More to come...I promise!

HI All! Sorry for the absence of posts. My parents have been here since Tuesday October 14. Aside from working FT, we have been going out at night and taking trips every weekend. They are going to Italy on Saturday, so I´ll be able to add some new pics and stories then. Winter is here now, so if you always imagined sunny, Mediterranean Spain, Madrid is not that place!

An Evening with High Society

I guess it pays to be nice to your students! We got invited to the Saudi Arabian National Day celebration last Tuesday at the Hotel Intercontinental. About two blocks form the hotel, the streets were blocked. A cop told the cab driver to go around. Of course, I complained that now we would have to pay a higher fare. So the cabby stopped and told us to walk the rest of the way. Did I mention it was raining? Anyway, we walked into the hotel and realized the street was closed due to our event! There were secret service and bodyguards everywhere, and they had one of those airport security machines hooked up. Before we even got into the line for the security checkpoint, one of my students runs up to me yelling, "Mr. Robert, Mr. Robert, please come this way to meet the Prince." The hell with the security scanner, Ingrid & I were going to meet a Prince! So off we went, bypassing all the security checkpoints to meet him and shake his hand. Once inside, there were hundreds of people from all over the world, tons of great food and amazing desserts, and of course, us! For a parting gift, we got dates. I was hoping for some oil!