Time for an update

Hello!
It's been awhile. Sorry about that. I've been fighting a nasty cold for the past few days and I couldn't find time to update.

Anyway, on Thursday I went with school to a winery tour. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't really a tour of a vineyard but you learned how people make wine which was cool to learn. The place was called Rebelion de los Mandibles.

The exhibits were very interactive. There was one where you hopped up on this cart, and it took you on a virtual ride. We were the grapes. The cart moved, air that smelled like grape got blown on us (which was quite nice since it was so ridiculously hot outside), and at one point where the cart dropped its grapes off the thing went forward like a rollercoaster it was super cool.
There was one other exhibit where you stomped on "grapes" like in the old days. The grapes were plastic, but it was like a competition. There were three barrels and you partnered up with one person and stomped on the things like crazy. Every time you stomped more "wine" would show up on the screen. Viktoria and I lost but it was still a total blast.

The final exhibit was cool too. It was a guess the scent station. They had everything from leather to pineapple, thankfully I still had a little bit of my sense of smell so I could do it and it was fun I guessed almost everything correctly.

Of course in a wine tour you have to have some Spanish wine. It was delicious but with my cold it went straight to my head so I only had the one glass the whole night. Afterwards they took us to a bar where they are affiliated with and I had some water. I came home after that because I was pretty exhausted but it was a lot of fun.

Friday I looked and felt like death warmed over so I stayed in but Merissa had a wonderful time going out with Mikaela. I also stayed in Saturday simply because I couldn't make myself go out. After a whole lot of sleep on Saturday night, I was feeling a lot better and went to El Rastro and the Zoo with Merissa and Mikaela.

We went to El Rastro for just a little bit of time, and we were at the Zoo for about five or six hours. It's called the Madrid Zoo Aquarium and the place is HUGE! They have animals from every continent, and if I'm being completely honest I was done by Africa. But we made it to all the continents, and saw all the animals (they have pandas!), and by the end of the day our legs were about to give out on us but overall it was fun.

We came home after that and met our new compañera. She's a 46-year-old French lady, her name is Veronica, who thinks she's right about everything. She's very nice but she knows how to get on our nerves easily.

Example: We get back from the zoo, we're tired, and she asks about the metro. We tell her she has to take line 3 (PLAZA DE ESPANA) and switch at SOL over to Line 2 (RETIRO) which will take you to where school is.

She says "Mah, noh, Francisco dice que linea 2 es directo a retiro" We've been here for two weeks, we know how to get to school, and she's telling us we're doing it wrong. Irritation.

She keeps insisting that she's right and we are wrong and then keeps switching between Spanish and French so it's totally impossible to understand her. I eventually said the same thing at least five times in Spanish, Spanish and English (since she speaks it), and finally in English. And she tells me all 5 times that I'm wrong. I could've backhanded her!

Poor Merissa had to go to school with her on Monday and help her find her way since they have classes in the mornings. She was ready to kill her when I saw her in school. She's a character the next week will be interesting. Yesterday Merissa and I went out for some wine after class at the cerveceria near my house and it was very nice because we were able to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the afternoon for a bit.

Today we are going on a mission to find puppy chow ingredients since no one here has ever tried it before in their lives. Wish us luck!

Until Next Time,
Avery