Palacio Real

Yesterday we finally visited the Palacio Real. We were supposed to go in January, but the visit was cancelled because of an official visit.

The palace, with 2,800 rooms, is the second-largest in Europe, St. Petersburg´s being the first. (Versailles´gardens are bigger, but Madrid´s building is bigger). We obviously only saw a fraction of the rooms, but how gorgeous they were. All the marble, gold, velvet, glass and porcelain was stunning, but I didn´t feel, I don´t know, awed. The cathedrals I´ve seen, though (and Marisa would kill me if she heard me say this) they all look the same, are what awe me. Don´t get me wrong, seeing the palace was spectacular, and you´d think that I´d find more beauty in the luxury of each room, but it´s really the towering cupulas and stone columns of the cathedrals and the castles that I´ve found really take my breath away.

Anyways, since we weren´t allowed to take pictures, I bought a pair of overpriced postcards to remember what my two favorite rooms looked like. Afterwards a bunch of us went wandering around Sol for a while.

And regarding that whole EU class. Well, I asked the professor in class today what in the world the conspiracy video had to with the European Union, and he replied that the end of the video declared that the EU was just another front the world´s international bankers concocted to take over the world. Just a theory, he said. Really, we watched this entire thing just to hear that last sentence.

I could go on and on describing my frustration, but I won´t bore you. At least my other classes are good.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, the defense attaché from the U.S. embassy spoke to us today, and I´ve now decided that I can never be a diplomat because everything they say is predictable. No thanks, I´d rather not be a pawn. With the U.S. elections proceeding along and the campaign at its climax here in Spain (elections are Sunday), and all the conspiracy theories and history I´m getting in my classes, I´ve had it. No more journalism, no more politics; my new life plan involves becoming a novelist who resides in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains.

Yeah, we´ll see how long this plan lasts.

On another note, eight days and six hours from now I will be in LONDON!