Hello family and friends.
I realize that I haven't updated in approximately two months. I also realize that I am going to come home in just a few weeks* to see all of your faces in person and it's a little late to be trying to salvage things now. But I told you--I
told you--this would happen. I said I was going to forget to update in the very first post. So don't say I didn't warn you. Anyway.
March was a busy month. The second weekend the CIDE program took us on a three-day field trip to Segovia and Madrid. We saw a castle and an aqueduct in Segovia, had churros and chocolate in Madrid, tried to go out at night in Madrid but discovered that it's actually super lame at night.
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The Royal Palace in Madrid with assorted teachers and classmates |
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A large demonstration we had to walk through, protesting...something? |
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Terrifying human statue; only the one on the right is a real person |
The weekend after that my parents and brother came to visit during their spring break. They brought me peanut butter, which was glorious, and I gave them a halfhearted tour of the city and used up all two of my good restaurant recommendations. Then I translated everything very poorly into English for them. I didn't take any pictures while they were here because I know what they looked like.
The next weekend I traveled to Málaga, Córdoba and Sevilla in the south of Spain. We saw a bunch of castles and Moorish architecture, and some gypsies tried to sell us rosemary and then maybe put a curse on our families when we didn't want it. So, sorry, family.
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The inside of a Moorish palace turned into a cathedral in Córdoba |
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Giant koi fighting over bread in the Alcázar gardens |
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The largest Gothic building in the world; it's okay I guess |
Then, the last weekend, I went to Dublin, which was amazing for several reasons: 1. People in Ireland speak English, which was a nice change of pace. 2. Dublin is really pretty, and it didn't even rain while we were there, except for a little bit while we were inside anyway. 3. We stayed at a really swank hostel where they made us pancakes for breakfast and gave us free tea. 4. Leprechauns.
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Statue of Justice, not being blind, at Dublin Castle I think |
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Campanile at Trinity College |
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Statue about starving people; something about the Potato Famine |
April was equally crazy, in that I was not in Bilbao for a single weekend. The first weekend I went to visit my friend and future roommate Adrienne who is studying in southern France this semester. I found my way to her from the airport all by myself and we went on a series of exciting and educational field trips all around Provence. While I was there, I had two different crepes and brioche, so now I'm pretty sure that means that I never have to go back to France again.
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Bakery. Obviously |
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Marquis de Sade |
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City on a mountain |
After that we had one week of classes and then our two week spring break started. I went with two other people on a whirlwind adventure through Europe which merits a separate blog post, I think. Long story short we saw a lot of ducks and one dead pope.
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Ducks |
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Pope |
That pretty much catches us up to the present, so that is where I will leave it. I have a super extra bonus album of pictures that I may or may not post on Facebook in the near future, so be on the lookout for that.
*The new official date of my return is May 23rd, in case anyone was keeping track.