I will not use a Ricky Martin song to title this entry...

...but the last weekend really did seem like 'la vida loca' (forgive me, please). The fun thing about classes and shedules here is that the weekend technically starts on Thursday, so every weekend is a three-day weekend!

On Thursday night the Fund held a welcome dinner for the 13 new arrivals from the University of Chicago. While they are at the same institution as us, they do not attend the same classes as us because their school is on a quarter system. It´s interesting to have new faces after two weeks of getting to know everyone already here. A small group of Chicago kids went out with Amy and I on Thursday night, and it was a pretty fun time. We called it an early night however because they were tired and expectedly so. After all, it was their first day here.

On Friday a few friends and I went to Luz del Tajo, the mall just outside the city. It was pretty cool, with lots of fun stores and an Eroski, which is like a Spanish Wal-mart, but much better. While at the mall, I bought a bolso (the closest translation into English would be 'man-purse', and hey, they are all the rage here :-P), a new belt, a nice new dress shirt (only €9.90!) and a CD by an artist named Diego. I wanted to see a movie but there really wasn´t time so we will return to go to the cinema. We then went to a discotheque on Friday night and had fun but ended up leaving early (around 2 AM) because a glass dropped on the dancefloor.

Saturday began dull with homework, but ended amazingly. As I was walking around Toledo a few weeks ago I spotted a poster with the image of one of my favorite bands, La 5ª Estación. It turns out they were coming to Toledo, so I searched the internet and found tickets for the show! Andrea, Amy and I went with two Minnestoa friends (Sarah and Christy) to the concert on Saturday. It was awesome. I stood in the pit while the others took seats in the back and I danced and jumped to the music among a swarm of Spanairds. And when the song "Me Muero" was performed, I sang along just like the rest of the crowd. The lead singer was really awesome and talked to the crowd quite a bit and the band was so full of energy. I slept well that night.

On Sunday Andrea and I fulfilled one of our key duties as future Spanish teachers -- we attended a corrida, or bullfight. It was a novice night in Madrid, so it didn't cost as much to get in but was still an awesome show. I thought the fight would have been a lot bloodier and that I might not be able to handle it (me+blood=bad), but it was okay. Of the three novices, the guy originally from Spain won the ear (still trying to figure out exactly how the logistics of a bull fight work). It was also fun because it was the first time ever that I got to take the AVE, or high spped train, and then I got to take the bus back from Madrid to Toledo. Overall, it was a fun and packed weekend!