Ben and Chelsea visited over the past 10 days. They were the fasted 10 days of my life. Here's a recap of our time together in Madrid:

Friday, March 13- My alarm sounds before the sun has risen. After riding the Metro out to Barajas Airport, I see their flight from Atlanta has landed early and walked to T1. After waiting behind a set of automatic doors for 20 minutes, I caught a glimpse of Chelsea. She rushed through the doors followed by Ben. Chels and I squeezed each other and I started crying. Which turned to sobbing as soon as Ben embraced me. We went back to my apartment where Ben and Chelsea slept while I was at school. After class, the met Jenni and we went to my favorite falafel place in Madrid, Maoz. We walked to Palacio Real and then went to Plaza Mayor for some Sangria. We did a little shopping on Calle Preciados after meeting up with Stephen. Stephen and I took them to Templo DeBode and then we stopped at El Tigre for some wine and tapas.

Friday night we went to Jules's piso where they met most of my other friends and then we all went to Kapital, a seven story dance club with different themed rooms and floors.

Saturday, March 14- Exhausted, we slept until about 2. After we went for a run, we headed to Parque de Oeste near my piso and had a picnic of baguette and cheese. That night we planned on going to the vegetarian restaurant, but they were booked, so we went to the Chueca neighborhood instead and had asian noodles at this restaurant I had never been to before. Afterwards, I took them for helado and black and white, dulce de leche cookies.

Sunday, March 15: Retiro Park. We bought some sandwhiches at a little bakery near the Retiro Metro stop and then napped in the park for about an hour. We wandered through the park, during which I got a phone call from my friend Robbie. He told me they were going to a bull fight and wanted to know if I was interested. (I later found out they called me sort of as a joke because they figured I would be the least likely to come, being a vegetarian and all) Of course, Ben and Chelsea were interested. So we went to what I may describe as simply torture. It was truly an experience. Thank goodness we had a reservation at the vegetarian restaurant that night. We enjoyed a delicious dinner there and went to bed relatively early.

Monday, March 16: I had class. Ben and Chelsea went to Toledo. I sent them with a book full of directions and helpful phrases. I don't believe they used them. Ben said a couple young girls thought he was French. Of course, this made him ecstatic because he has taken 3 levels of French. However, when they asked him something in French, his only response was "J'mapelle Ben." After I was done with class and Chelsea and Ben were home, Chelsea and I went on a run while Ben studied for the MCAT. I made a dinner of shrimp salad and spanish tortilla.

Tuesday, March 17: We woke up and went on a morning run and then I headed to class. Ben and Chels came to the Facultad to get lunch with me and we ate outside on the grass. I met them after my last class in Parque de Oeste. We showered and grabbed some Kebab and went to the Prado art museum. After which, our crazy night began.

St. Patrick's Day, we met Ben's friend Jon from Tennis class and walked toward Sol. We stopped on the way to get chocolate and churros. We met with Robbie, Benjamin and Will in Sol and headed to an Irish Pub. We had a Guinness and then went for Sangria at Cuevas del Sesamo. (Hemingway's hangout) After we went to a bar near Tribunal and met up with yet more people we knew. Jon, Ben, Chels and I caught the metro back to my Piso around 2am. We needed to catch the bus to the Airport at 3:30am. So we just decided not to sleep. (Great idea the next day... not) The crazy bus adventure began as we met Robbie and Benjamin at the Moncloa stop to catch a bus. We rode it to Plaza de Cibeles where we caught the bus that goes to the airport. After riding for about an hour we had arrived... about 2 miles from the airport in some random neighborhood. Walking through some winding streets, we eventually were in Barajas.

Stay tuned for blogs about Valencia and Alicante!