there´s good, there´s bad, there´s smelly.

today has been quite a day. a day full of things. full of things.

today was the trip to zaragoza with the entire group of awkward ohioans. zaragoza is two hours from here, we took a bus, we were tired, we were hungry.

my day began like this: i woke up, got ready, went outside to catch the bus. I went outside at 7:30, in hopes that the bus would come within minutes because I needed to be at the school in 15 minutes. They are on 15 minute rotations... and guess what? It came at 7:45. Just My Luck. So, I preceded to get on the bus, ride it past my bus stop that would have taken me closer to my destination, and get off at the wrong stop. At which point it was 7:52 - the bus was leaving at 8. As I sprinted clear across the campus, I thought to myself, ¨Why, this is crazy. Why am I running?¨ And of course, about half the group arrived after me, making my early morning race against time pointless.

I was tired (going on 6 hours of sleep because I cannot seem to stop reading my book when it is time for bed), I was hungry (I ate two pieces of toast and an apple, but I´m always hungry here), and I was frustrated.

¨But,¨ I thought to myself, ¨I am in Spain. This is good. I´m gonna need to get in a bit of a better mood here.¨ So, I did. We had a lovely bus ride, stopped at a cafe/bar where I had some tortilla, and began our day.

We saw El Palacio de Aljafería, the only remaining palace left from a certain period of time that the ¨múselmanes¨ made (the arabs). It was cool... I got some pictures.


We also saw a museum with paintings by Goya, where I snuck a picture of one of the paintings, unbeknownst to the security guard. I felt like such a rebel.

We also saw a few other museums briefly and then saw La Basílica del Pilar,¨ a really really really gorgeous cathedral where, of course, photography was not allowed. I swear I have never seen so much carving of intricate scenes, flowers, designs ever - in my whole life combined. It was gorgeous, painted with gold, each chapel in a separate dome, etc. Just beautiful.

Oh, I forgot to mention the lunch we had. When you go out to lunch in Spain, it´s a BIG deal. There are at least 5 appetizers, which included bread, peppers, bread crumbs with grapes, sausages and rice sausages with pig blood, ham, and cheese. Then comes the main course - lamb and potatoes. Then comes dessert - the most amazing lemon sorbet ever. Then they bring out the coffee, which I skip because I´m the only weird one in Spain who doesn´t drink coffee. But it´s ok because I drank enough wine to make up for it. You see, I was very cold, and my logic was that the wine would warm me up. And perhaps I was a little sleepy the rest of the day, but I was warmer, so mission accomplished.

We had some free time at the end of the day, so of course I scoured the city for candy. (Ok, not scoured, but I found a few things). We also shopped at a pretty unique jewelry store where Larissa got a necklace.

I slept a little bit on the bus ride home, came home and hung out with Amaia, my parents came home, and then the fun began.

I felt some itchyness... and after checking, I discovered three more bites/bumps on my skin! Lucky me! One of them is probably the size of Rhode Island. I just HATE this. So we stripped my bed of covers, sprayed my room again, I shook out all my clothes over the bathtup to see if i coudl find any bugs, showered, and we are washing all my clothes.

So much for going out tonight.

There´s my día. How was yours?