When your heart's on fire, smoke gets in your eyes...

Yesterday afternoon I went to Concha's office in downtown Madrid so that we could go have lunch with her brother, Manolo, who works for the Congreso de los diputados (like our House of Representatives).  When I got to the office, Concha introduced me to her co-workers, including one American, David.  (He was coming to the Congreso with us.)
 
Concha told us that she'd heard on the news that there was a big fire near Atocha train station, which was where the March 11 terrorist attacks were.  We were really worried that it was something else like that, but it turned out to be just a huge fire in the electrical plant (and actually not even that close to the station). 
 
David, Concha and I hopped in the car and headed down to the Congreso, which happened to be in the same neighborhood as the fire.   The sun was out, but it seemed like a cloudy day because of the huge billows of smoke coming from the fire.  It was really an incredible sight...and we were stuck in traffic for quite some time, so we had a great view!  Of course, I stuck my head out of the car to take photos...Concha and David got a big kick out of it.  I felt like I should be rushing to the scene to interview witnesses...but I restrained myself.
 
Anyway, we FINALLY made it to the Congreso and met up with Manolo and had a nice lunch.  Concha's other brother, Fernando, is the one who always speaks English with me...but yesterday Manolo revealed that he speaks English, too!  The guy's been holding out on me!  
 
Manolo gave us a great tour of the parliament and we got to take photos on the speaker's podium.  It was so cool!  Afterward, Concha, David and I went to the Palace Hotel a few blocks away and splurged (well, Concha splurged for us) on Cokes.  (It's like a trendy thing to have drinks in the atrium of the Palace Hotel...)
 
That's about all my news...cannot believe that I only have a few more days here!  I'm going out tonight with the American girls...sans Pedro, but there are 3 million people in Madrid, so maybe I'll meet someone, who knows...  ;-)
 
More language-barrier incidents:
Elena, trying to say that Julia Roberts has "curly hair" -- "She has crazy head."
Ignacio, trying to say that his grandmother has a house -- "My grandmother is a house."  (ha!)
 
And here's a good one...Concha's host brother, Fernando, has been teaching English for about 12 years...the other day we were talking in English, and his 5-year-old son came over and just stood beside us.  All of a sudden, he blurted out in Spanish, "DAD! You speak English?"