Caminando por Madrid medieval...

¡Hola a todos! It's been a crazy week! Also - I've been here just over a week. I CANNOT believe that. It seriously feels like I've been here for months. So strange. But a wonderful strange, I think.

We got the chance to go to El Prado for the first time on Saturday, and it was just magnificent. Guys. I got to see Velasquez. And Bosch. And Raphael. In real life. What theeeeee. It was fairly exhausting walking all around the huge museum, but soooo incredibly worth it. It's free most nights for a few hours, so it was packed. This is outside the entrance, and the line of people wrapped around the entire side of the building; it was impressive that that many people chose an art museum for their Saturday night activity.


On Sunday we went to the ward in Alcalá for the first time. It was so great. You always hear how the church is the same everywhere, and it's so true. They talk so fast that none of us could really understand most of it, but the Spirit was still there, and we still felt welcomed by the members. I'm so excited to get to know them!

Tuesday after class, Anna, Aly, Kim, and I went into Madrid for the afternoon. We have a one-credit class called Madrid Walks where we basically have to just go walk around certain areas of Madrid. Stroll around a beautiful European city in the sunshine for homework? I mean, if you insist...
After Anna avoided our first run-in with los ladrones, we started our little tour. (But seriously she had to pull this lady's thieving hand out of her bag. Moral of the story - never trust anyone with horrible, penciled-in, maroon eyebrows). Some of the places we had passed on our first tour of Madrid, but the directions we were given explained the history of each place, so we were able to learn so much about each thing we saw. It was a long walk, but it was so, so enjoyable!

Kim, Aly, Anna, and me acting like fools with the self-timer.

GORGEOUS little garden we found

New goal in life: have a turquoise door on my house. But let's be real, can I please live here??

Anna and I in front of the cathedral. I don't know if pictures do it justice, but it's just so impressive up close.

There is graffiti everywhere here. Mostly it just ruins really pretty, old buildings. But this was actually pretty cool. Please notice Anna petting her dragon.

Plaza del Sol at night. Once the sun goes down, huge crowds come out of the woodwork and suddenly everything is noisy and bustling with all the people. And, like everything here, it's absolutely beautiful.

Tomorrow we're going to Toledo, and from what I've heard, it's going to be incredible! Oh whatup El Greco!!

NSP moment:
Might have kept my roommate up last night because I was being kind of loud and probably a tidbit rude :( I was skyping a certain Russian, and I just forgot my roommate etiquette, dang it! I'm sorry Elizabeth!!! Also we ended up walking home separately twice today, and both times she ran into our program directors, so basically they think I'm an awful and irresponsible roommate, letting her walk by herself :( But I am determined to be better. Elizabeth, tomorrow I will buy you a marzapan model of the Toledo Cathedral to make up for it. ¿Vale?