NYR #25: See the bonsais in the Royal Botanical Gardens

Right next to the Prado are the Jardines Reales Botánicos. That's right: Royal Botanical Gardens. And we all know what that means...

FLOWERS!!!

This week has really been the start of just absolutely beautiful perfect Spanish weather. 80º and sunny every single day, and Saturday was no exception. Friend Veronica came to visit, and since it was so pretty (and since she's been locked up in a library in Krakow all winter, and it still isn't particularly sunny there), I decided that the perfect thing to do would be to enjoy the Spanish sunshine.

With flowers.

First, there were the camellias. Lots and lots of lovely pink camellias. 

Some were even salmon-colored and all were absolutely beautiful.

They've convinced me that they should be my new favorite flower.

Then, we might have gone tip-toeing through some tulips.

And of course, we couldn't actually cross this one off the list until we saw the bonsais. 

I didn't really realize that bonsai just meant 'miniature tree' before coming to these gardens. For some reason, I thought that they were the crazy bamboo trees that people have cut and shaped into awesome sculptures. But I was wrong.

There are maybe 20 different bonsai trees in an exhibition. They're pretty cute and very unique.

But I think I preferred all the flowers.

The list and NYR #7: Take a photo at the statue of el oso y el madroño

Friend Aubrey was here this past week on her spring break, and we had sooo much fun wandering all over Madrid and even taking a day trip to Toledo. We saw lots of wonderful sites and got to check a whole bunch of stuff off the list. I have now done 59 things on the list (maybe more if you include the things that I want to sub out), but the more impressive feat is the fact that in the span of a week, friend Aubrey marked off a grand total of 40 items from that list.

40!!!!!!!!

I'm very impressed. But we both felt like our feet were going to fall off afterward.

But we had an absolutely wonderful week, and here's a picture of us at the Oso y el Madroño.

On Picnics

The picnic is alive and well in Spain, in case you were a bit worried that it was dying a slow and painful death.

I'm not entirely sure when I last had a picnic (tailgates don't count), but yesterday I rediscovered how much fun they are during a 5-HOUR picnic in the Parque del Oeste with my intercambio, Laura, and a bunch of her friends.

(Intercambio is the Spanish term for a language exchange and a fun way to make new friends!)

There were bocadillos, and Tex-Mex Doritos (which basically taste like the Nacho Cheese ones), and homemade lemon cookies, and Pringles, and Fanta Naranja, and...and...sooo much food!

And then there were the games. We played soccer (kick the ball around the circle, not an actual game). We talked--some Spanish, some English, some Spanglish. And even though I said that a tailgate doesn't REALLY count as a picnic, there is at least one thing that they can have in common: FOOTBALL! That's right, even though we're in Spain and the whole wonderful, lovely and very, very American sport of football doesn't really exist here, someone brought a football to the tailgate--erm, I mean, picnic--today, and I was in heaven. We played catch for at least an hour or two. It might not have been that long, but I think it was. After all, it was a 5-HOUR PICNIC!

It was almost like being back home, at a K-State game, except instead of a parking lot, I was in a lovely, verdant green park, and instead of eating the Madre's delicious ribs, I had a bocadillo with tomato and tortilla española and a Fanta Naranja.

Thank God for football season!

PS: My Wildcats are 4-0! GO STATE!

¡Futbolín!

I went out last Thursday night with Kenneth's friend Belen and her friends, Genevieve and Rafa. And at one of the bars we went to, there was an awesome foosball table.

Foosball in Spanish is futbolín, and boy is it sure fun to play, especially on really old-school tables.

Genevieve and I teamed up against Belen and Rafa, and I wouldn't say that we beat them handily, but we might have dominated each match.

I would place the cause of our dominance on our fierce game faces.

Belen and Rafa don't look nearly so fierce. You can never underestimate them, though. This is them scoring the first goal of the match.

They might have scored this goal because I was taking a picture of the game. I do not regret it because I came back with a goalie to goal kick that tied us up, so it was all good. And then we won the game. 

NYU in Madrid...in Segovia

There are 24 people total in the NYU in Madrid Master's program--11 in the Lit. and Culture track and 13 in the translation track. Not all 11 of us were in Segovia, but of the 8 who were, here are 7:

Daniella, Me, Behnaz, Kaitlin, Kristin, Lindsey, and Mary Kate

Surprising Surprises! Part IV

And this one wasn't really a surprise, but then later that evening, the 107 Girls had a housewarming party. So yeah. 4 parties in one day. I was pretty tuckered out.

Here is a picture of their beautiful living room:

It's a little blurry and I don't know why, but I'm assuming it's because the flash was off.

And here's a picture of the preparations for the festivities:

It was quite a fun-filled evening. We had Knolla's Pizza, and on the way friend Aubrey and I discussed the possibility that anyone could ever throw a surprise party for her. She decided that it was impossible, since she was the planner of the group. But then at the housewarming, she was surprised by the appearance of her friend Peter. So I guess it is possible to surprise an unsurprisable person. 

Surprising Surprises! Part III

Of course, since I didn't know about the surprising surprise party, I had already planned my own birthday party for Saturday at 3:30.

And there was no way I could cancel it because we had already baked a dark chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate fudge icing (my favorite!) and made 2 kinds of homemade ice cream: raspberry sorbet and vanilla.

And there was no way my mom couldn't not let me plan my own party without giving away the surprise, so... at 3:30 we had more cake and ice cream! This time with presents!

I was a lot more excited about it than I look in this picture. I think here I was very intent on opening the present. (!)

And this is a nice little panorama shot of the room with Dad's new handy Sony point and shoot digital. We like it a lot, but what we didn't realize was that you have to take a full panorama if you don't want a random black bar to appear on one side.

Surprising Surprises! Part II

After breakfast on Saturday, we had about 30 minutes to get ready for a lunch with the brother's in-laws to plan the Christmas trip. We were going to meet them at the country club. I should have known that something was up when the brother kept telling me to change into something a little nicer than my denim skirt and JCrew tee (I changed into a white summer skirt and kept the tee).

We got to the club and walked towards the Tapestry room. I kind of noticed a bunch of people standing around, but didn't really pay much attention to them until they shouted, "SURPRISE!"

That's right, a surprise going away party thrown by my friends and family who lived within Kansas or within a 100 mile radius of Kansas (or thereabouts). I guess my mom planned it while I was at Spanish camp, and friend Aubrey made the decorations.

Apparently, there were a few close calls where I might have learned about it...most notably when Aubrey made me send some text messages for her since she was driving and I saw a text about a birthday gift, or when I visited friend Rob's house and the invitation was laying out face-up on the dining room table. Thankfully, though, DNortonLand breeds oblivion, so things like surprise parties remain, well, surprises.

This is the kid's table. Note the dude serving fajitas in the background. Best surprise party ever!