Domingo - 21.00

I woke up later than normal today after a very tiresome night. I couldn't get to sleep for the longest time! I moseyed around a bit, and ate breakfast by myself again, which was nice. Then I dilly dallied online until it was about 9:20, then I headed out. The museums I wanted to go to today don't open until 10 on Sundays, so I took my time. I stopped into Sol first, actually. I wanted to see the zero mile marker I've been searching for. Now that Susan told me where to go, I headed with purpose. The good news is that I found it right away. The bad news is I had to wait ten minutes for two tour groups to get out of the way so I could take a photo. Of course the rest of the plaza was pretty much empty. I also got some photos of the horse statue that we used to meet at for social functions. I think they still do meet there, actually. After I took a photo, I stepped onto the center point, so I can now say I've been dead-smack in the center of Madrid. Pretty cool if you're a nerd like me.

Then I headed back onto the metro. I went to the Retiro stop to head to "Museo nacional de artes decorativas". I found it on my to-do list in my purse this morning, and since I had forgotten about it, I decided to go today, since it's free admission on Sunday's. I got there and found it without a problem, thanks to my wonderful iPhone. It was okay, not my favorite museum. The first floor seemed to be mostly German papers, signs, etc. Not much to look at if you're not into German history. The second floor was a bit better, it had "artifacts" to look at. I say that loosely because it was technology, some of which I have actually seen being used, like the screen projector thing that Mary Ann (my art professor back at Tech) had used to show us art on the screen a couple years ago. It was cool to see though. The third floor was my favorite, because half the floor was decorated like the actual home had been (I don't know why though, it was overall a very disjointed museum).

It wasn't roped off either, so I could walk around the room, which was way cool. The whole time while I was on this floor though, the guard kept following me around, reading a newspaper. Or was she? She seemed to know exactly when I moved from room to room. Did she really think I was going to cause trouble and steal or break something? I guess you can never know with tourists... When I got to the other half, though, the side with everything in glass cases, she wasn't following me anymore. It was kind of funny, actually. The staircase I took back to the main floor was in a sort of side room, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I took a picture. Of course.

 (L: Second floor. R: Staircase)

After this museum, I headed back to Retiro. When I had gotten to the station, I noticed a small gallery inside the station, right where you get on and off the trains. I went in to look at it (it was free) before I headed back the direction I had come. It was pretty interesting. There were lots of awesome photos. The first was a study of water, which I thought was pretty neat. Then there were a lot of people and landscapes. They were good photos, or great photos, actually, but they were too perfect to really catch my attention. Like I could see them in a travel guide magazine or on TV or something. The other end caught my eye too. There were three in particular. One was a photo of gumdrops lined up on a tablecloth, zoomed way in so you could see the sugar particles. There was a red gumdrop, a yellow one, and then a green one. I thought of Alpha Gams. I also thought of Sonya when I saw the next one. It was the two robots from Wall-E. The last one made me sad though, because it was a picture of a track, near the starting lanes. I miss track a lot.

Then I caught the next train and headed to Moncloa, which is the neighborhood that the Museo de América is in. It was free today as well, so I walked in. It was pretty interesting. There were two floors full of artifacts and history about the Americas, mostly south and central America, since that's the lands that were more interesting to Spain when they were discovered. It was actually really cool, I got to see a lot of interesting things. I even got to see shrunken heads and another mummy! There was a lot of pottery, a lot of jewelry and feathered items, a couple life size replicas of a tee-pee and several homes of the time. My favorite thing in the entire museum was the map below. The photo doesn't do it justice, the lighting in the room was much darker, with light on the map so it almost looked like it was glowing. I thought it was cool because I've never seen anything in 3D of that size before. It really made me see how big our continent actually is, and appreciate it for it's magnitude, especially the mountain ranges. I even saw Michigan! It's one of the only states that's easy to define because of the lakes haha. It was really cool.

(L: Artwork leading into the museum. R: Map on the floor of the museum in one of the rooms)

After exiting that museum, I headed home. I did walk around a really tall tower that was in front of the museum though. I hoped it was an observation tower, but it was gated all the way around the base. It was cool to see though, and I got a nice picture of it. It's on Facebook. When I got back to my neighborhood, I walked to the supermarket to see if it was open. It wasn't. I had potato chips for lunch as I waited for my photos to upload. Then I sorted through them and put them on Facebook. Then, I took a nap. I was so tired after all the sightseeing! Plus this lack of decent sleep and heat doesn't help much.

When I woke up from my nap I was a bit productive. I read an article for my art class, getting myself caught up except two chapters in the book that I'm not quite sure if I'm going to read. If I got a 92 on the last exam without bringing in knowledge from the book (though I did read), I think I'll do fine for this one. Then I moseyed around a bit online and on my phone, and then I updated my planner with things I did today. I also crossed through today's date. It was very satisfying. I then got to Skype momma! I miss her a lot. It seems like I'm missing out on a busy week there in Freeland too, especially for Jay when he gets back! That's really exciting though. I caught her up on me and she caught me up on her and Freeland.

After we said our goodbyes, I went through my envelope of "memories". I decided what I wanted to keep and what I didn't, and the envelope was a lot thinner when I was done. It felt good to organize a bit of my life. I'll be excited when I can finally pack! Not necessarily because I'm going home, but because everything will be neatly in one place, all ready for me. I know, I'm weird. Oh well. After I did that I went through my conversation PowerPoint again to pass the time before dinner. I think I'm pretty well prepared for it.

Dinner was really good today, it was another double decker sandwich. I'm going to have to try and make them in the US. It was bread, ham, lettuce, cheese, bread, mayo, tuna, hard-boiled egg, lettuce, pepper, and then bread. It was huge, but sooo good! I had yogurt for dessert again, my usual. After dinner I showered, taking a longer one than usual. Then I finished up this post. Now I'm going to play some games on my phone for a bit, then try and fall asleep. Wish me luck, because with the way these past few nights have been going, it's not going to end well...