Hello to all our followers and Brown supporters. We are having an absolutely amazing day today in Madrid. Let me tell all of you the details of our stay at Madrid so far. After having a good night sleep tonight, necessary for our recovery after such a long flight, we woke up today at 9 am and headed to breakfast. We had a delicious looking spanish-style breakfast awaiting us, a variety of fruit, natural juices, yogurts, croissants, eggs, and typical spanish foods such as jamon serrano, lomo, churros(further details on its flavor ask jay hayward, he had about 10) and pan tumaca, my personal favorite, consisting of jamon serrano in a toast with tomato and olive oil dressing.
After breakfast, we headed to the soccer fields in Las Rozas, where the Spanish National team trains when the team is in Madrid. We had a pretty intense morning session, agility, speed and strength drills followed by a short scrimmage in order to get our minds set for two difficult games on Monday, against Rayo Vallecano, and Tuesday, against Atletico de Madrid. After practice, we went back to the hotel, showered and got ready for lunch. We all went to a restaurant that was 2 minutes away from the hotel, very convenient as we were all a bit tired. To our surprise, all the food was ready and served to us at our arrival. Another great meal with all the teammates, and after that , time to get deep into the streets of Madrid. The Banditos(Juniors), some seniors, Voltaire, Josh and I went through the streets were many nice stores are located. Sam Bam wanted to buy a shirt in El Ganso, my personal favorite store for shirts. After that, we went to a street market, where vendors sold watches, sun glasses, bracelets and other items for relatively inexpensive prices. Gavey, Voltaire, Sam and I had a good time trying to bargain with the vendors and making good deals for their products.
After a long walk through the streets of Madrid, we went back to the hotel ready for "siesta" time. We napped till 5 pm, and then got dressed in our Brown polos and khaki pants ready to go to the embassy and meet the ambassador of the US in Spain. Upon our arrival, we were warmly received by the ambassador in person and his wife, Susan. Mr and Mrs Salomont offered to give us a tour around the embassy, and asked all of us a lot of questions regarding our experience at Brown. After a very warm welcome, Mr Salomont gave us a short talk where he spoke about his experience in Spain after being appointed by President Obama in 2009. Voltaire, Bobby and a few others were brave enough to ask Mr Salomont about what it takes to be the ambassador, details on his daily life, and his most anecdotic experiences in Spain. He highlighted his audience with the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, to whom he refers as an affectuous and charismatic leader. Julen Lopetegui, currently the coach of Spain's U21 national team, came to the embassy and met the players. Julen also played for Barcelona, Madrid, and in the national team as a player.
At 7 pm we left the embassy and headed off to Rayo Vallecano's stadium. Rayo Vallecano, 8th in the Spanish league, played against Villarreal, a team that played in the European League this year. The game ended up 0-2 for the visiting team, but it was a very intense game where the local team never gave up and fought till the end. We were all amazed with the spectators, the stands were completely full and the viewers were very loud and supporting their team for the whole 90 minutes.
After the game, we went back to the hotel, then headed off to dinner and back to the hotel ready for a good night sleep. What a long day, we did so many things, and had so much fun. This is the city where I grew up, but it has never been so exciting to be back. It's just awesome to see how my teammates are enjoying the city and the experience, such a different lifestyle compared to the US but always positive to learn about other cultures.
This is all we have for today, we'll make another entry for tomorrow. Thank you all for supporting us in this great trip.
#BMStilldie,
Pepe
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