Bob Esponja

Something weird about Spain: People here have a strange and unhealthy obsession with Spongebob Squarepants. Honestly I don't understand it because I thought that Spongebob was at his peak in the early 2000's... but no. Every day I'm bound to see at least one Spongebob walking around (you know, like a Spaniard dressed up in a Spongebob suit) usually selling balloons shaped like Spongebob or Patrick. And it's not just in Madrid. Stores in every city that I've visited offer a wide variety of Spongebob paraphernalia... awkward but true.

Creepy, ¿no?

Last week (or maybe it was the week before last... can't remember) we went as a group to visit the Palacio Real. It isn't in use as a palace anymore, but some of the rooms were restored and decorated as they would have been in the "old days." It was so beautiful - the architecture was absolutely breathtaking. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but if I go back some other time I might try to sneak them.

El Palacio

¿Tienes la llave?

Today, for the first time all semester, I studied. I know, I know - bad student (sorry Mom). But the work here is really minimal, for the most part. We have midterms coming up next week so I'm trying to not fail my classes. It's hard enough trying to focus back in Milwaukee. Imagine trying to do schoolwork while you're surrounded by beautiful, romantic Europe. It's unbearable. As Mary Kate Stanfa would say scream, "It's not fair!" (and she would also be crying).

Last weekend I went back to Valencia for this huge festival called Las Fallas. I know I have written a lot about my experiences with the busses here in Spain, but it's because so many weird and funny things happen en route that I feel like I have to include them. Our bus was scheduled to leave Madrid from our school at 9:00 a.m. so we made sure to get to there by 8:30 so we wouldn't be in a mad rush. Good plan, right? Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Upon arrival at school, we found ourselves lost in a sea of thousands of students all trying to find their busses. One would think that there would be some kind of organization to this set-up, but one should never assume such a thing in Spain. There were probably at least a hundred busses lining the streets, each with a list of names posted on the door. Thus began our mad scramble to figure out where we were supposed to go, which we executed by checking each bus for our names. It was the most hectic, sweaty, unnerving experience that I've had here so far. We all got split up but nonetheless made it to Valencia. (But Lamia and Hannah's bus broke down on the way so they arrived considerably later than the rest of us. Win some, lose some.)

So Las Fallas. It's this huge festival (read: party) that takes place every year in Valencia. Basically, different groups spend all year building these gigantic statues out of wood, which get set on fire at the end of the last night. The different statues (all really creatively built, most with a political theme) were spread out all through the city, so it was fun to wander around and see the different works of art. Read more about Las Fallas here. It's really crazy because some of the statues can cost upwards of €600,000 to produce. That's like a million big ones - can you believe it? It was quite a sight to see, though, and I'm really glad I went...

especially because I got to see Lauren! She's studying in Barca so she took a bus down with a bunch of her friends. Finding her in the masses of people was quite a challenge, but it was well worth the hunt.

Falla

Otra Falla

Before

After

Me and Laurz

What I wish would have happened differently:

Lucky for me, going back to Valencia gave me another opportunity to have some more of that violet flavored ice cream that I raved about in a previous post. Unlucky for me, when I gave my cone to my friend Mooney to hold for me for just a few moments, she ate it. Do you believe it? The nerve!

The busride home... was awful. When we booked our tickets, we thought that our bus left Valencia at 2 a.m. to arrive back in Madrid at 7 a.m. Wrong again. Our bus left Valencia at 7 a.m. and we arrived in Madrid at 12 p.m. After walking around Valencia all day the last thing I wanted to do by 4 a.m. was stick around for another three hours waiting for our bus (and needless to say, it was a long, cold, all-around-miserable wait).

I spy with my little eye...

En otras noticias:

1. Molly, my 15 year old sister, made the GHS Varsity soccer team. I'm so proud of her! If only her personality didn't suck, I might be able to start liking her a little bit.

2. Mary Kate, my 13 year old sister, has the female lead as Becky Thatcher in her theatre company's production of Tom Sawyer. I'm so proud of her, too! But same thing with the personality.

3. Karen, my 24 year old sister, recently got engaged to this guy named Jay. It's weird because she just met him a few weeks ago... which I think is odd. I mean what does she really know about him? To each her own, I guess.

4. Michael, my 19 year old brother, has done nothing interesting in the past year.

5. Neither have my parents.

6. Just kidding about the 'few weeks' thing. Karen and Jay have been together for 4 years or so. He's kewl.