Fin de Semana

I used last weekend to relax. On Friday, I went out for a small dinner and a drink with two guys from work. Although both speak English, we spent the whole night speaking in Spanish. I slept about 14 hours on Saturday which was great because I was worn out from a week of speaking Spanish and learning my new job. Saturday night I went to dinner with my friend Rafa to an Asian restaurant which was a smaller version of Republic, a great restaurant in Union Square, NYC. The tables are the same: you have to share them with other people and there is an area under the table for bags and jackets. The crazy thing was that Erik and his friend went to Republic the same night! On Sunday I experienced a typical Sunday for "madrileños." I met Rafa in the La Latina area of Madrid and we walked through El Rastro, which is a huge open air market. It was very interesting not because of the products offered, but because of the large amount of people who were out and about. On Sundays, it seems like everyone spends the day outside or in a bar. After you walk through the market, there is a main square area with lots of tapas bar where young and old enjoy the weekend with wine, beer, and tapas. We had a glass of wine and some tapas at one bar, went to a very popular and traditional Spanish restaurant to make reservations, then went to a different tapas bar for another glass of wine. We returned to the restaurant and ate a Spanish soup with beans and mussels as well as a salad with a Spanish "rosa" dressing. Below is a picture of Rafa and me walking through a side street where dealers were selling some interesting antique items.