the icing on top of the cake

so as a perfect weekend comes to an end, it becomes even more perfect. it was almost 70 degrees today and sunny so the 5 of us girls decided to have a picnic in parque retiro. we brought blankets, wine, freshly made bread, salami, and a hunk of cheese. we sat in the sun for hours and ate and listened to music. ideal.

after, we were craving the violet gelato again, because who wouldn't?, and we went BUT THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANYYY...so we got rose flavored gelato instead, which was a close second, but i still like the violet the best. who knew that flower flavored gelato would be so amazing?

literally best 4 days ever.

cuchinillo is not my thing

wait. just listen. let me tell you about my perfect weekend in spain. I had winter break this week...so i had thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday to do what i want in madrid. perfection.

thursday, carissa and i went shopping over at nuevos ministerios and got this awesome gold shiny sweater. it's ke$ha-esque and amazing. then we met the girls (lucie, ariel, and lucie's friend allie) at plaza de españa and went to a chinese buffet. omg so good. just what i've been craving. such a hidden gem too...like crystals all hanging from the ceiling.

then friday, we (me, carissa, ariel, lucie, and katie- the core 5) went to la mordida (a mexican restaurant) where we got nachos con guacamole and margaritas and more. again, amazing. we were walking back to the metro when we spotted a gelato place and i didn't want any yet i got violet gelato. ICE CREAM WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. this gelato was UNREAL. i don't even know how to explain it. it was a mix of the lavender smell and violets and pure joy. it was such a gorgeous day out so carissa and i came back home and grabbed a blanket and walked to the park and laid down for a while. it was so fun! i also have a portrait assignment for my photography class so i was snapping pictures the whole time- when they're done being edited, i'll put them up.

so then today, carissa and i went to segovia (the other 3 went to el escorial). it was quite an adventure. we decided to go, but we weren't sure which train to take (because there was cercanias train and renfe ave train). we went to the metro stop that the train station is at and couldn't find where to buy the tickets. we wandered around like lost ducklings until we walked into the right place- the train station. but we STILL couldn't find where to buy tickets until we spotted it up further ahead. we waited on line but were scared we were going to miss the train...when carissa saw that one of the ticket booth lines said Segovia on it so we went over there and skipped the line and bought tickets. we got on the train and in 30 minutes, we were there. THEN we get off the train and we're in the middle of nowhere! there's a tourist office/store where we asked how to get to segovia and she gave us a map and directed us toward the public bus. uhhhh okay. so a million people CRAM onto this public bus and the driver was horrible so we were all falling all over each other and it was horrible. 15 crammed minutes later, the aqueducts were in sight. we hopped off and took millions of pictures and walked all around. it was GORGEOUS and it was a beauuuutiful day. it kind of looked like toledo. carissa and i also had a 3 hour lunch, sipping on white wine and eating croquetas. and the aqueducts are unbelievable. there was also a jewish section! and a castle that the castle in sleeping beauty was inspired by. all in all, it was a great day. but i'm tired.

segovia is also famous for their cuchinillo (suckling pig) which is like literally a baby pig and you eat it and they're all over the restaurants but i wouldn't even think about eating it. disgusting.

and people need to stop making out in public. why is everyone in a relationship here?

and the men need to stop being attractive. enough, already.

the castle inspiration for sleeping beauty!

"is that africa?"

long time no see. sorry, my life's been boring here in madrid. WELL last weekend, we went down to the south of spain to cádiz, a city on the southwest coast, where there was Carnaval (the third largest in the world). It's basically a giant halloween. so much fun. i was a fairy (hence the wings), that eventually ended up being crumpled in a ball by the end of the night, sadly. there were thousands of people in so many crazy costumes (firefighters, popes, hockey players, more inappropriate costumes haha). the 9-10 hour drive each way was not the best, but the leaders of the trip played weird british movies, which were hilarious.

also, the countryside of southern spain is GORGEOUS. like picturesque rolling hills and animals grazing and you get the jist.

and todayyy we found out that there's this AMAZINGGGG restaurant right near school. it's called cervecería 100 montaditos and it's a chain in spain (they actually have one in miami!) and they have like 1 euro sandwiches of all different types, which are unreal. one of mine today was shrimp and pineapple and some sauce. um so good. i'll be going every single day for lunch. mom and dad...we're going there when you're here. you don't have a choice.

that's it for now. i'm not sure if i'll have any posts anytime soon. i'm here in madrid this weekend (hopefully a daytrip somewhere) and then next weekend mis amigas from florence are coming!!!! so so excited.

and i'm drowning in midterms. at least they're over on wednesday...kill me.

Holla at me Kate Middleton

this past weekend i went to england to visit Emma!! For those who don't know, Emma was my first au pair (nanny) when i was little. I flew in Friday morning (SO EARLY) and hung out with Emma all morning. It took forever for me to find her at the airport because we were in two different places but thought we were in the same one. Then we picked the kids up at school, which was super exciting. That night we had the classic British fish and chips for dinner. SO YUMMY.

Saturday we ventured into London. We took the tube into the city and walked all around. We saw the London Eye, Big Ben, went to the Tate Art Museum of Modern Art, saw some skateboarders, etc. Caitlin and Ollie rode around London on their scooters all day, zooming around. We then took the Underground to Leicester Square and walked to the M&M Store and down to Covent Square for dinner. On the way I RANDOMLY ran into a girl in my sorority from WashU who's studying abroad there! Such a small world. Actually. And we went to this American restaurant for dinner and had the BEST tomato soup and veggie burger for dinner. NO HAM!!!!

Sunday it unusually snowed like 3-4 inches and it was crazy! Everyone was soo excited about the snow, when it was like nothing for me. But we managed to slowly drive to the airport and even though my flight was delayed an hour and a half, I finally made it home! In time for the (depressing) superbowl.

I would chat about the superbowl and how fun the night was, but today I am deeply depressed and i'm trying to repress those memories.