Hola!
That’s pretty much how much Spanish I’ve known my whole life (thanks to Sesame Street) and that’s about how much I know after returning from a wonderful week in Spain. Si! Spain!
Oh, I can also order a beer, a red wine, a plate of fried eggplant, a serving of marinated octopus, a sampling of dried ham, coffee with milk, and a doughnut that you dip in a chocolately pudding-sauce. And I can ask for the check.
My husband and I chose Madrid because that’s where our son Joe is spending the fall semester of his junior year. He couldn’t have picked a livelier, cooler place. Multiply Caroline Street and Broadway by 10,000, replace the perpendicular streets with roomy plazas and narrow, winding streets, and add about 3 million people, and there’s Madrid – teeming with people well into the evening, with countless little restaurants and outdoor cafes to grab a drink and a snack.
The younger drinking age and the fact that they seem to serve a little something with every bar order seems to result in more controlled partying than what we have here “in the states.” I’m glad Joe will turn 21 before he returns home.