Atisbo

I have been reading all day for hours straight, so I have decided to take a recreational break until dinner, which should be soon. Since i don't feel like reading to pass some free time, I chose to write. I have a lot of George Orwell to read for Tuesday, but not 1984 or Animal Farm things. We are reading his non-fiction travel account of Northern England and his descriptions of mining country. It's pretty intense but reads quickly because it's pretty interesting. I knew mining was horrible and whatnot, but his descriptions go way into detail and it sounds like impossibily difficult work. Once the miners go down the shaft, they had to basically fold themselves in half and squat-walk for three miles in the heat to even get to the place where they had to mine the coal. Apparently George Orwell was 6'2" and he said it was next to impossible for him to even go a mile, and then he was sore for a week after.

I had a lovely excellent fun week with Chris last week. I almost felt like I was on vacation myself in some other city; it was so weird to live in the same city but in a different place. Our hostel was in Sol, which is the middle of the city and close to virtually everything that is worth seeing, so we were able to walk everywhere and explore more in-depth than I had been able to previously. We did some touristy things like the Palacio Real and the Prado. The Palacio Real was really beautiful, and we went on a Tuesday afternoon and there were five other people in the whole palace! It was great! I think Versailles still is the end all royal palace, but this one comes close in my opinion. It was good to visit the Prado without school, because then we could see the paintings that we actually want to see instead of spending two hours just looking at Velazquez and Goya (not that they are bad to look at, but i have seen them all, twice). Also it was just generally a nice experience to feel like a tourist in my own "home." I don't usually go out to eat a lot, but that was the only option this week so I was excited to go eat Mexican food and Thai and other ethnic things. After walking around for hours trying to decide on tapas restaurants, I have decided that tapas really are not my favorite thing. They are basically all the same, and are all kinda mediocre. I like tortilla española, and patatas bravas, but really the rest are all kind of meh. This was an unfortunate conclusion because I still have two and a half months of living in tapas country. But like I said, I don't go out to eat much. We did have pretty good tostas, which are basically little meals on toast, that we shared like tapas.

Things have been pretty busy for me, Barcelona, busy week at school, Extremadura, Chris.. Then this week with all this reading for Tuesday, and I'm re-taking my grammar test tomorrow, and then we have an art history test on Wednesday.. But after Wednesday I think i finally should have some time to do nothing. Friday is Father's Day here and it is a really big deal and they don't have work that day, or the day before. I could travel, but I really need a restful weekend. Tonight I think I'm booking my spring break plans: Provence and Italy. I have always wanted to go to both of those places, I hope that we are able to plan it!

Also, David Sedaris is coming to Skidmore this month. AHHHHHHHHHHH WTF WHY DOES HE COME WHEN I AM IN SPAIN I AM SO UPSET