Spain and I

Okay, so we have a confession: Zayn overslept and missed today's excursion to the Prado and the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). But while Senor Malik was dozing, I had a blast.

Someone had too much caffeine!!

A quick recap, since we missed yesterday: class, gym, pool, finished reading Gone Girl, then Ramiro Class. We've moved onto the Baroque, thank god. I'll take frivolous gilding over gloomy martyrs any day.

After class, a few of us wandered down the street to Starbucks for a very unexpected FIRST PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE OF THE SEASON WHAAAT??? Zayn was so excited he could barely sit still for the photo, so we apologize for the pool quality of the pic. I had actually never had a whole PSL to myself before, so a bit of a milestone, I guess. Definitely didn't think it would happen in Spain. But the weather's been cool and gray and a little rainy, so a sweet, spicy, creamy latte was exactly what we needed.

Home for dinner, then out to Malasanya with the WUSTL crew (minus Hannah and Miguel) plus two Johns Hopkins kids. We started at this beach-themed bar called Ojala (Spanish for "God willing," god knows why) and sat on low cushions in a basement full of sand with pitchers of sangria. Rainbow Christmas lights, fun music but not too loud, a very enjoyable evening. We went to another little bar after that, less remarkable, then towards Sol for some late-night pizza and a cab home.

Zayn missed out!

Today, as I said, we had our Ramiro excursion. Today's Prado visit focused on Goya, from his humble beginnings as royal painter to Carlos III (for whom our university is named) to his later deafness and cynicism wherein he lived alone and made nightmarish paintings of zombie peasants and Greek gods munching on the bones of their offspring. Pretty cool stuff actually.

Post-Prado, we had some lunch at an UvePan (cute bakery/cafe chain) before meeting Ramiro and Belen at the Palacio. Kind of a mini-Versailles. Very cool stuff, porcelain ceilings, velvet walls, portraits of ugly royals, lots to look at. We really had a blast.

Home for a little workout, a little painting, dinner, Skype with Liz, blog, and to bed! Whew!