Flamenco y Futbol

It's been a fantastic two days. On Thursday we spent a low key afternoon in mom's town of Camarma. Levi and I went to visit mom at her school and watched Ivy (mom's dog) play soccer with all the kids during recess.

In case you don't know, mom has been here for almost a year working as a teacher for a school called Evangelical Christian Academy. She works with kids who struggle academically in school and ESL students. She plans to stay on through December and then...?

After an early meal (by Spain standards) Allison and I jetted into Madrid to see one of the shows put on during the Suma Flamenca Festival. We saw Juan Carmona perform and dance. It was really cool. Then we toured the streets of Madrid on foot taking the ambiance of the city all in. We did not however go into any of the numerous Museo del Jamon bars that were open and packed with people eating dinner (it was 11:30 p.m.). Spain has a really different eating schedule. Anyway 'Jamon' (ham) is a MAJOR staple in the diet of Spaniards and this bar was packed. Allison had had enough ham at at 30 wks. pregnant she couldn't take any more of it!

1. Flamenco dancer La Moneta during her performance.
2. The ambiance of Madrid at night (another panoramic).
3. Inside the "Ham Bar" in Madrid.

Today (Friday) was just FREAKING awesome. We took a tour of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which is the home field for Real Madrid soccer team. They are basically the Yankees of the Futbol world. When mom came to visit in January she brought Levi a full Real Madrid outfit and he proudly wore it on our tour (which was self guided by the way). He was greeted by the stadium staff like he was Beckham it was really cool. We got to tour the presidents box, the pitch, locker rooms, and museum. It was a whole lot of fun. If I ever fall into a several thousand dollars we don't need I would like to fly over to Europe and attend a couple of Premier league games (and play golf in Scotland on the off days...whose in?).

1. Real Madrid team photo.
2. Levi answering tough questions regarding Real Madrid's upcoming match.
3. View from the cheap seats (no uncle Brandon we aren't sneering at you).
   
4. A Soccer Mom in the making.

I am writing this at 11:00 p.m. on our last evening in Spain, and I can truly say it has been an out of this world trip (thanks mom!). We already want to come back, that's how great of a time we have all had. If we do come back we would like to try and tackle Barcelona or Sevilla. Tomorrow we are off to London to spend a few days and staying with our friend Mary and her three year old son Joseph. Unfortunately I won't have internet access at Mary's house so the "J-Wild Goes to Europe" posts won't be as frequent. I am going to try to pop into an internet cafe to get in a couple of updates if I can.