Un Tarde en el Parque

(El Parque del Retiro in Madrid, Spain)

Today, on the way to El Parque de Retiro, Lizzie and I ran into our advisor, Ana, on the metro. We chatted for a bit, and Ana said my Spanish was improving, so I was pleased. I asked her how her son's first few weeks of school had been (he's just started kindergarten) and Ana said that he has cried every morning for two weeks and is under the impression that he can declare a weekend whenever he sees fit. Ah, the good ol' days. . .

Lizzie and I spent the afternoon walking around the park, taking pictures, eating popsicles, and practicing our Spanish. We always have really good conversations, (usually after we switch back to English - the Spanish conversations are rather succinct) and it was good to be outside on such a lovely day. One thing I noticed while we were at the park was the surprising number of stray cats that hang out there. During the three hours Lizzie and I were at the park, we probably saw 40 cats! I asked Lizzie why she thought there were so many kittens, and she said that they all looked full-grown to her. But they looked so much smaller than my cats back home. . .

I got back to Julia's just in time for dinner and found out that she is on a liquids-only diet for the next three weeks. Luckily, I am not forced to partake in this nonsense, and she gave me a piece of fish that was the size of my head. Also, to be sociable, I asked her to go to a movie with me sometime. She agreed, but insisted that we go to a movie with subtitles, for my own sake.

Then to avoid doing homework, I went through all of Katie's pictures. That girl's got talent! My favorite was in the 365 Day Self-Portrait collection - the one where she is standing in front of the wall of paints and only certain colors pop out of the B&W background. I was mighty impressed - most of my pictures aren't even straight!