Well...I was FINALLY able to get settled into a gym here which will be a nice way to spend my mornings. Maria had to come with me to help me get it set up, but I really like the looks of everything there it is very modern.

She worked from home today so we ate lunch together at a restaurant. Same deal as before with the ¨menu del dia¨. One thing I definitely like about Spain is not having to tip! Not the waiters at restaurants, the bartenders, or even the taxi drivers.

We picked Eloisa up from school and headed straight to the park. One thing that I have found to be true is that Madrileños live in a culture where they always ¨busca el sombra¨, which means look for shade. It gets scorchingly hot here in the summer (although it is more bearable than Kansas because it is dry) and they are outside a lot so they want to be in the shade walking down the street, in the parks, etc. Maria was giving me directions to a store (El Corte Ingles - a big department store where they have EVERYTHING) and she even told me which side of the street to walk on because of the sombra! Another interesting thing happened at the park...Eloisa needed to use the restroom and so we took her to a corner of the park and she went right there. Apparently not only is that legal, but it´s common, and there were people everywhere. It is certainly a different culture but I am enjoying seeing how others do things.

Javier met us at the park and I went with him to el mercado (essentially, a market). It is underground to keep it cool and different vendors sell their food - fish at one, meat at another, produce still another. We went to each one to pick up a few things for the next couple of days. I really liked the market because everything seemed so fresh as opposed to walking up and down the aisles of the grocery stores with tons of processed foods. Of course, with my dietetics background and food safety training I couldn´t help but think about how the butcher was not wearing gloves and that he was alternating between touching meat, his face, money, etc. Of course the meat will cook off any germs but I was wondering if someone was going to get sick by using that money or if he would get sick by having raw meat by his face! Afterwards, we went to a strictly German store to buy beer. I didn´t try any of the German beer but I did have a Spanish variety called Mahao which I liked pretty well. Of course, I requested peanut butter so we stopped to get some. They don´t really eat it so he wasn´t sure whether or not it needed to be refrigerated! Anyways, for dinner we had sardines (I know, can you believe how adventurous I am being?) and white asparagus with mayonnaise (I chose to forgo the mayo...) and of course oranges for dessert. Another wonderful day here in the city of Madrid!