Week 3, OR, How I Become Familiar with Dead Spanish Artists

Day 16a
So obviously this pic needs an explanation. Luisa's and my bedroom window faces the blinding lights of a hotel right across the street, which allow us limited hours of sleep. For the past week we've tried shutting the curtains prior to falling asleep, but found out that they couldn't close all the way, which proved aggravating. About mid week we found that there were shutter blinds in-between the double window panes, but every attempt we made to try and pull them down to block off the searing poly-chromed lights streaming in was fruitless. Finally Sunday night Luisa got fed up and jumped on top of our desk to put in all the strength she could muster to pull those stupid blinds down so we could finally get a good night's sleep without waking up to the psychedelic lights at 2am. After a minute or two of watching her struggle (and dying laughing) I helped her, and through both of our efforts we were finally able to find the mysterious tether cord hidden behind one of the curtains that allowed the blinds to be shut.

Day 16b
Result!

Day 17a
Luisa is a delight to live with, let me tell you. Instead of waiting for someone to come and unlock the church gates so that we could go to our religion class, she decided to jump the fence.

Day 17b

Day 17c
Her victory was short-lived though because not 1 minute later Elder Lopez (member of the 70 and our religion teacher) drove up with the keys to unlock the gates and the church building.

Day 18
A group of us went to the National Archaeological Museum, which was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. I saw many beautiful Roman sculptures and statues, as well as Spanish artifacts from the past 6 centuries.

Day 19a
The Prado, aka where I'll be spending a lot of my time. Today I spent almost 2 hours looking at half of one floor of art.

Day 19b
The growing wall we found on our way home from the Prado. This is a 40+ foot wall that has living plants growing on top of a brick building, which was awesome to pose in front of despite the cold temperature.

Day 20a
This is the Archbishop's Palace in Alcalá. I found out that tons of history took place here. This was the birthplace of Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel, and Henry VIII's first wife. This is also where Ferdinand and Isabel met Christopher Columbus for the first time. LOVE! I can't believe that my little town holds so much history!

Day 20b

Day 21a

The Cathedral of Segovia

Day 21b

The Roman Aqueduct that bisects the city of Segovia

Day 21c
Alcazar of Segovia

Day 22
The Velazquez statue right outside of the Prado, which is where I spent 7 hours of my Saturday, and I've still only seen 3/4 of the museum after a combined 9 hours this week. And I can't wait to go back.