Susie Homemaker

So tonight I did something I have never done before... I baked a cake from scratch. Yes, you heard me correctly I baked a cake from scratch. I know it's hard for you to believe but I did it. Now, I didn't do it alone. My friend Sarah helped me, but she was a very good teacher and made me do it all. She was just there in case something went wrong, and to take the pictures. She thought it was great that I was baking and kept taking pictures of me. We almost messed up the cake a couple of times for that reason.

Now this news probably sparked a few questions. Such as why did you decide to bake a cake from scratch? My class is having an Animal Celebration tomorrow that they planned themselves and the food committee decided they wanted to have a bear cake. Well I told them it would be too hard for me to make a bear shaped cake, but that I could make a cake with a bear on it. This turned into I made a cake with a bear head on it. No laughing when you see the picture. I think it was a great effort by your truly.

Another question you might be asking yourself is why bake a cake from scratch, why not just use the box? Well my friend said that the box cakes are just not that good here, they aren't like the ones in the US. So she convinced me to bake a cake. I also make my own icing as well, which reminded me of when I was younger and my grandmother used to make her icing. It was a good memory.

Just so you guys believe that I actually baked a cake, I have pictures as proof.

Finally posting about Madrid

Ok, so I know I got back from Spain on Sunday, but I have just been too lazy to write anything about it, and I am sorry. I did get the pictures up and I hope everyone enjoys them. I believe in my last post I told you I was staying with these girls from the US. That turned out to be wonderful. They were so nice, and we spent some of the trip together. It made me feel better, that I had traveled alone. One of the days we took a free walking tour through the city. I learned so much about Spain and Madrid. Like did you know that Spain was under rule of a dictatorship until the 70's. I had no idea. It was a good tour, but our guide did get a little long winded. I think he just really liked hearing the sound of his voice, because he kept going on and on. By the end I was zoning out a lot. But I am still very thankful he was knowledgeable on Spain.

That evening all the girls in my room and I decided to take one of the Pub Crawls they do through the city. You pay 10 Euro and you have a tour guide (who was quite a cute Spanish guy) take you to 3 different bars and you end up at a club. You also got a shot at each bar and discounted drinks. It turned out to be a really fun time. Since my camera had been stolen in London when I was out, I decided to leave it in my room. So I didn't really get any pics from this evening, sorry.

On Friday, after staying in bed a little late, I got up and did some more site seeing of Madrid. On the walking tour we only saw the outside of places, so I decided to go see some of these places on the inside. I went into the Cathedral and the Palace in Madrid. The Cathedral was huge and really nice. I have seen quite a few churches since being in Europe and the unique part of the ones I saw in Spain, are that they have lots of gold inside. Which, considering their history with Central and South America, it is quite understandable. The Palace on the other hand wasn't worth the money. It was boring and I barely got to see anything.

That evening I went with the ladies from Delaware to meet up with a family friend, that was living in Madrid, to have Tapas. These are basically appetizers, don't worry I had no idea what they were before going to Spain. They were delicious. Then we met up with some of her friends, who were mostly teachers from the US teaching English in Spain, at a Karaoke Bar. It was a lot of fun and I met some really great people.

At this point of my trip I had felt like I saw as much as I wanted to of Spain and decided to take a day trip to Toledo. It is a small town outside of Madrid, that actually used to be the capital of Spain. Here I got to see many old buildings, a castle, and I walked, a lot. I loved this town because it was very quaint and not commercialized. There were many little shops and restaurants, and it was easy to get lost in the small windy roads. I thought it was so cute and had some great things to see. I would suggest seeing it if you are in the area.

I can't wait to go back to Spain, I think there is so much more to see. I hear Barcelona is amazing. Jennie: that is where I think we should go when you come!!!!

I made it back with my camera this time!!!

In Madrid

I made it to Madrid yesterday and it is a beautiful city. There is a lot to see here. I am staying in a hostel very close to the center of the city, and at night the working girls stand in front. But it really isn´t bad, they don´t bother you.

I am in a 4 bedroom room and staying with 3 other American girls. This is nice because we have been able to do some stuff together. Two of the girls have come to Europe for a 5 week tour around. The other girl has come to study in Madrid for the semester and is now in search of an apartment to live in. I understand this considering I had to do the same thing when I arrived.

Yesterday I just walked around the city a little and found this huge park. It had lots of statues and fountains and was very nice, I bet in the spring it is even nicer. I got caught in a downpore there and ended up walking back to the hostel. Napped for a bit, got cleaned up, and went to dinner with a couple of the girls from my room. I knew once I got here, I would meet some nice people, so mom you can stop worrying now.

Last night after dinner we just came down to the bar in the hostel and had some sangria. It was ok, a little too much juice.

Today we are going on a walking tour around the city. I hope the rain kind of holds off while we are out.

Leavin on a Jet Plane

Ok so my mom pointed out that my last post was kind of complainy, if that is a word, so I figured I need to post again soon. I should be in bed right now, because in about 5 hours I need to get up to go to the airport. I am heading to Madrid tomorrow and am very excited to see some of Spain. I looked up day trips today and I think I would like to see Toledo. I guess there are some cool things there, and my mom said it was awesome. So I guess it has to be great.

It has been nice to have a couple days off work and catch up on some sleep. I did watch the Super Bowl here, but it didn't start until after midnight. So that means I didn't get home until almost 5am. Which means I didn't get out of bed until almost 2pm the next day. Which I have to admit was so nice. I loved sleeping in that late. The cats however did not. They wanted me up earlier to feed them.

Like I said before, I really need to get going to bed. I will try and post from Madrid, but if I don't I will definitely do it when I get home. Hopefully with lots of great pics.