Sweets

Aren't they just the correctest?








And one day Martin took us out in the Red Betty.






We paused to enchant an island.





Sweden says "hej hej."

When Sam was here, man.



We lived the good life.



Thanks to Angie's little hiding head for photos.

She came! And noticed things I'd never, like how the Madrid gov is hip to graywater and doesn't waste freshwater on it's public lawns nor streets. I'd only ever whined about how wastefully often the streets in the center are hosed down.

And noticed, on her own, things I had once noticed, but since forgotten. Like the extraordinary giant in the Cathedral of Toledo. When I went to the Cathedral, as a student, I had thought the giant mural represented Goliath (he being the only biblical huge guy I knew of) (is the respectful term for giants "big people"?) but was laughed at by a friend from these parts, who explained that the dude was lucky, a Saint whose image conferred blessings, and therefore was often represented out of scale for extravisibility. The internet just says it's Saint Christopher; apparently he was very big. Who knows!

There's old Cristobal. I think he's especially striking in person because HIS person is the entirety of the fresco. No background, yknow?

Ms. Aunt Darling also enjoyed and photographed many of my favorite places and people in Madrid, luckily for both of us:



The Reina Sofía extension entrance.



A charming fachada near my neighbourhood.



My Swedes, at their goodbye party, in a beautiful ancient bar.


Post-prandial silliness with my housemates.


And the same with Lolin! Who, along with all my friends/Spain, was very taken with my beautiful aunt.

Oh.

Everyone should just make art their friends like.

Cuz no matter how special one's friends are, there are still tons of people like them.

Secret surprise!



Beginning: Mary Kate cut my hair! So see here's how it went down: I was shaggy, so shaggy. Then! It was the first day of school. So! I hopped on a bus and went to school, and there were maybe three teachers and six students and no coffee and it turned out the governor had decided that due to snow (snap out of it, europe) classes were canceled BUT schools were not closed. Yep: all schools must open, but no teaching allowed. So! I and the other auxiliar de conversación were sent home (we took cookies from the teachers lounge to make up for the 7 euro transportation costs) (not that we won't be paid for that day) while some of the other teachers who had not listened to the radio that morning stayed and watched the stranded kids whose parents had also not listened to the radio that morning.

End: So! That's why my hair is different.

okay Middle: Sooo I called Mary Kate, who also works for a snowstruck public school, and with sweets and coffee manipulated her into spending oh maybe an hour slivering my hair off. Mary Kate, as the Spanish say: muak muak muak.

Oh I LOVE how the NYtimes writes about teenagers as if they were this alien life form. From an article about how huggy teenagers are, which also includes accounts of schools where hugging has been banned as "dangerous," and parents bizzarely mourn the decline of the "high-five":

Some parents find it paradoxical that a generation so steeped in hands-off virtual communication would be so eager to hug.

“Maybe it’s because all these kids do is text and go on Facebook so they don’t even have human contact anymore,” said Dona Eichner, the mother of freshman and junior girls at the high school in Montvale.

Maybe these kids have carpal tunnel syndrome from being on Facebook? So handshakes hurt?