¡Hola!

It's been a while since I've last updated ... sorry about that! It's amazing how many things there are to do in Madrid, and how busy I still manage to be even though I'm not on campus at UF. But on to the more interesting things I've been doing ...

I've been really, really enjoying my "Arte en el Museo del Prado" (Art in the Prado Museum) class. During the week we study the paintings of some of the great Spanish masters (El Greco, Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya) and then every Friday we go to the Prado Museum (one of the best art museums in the world) and get to actually see the paintings. I even had to do a presentation in the Prado on one of Velazquez's works – in front of my entire class and all the other Spaniards who stopped to listen to the interesting things I had to say. It was a bit terrifying and I'm sure I made all sorts of grammatical mistakes, but it was definitely worth it. I always enjoyed studying art in school, but I do have to say that there is nothing, nothing like seeing the real paintings up close. You can see every detail and every brushstroke, and it makes you truly appreciate how talented these people were and why these paintings are still so popular today.

I went on a day trip with my school to Segovia, a city about an hour north of Madrid. They have a Roman Aqueduct there that is over 2000 years old, and a castle (El Alcazar) that was some of the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle. It was a beautiful city with a lot of really interesting history. I really enjoyed visiting, and trying some of their local cuisine. They have a bean dish (that I can't remember the name of to save my life) which is great. Definitely look for it if you go.

I also recently took a trip to Prague and Vienna, both of which are amazing cities. Prague is incredibly charming; the buildings are very well preserved, and nearly every street I walked down was beautiful. The Charles Bridge is very cool; there are vendors all along the sides selling all sorts of different things and its very tempting to spend every last Koruna (they don't use the Euro there) you have. Vienna is also an amazing city, and as we were told by one man: the home of Wiener Schnitzel, Sachertorte (yum!), and classical music. Mozart and Strauss both come from Austria and I had the opportunity to see a classical music concert while I was there – a great experience! I also visited the Shonbrunn, the Hapsburg's summer palace, which in reality is not that far from their winter palace (about 10 metro stops or so), but by horse and carriage I'm sure it took longer. It was built to rival Versailles, and having seen both I don't know which I prefer more. The gardens at the Shonbrunn are beautiful and as its now fall, all the leaves had changed colors - something we don't really get in Florida. It was utterly breathtaking.

The elections are now over, and I do have to say it was interesting seeing them from this side of the planet. Every time anyone found out I was an American, they instantly wanted to know who I was voting for. In the U.S. most people consider that a pretty personal question and don't usually ask (I don't, anyway), but in Madrid it seems to be the norm. I heard somewhere that about 80% of the Spanish population would have voted for Obama had they been given the opportunity – so there was obviously some excitement on November 5th when everyone heard the news.

My time in Europe is starting to come to a close, and every time I think about it I'm sad. Madrid is wonderful – Europe is wonderful – and I don't think I'll ever want to leave.

Some friends and I are taking a trip to Rome and Venice next week and I'm going to a Flamenco show tonight, so I'll have more stories to report back soon!

¡Hasta luego!