let's have a wander in the sun, shall we?

And battle the shadows and blown-out skies!
 
I almost opened every single one of these 49 photos and resized them by hand so y'all could see them right in the blog in the best size. Then I realized that that would be ridiculously too much work. It's way faster for you to click all of them than for me to resize all of them. If you think one looks nice, I suggest you click on it to see it in better detail. Lots of these photos merit clicking, in my opinion.

First, though, a map.

The A is where I live. The green: el Corte Inglés, in the central shopping district, el centro. Red: Plaza Nueva and city hall. Blue: CIEE, where I have all but one of my classes. Yellow: the University, where I have one class (not an actual university class).

Cada instante es en potencia una obra de arte // Every moment is a potential work of art

Nearby street.

The (a) main road at a point sort of near my street. Not very busy on a Sunday.

POLLOS ASADOS: rotisserie chicken. I walk past it every day going to CIEE. And can smell them. I have yet to buy anything, but I have a feeling once I start, I'll be buying myself whole chickens for a snack every day...

Passed through a park right by the university.

calle San Fernando. People, scooters, bikes, the tranvia - no cars. To the left you can see the wall that surrounds the university.

So sometimes I really am quite stupid. I was, you know, thinking I'd take a cool picture of the tranvia as it went by, leaning all relaxedly against the pole, completely sure of myself. As the tranvia approached I starting taking pictures a little zoomed in and snapped snapped snapped and then took the camera away from my face and realized the freaking thing was inches from my arm. Yeah, see how close it is to the pole in the picture? Mmmhm. Dumb dumb. Still, I got a lucky picture out of it. Don't worry, Mom and Dad.

Sevici! I'd like to sign up (it's essentially 25 euro for a year, and possible a safety deposit) but I don't think you get your card for like a month. We'll see. Basically there are stations all over the city, and the first half hour is free. So you can keep switching at different stations and avoid paying! That's what they tell us.

EXCUSE ME?

Looks like something you'd see in the US. I was offended that Carlos and Jose were not willing to sell me a burguer on Sunday.

Aww. He tried to push her in the pond.

The best park rules sign you'll ever see. Click!

A sucky one - the majority of park rules signs in this city, desafortunadamente. Don't bother clicking.

So that's what they do with all those oranges.

I wouldn't hire him. (That is a trash can.)

Plaza de España.

a man with his wares, busily clicking away with his little wooden hand clappers

A selection of Plaza graffiti. I like this dolphin thing.

Was gonna show this to Jose, but decided I'd just laugh for myself. You'll see why in the next post.

I KNOW RIGHT

you know it's real love if it's carved in the marble. only fakes write on the brick in pen.

Good old Spain, takin' care of its minusvalidos!

On the walk home through some random streets.

Even in Spain.

We learned about this guy in class! The hospice he founded is in a completely different neighborhood. ?_?

I'm sold.

I still haven't had this. I'm always on my way somewhere or walking back for dinner. Soon, though!
Also, in case you were wondering, yes, every Spanish child looks like that.

Part of the huge mushrooms under construction near el centro.

Pigeons never stay still for me.

Looking from the main street down Calle Jupiter, which takes a turn to the right where you see the end of the road there in the middle. I'm right after the turn. This construction has been here the whole time, and will be there the whole time I'm here, I'm sure.

We are the second row up, with all the flowerboxes. See the two windows on the big porch? The one to the right is my window, the one to the left is the kitchen window. The only access to the big porch is through Jose and Maria's section of the house, but I can access the little porch on the front.