Audrey Wells

Last night I had an extremely strange dream that I was IN Middle Earth. Like I was fighting a bad guy (who isn’t actually part of the LOTR series), but in order to kill him, I had to take this piece of meat from part of an animal heart and through it at his heart…. very strange.

Quotes from my professor today:

“Potatoes… boil them, cook them… do whatever”
Which, OF COURSE, had me internally repeating “PO-TA-TOES! Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew” for the next 2 minutes.

“Except Mexico, they speak funny Spanish”

And while trying to explain how strange it was the Europe was the one that took over the world when Asia was much larger and richer…
“I mean look at it! Europe is a piece of crap!”

Anyways, I went to the Fuenta Magica… beautiful

Today, I went to H&M.

This will be a good semester.

I almost got pickpocketed today.
Usually, I am VERY careful with my purse, always holding it against my side, making it impossible for this to happen. But I wasn’t on my guard in H&M today…. Two girls suddenly come up really closely to me, “looking” at clothing where I was. I immediately felt uncomfortable and turned to leave, and as I did, my purse lifted up off of me like someone was holding it, so I WHIPPED around and stared them down as the wenches quickly walked away. My purse was unlatched, and as I looked, I saw that I couldn’t find my camera… But when I looked at the ground, there it was. I caught them just in time, because if I hadn’t turned around when I had, which obviously freaked them out, I would have been camera-less. The same two girls then went up to my friend and “crowded” around what she was looking at, and she glared at them. Needless to say, I won’t ever let my guard down again.

Oh. And I found out that pickpocketing isn’t illegal in Barcelona unless it’s over 600 Euro. Unbelievable. And half of the students in every program get pickpocketed. HALF.

Ok, now for Barcelona…..

Oh. My. Goodness.
This is the most magnificent city I’ve ever visited. There is so much culture. You haven’t seen a “vibrant city” until you’ve seen Barcelona. There is so much modern architecture, especially by Gaudi, including La Sagrada Familia, Parque Guell, y muchos buildings more.
Today I got up really late, so I had about 20 minutes to get to the University downtown (which is a 20 minute walk). I only had time to throw on a Texas A&M tshirt and jeans, so consequently I screamed U.S. of A.  I spent the morning taking a bus tour of Barcelona, then a few hours walking around the square downtown, and finally went to a 3 hour academic meeting before heading home. I think my “madre” knew how nasty I was because she immediately asked if I needed to take a shower before dinner. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll look a bit more decent.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos since I knew I was going to be here for 3.5 more months… so here is the view of Barcelona from on top of a mountain (where the Olympics were held in  1992):

And here was just a part of “Parc Güell”:

Hasta tomorrow, amigos. I don’t have class till 1:40. Whoop!

Toledo is unbelievably gorgeous. Only God knows why King Philip moved the capital from here to Madrid (as much as I loved Madrid…). It’s like an ancient city, protected from all modernized architecture and gaudy neon advertisements. Everything is still built with the traditional stones and granite, and the old city is based on high ground because there used to be a moat protecting it. Here are a few pictures:

 

And a famous cathedral we went to…

If I were to study abroad again, I would most assuredly go to Toledo. It’s so enchanting.
Later on in the night, Brittany and I went out to eat and this is what the square looked like at night:
Looking forward to Barcelona tomorrow! (not so much to the 8 hour bus ride…)

Madrid is just lovely. Everyone here dresses nicely, the weather is absolutely perfect, and every building looks historic and detailed. I haven’t seen anything tacky, even the McDonalds is fine dining compared to the US.

Today we went on an hour and a half walking tour of Madrid, then went to Museo del Prado. Hence, the title of this blog.

This was Plaza Real:

“Calle de la pasa”– si no pasa, no se casa!

Basically this is the Century Tree of Spain. If you don’t walk down this street, you won’t get married. Needless to say, I ran up the parallel street to meet the group at the other end.

We then went to a little cafe/panaderia to buy some empanadas. Yum.
Well, I’m about to take a siesta, then later tonight I’ll probably go out with some new friends and get “tapas”.

I intend to make these posts short and sweet.

Day 1- Salsa busted in my suitcase. Perfect. I’m also extremely jet-lagged.

Some random man commented on my “bootiful” eyes, which made up for the explosion of salsa.

But I DID get to see a protest right outside of my hotel. Epic.

I ate a Spanish “tortilla” (omelet) for dinner. But, I’m American, so I got hungry later in the night. McDonald’s chicken nuggets satisfied my craving… don’t judge. Here was an alley we walked down.