.

They do have one fashion item in Spain that I have not seen any place else.
That is pant for ladies that are very flowing. And the croch is at the knees on that.
Or it can be a skirt with the bottom sewn shut except for two small leg holes.
It looks comfortable but not exactly sexy or attractive.

Ok, what else? This is too long.. so who do you think this is? Someone with a short story? Like ever??