It was so hard to get up this morning again. It was a rough night. Carlitos woke me up screaming again early in the night. Then after I fell back asleep, I woke up again because it was so hot. It was about 4:30 so I figured it might have cooled off outside. It did, I opened my balcony door. Unfortunately, there's a bunch of men in the courtyard under my balcony yelling and laughing with each other. At 4:30 in the morning! I shut my balcony in frustration and managed to fall back asleep, only to be woken up by my alarm not long after. I got ready like normal and headed to the metro stop near the university. I was the first one this time by a good ten minutes. We got on the bus and left ten minutes late, like usual. It was about an hour bus ride, a little less. Fun fact, while we were on the bus someone was talking about Greek life (they were in the back so I couldn't see who), and they said "Alpha Grab a Donut"! I thought that was kind of cool, since I thought that was only at Tech's campus. I guess not.
We went to the Palacio de El Escorial first. It's the palace that I've been hearing about in my art class so much. It was pretty interesting. I did the Spanish tour again this time, and I was really impressed with myself! I was able to understand nearly all of what she was saying, and it helped that we couldn't take pictures, so I just focused on listening to her mostly. We got to see several rooms, and I learned so much history about the place! There were some rooms where the doors were open to outside, and we were allowed to take pictures of the gardens, so we did. There's this one girl I met today, Ilana, she has a serious camera! It's a Nikon and it's body is at least twice the size of mine, and her lens could eat mine. I'm sure dad would have known more about what kind it was or what it's used for, but it was impressive to see. I sat at her table for lunch and found out she's interned for Vogue, and other big name companies in the UK, and has an internship lined up for Glamour magazine in London. Wow.
After the palace we had a bit of free time. There wasn't much to do. Jennifer and David bought ice cream, and I watched them buy it. I didn't get any because I knew we'd be having lunch soon. Then we walked down the streets. David, a guy named Darren who I met today, and I stopped into the courtyard of a building. We think it was a contemporary arts museum or something, because it had some cool statues in the yard. This one was my favorite, because it had a lot of detail and I love the idea of roots. It was much more original (to me at least) than the other statues. There was also a water fountain in the middle, and I was able to play with focus and shutter speed a bit. I got a cool picture with the water soft, and a couple with the water detailed, using a faster speed. The one below is interesting because of the timing, it was just before the water fell down, so it looks almost like smoke coming out of a smoke tower. I got some other ones too; they're on Facebook.
We headed to the meeting area to wait for lunch, and since David, Darren, and I stopped into the yard, the others we were walking around with were already there. There was also a dog on Talia's lap. It turns out that it belongs to the woman sitting on the bench not far from us. I guess when Talia sat down, it walked right up to her! Then David sat down and it crawled up onto his lap. It was so cute, a really little dog, the owner said it was a chihuahua mix. When David got up I took his place and the dog climbed onto my lap. It was so little! It didn't lick me as much as it licked the others, and I was glad. I'm still getting used to dogs. This was the point when the rest of the group showed up. One asked if I had bought a dog, one asked if I stole the dog, and then they asked where I got it from. Haha it was funny. Sima sat down and it climbed onto her, so I stood up and brushed myself off.
After that we headed to lunch. The restaurant was "Cuevo". It was really fancy, I liked it a lot. I sat at one of the bigger tables, at the head, ironically. We had a soup for an appetizer, and it was really good. There was a hard boiled egg in it! I loved it! Then the main course was some type of breaded meat. I think it was pork, but I'm not sure. It was good, in any case. Dessert was an ice cream trio, a vanilla, chocolate, and what we think was butterscotch. It was pretty good.
After lunch we walked back to the bus to head to Valle de los caídos, or Valley of the Fallen. It's a monument and crypt built after the Spanish civil war to those who died fighting for Spain. It was incredible! The church (or monastery?) was built INSIDE the mountain! It was so cool walking in, we weren't allowed to take photos, but the ceiling was really tall and the arches were wide, and some of the alcoves had statues of the patron saints of Spain. It was so cool. Then we got twenty minutes of free time to look around and take pictures outside. David, Jennifer and I looked into the two side rooms before heading outside. In the second room, a lot of the USAC people were taking photos, and one was videotaping. I told Jennifer that I was going to respect the people buried there and not take photos. When we walked out, a guard walked in, yelling, "no fotos!" We got out at the right time I guess.
I took a lot outside though. The view was incredible! You could see for miles and the mountains in the distance as well. It was yet another thing I've seen or experienced here in Spain to make me realize how incredibly lucky and blessed I am to be here and to have an amazing family (and friends) that's supporting me every step of the way. It was incredible. After the free time, we got back on the bus and headed back to Madrid.
When we got back, I headed straight back to the apartment. I was so tired I wasn't feeling good. I only got to nap for about half an hour though. Apparently Carlitos is having a bad day, because I woke up to him screaming his head off again. I do not like this pattern that is developing... I ended up trying to ignore him for the good hour he was screaming and uploaded my pics, sorting through them and then putting them on Facebook. I also went through my conversation PowerPoint another time. I want to be prepared, since I'm not sure how I'll do on the final exam, which is just talking. I'm not sure if there will be a theme or not, I need to ask her in class on Monday.
Then I was called to dinner. Today it was a sort of soup. I think she said lentils with onion? It tasted kind of like mustard. I don't think I liked it. It was served with cheese and some meat slices (I think I'm going to call them pepperoni, though I'm pretty sure they're not), so I ate a bite of cheese with each bite of soup so I tasted the cheese. I was sneaky to my taste buds. I also had a small lettuce salad after that, and then my yogurt. After dinner I came in here to write this, and now I'm going to wash my face, brush my teeth, and pass out! Hopefully Carlitos wont wake me up again. I will not be a happy camper.
No comments:
Post a Comment