Blurbs

So I was thinking back earlier today to the first blog that I posted here, before I'd even left for Spain. That feels like such a long, long time ago already. In it, I'm pretty sure I promised I'd try to update this thing at least once a week. Oh, what a fool I was. I probably should've known better, but life moves on and I'm posting now so I hope you can forgive me. It's just that things get going, and there is so much to tell you about, but then I sit down in front of a computer and get overwhelmed by all there is to say! So here are just a few blurbs about a few things going on:

The Madrid Zoo- The weekend after Barcelona we didn't have any travel plans, so we paid a visit to the zoo in Madrid, made famous by the birth of two baby pandas a few years back! While the pandas were very cute, they were true to their panda-nature and weren't the most active of the creatures there. The biggest difference I saw between American zoos and the zoo here was that in Madrid, they don't discourage you from feeding the animals. This doesn't just mean throwing a piece of bread to the ducks-- it means almost every single animal there. One of my friends even threw the leftover apple from here lunch to a brown bear! While I definitely have some qualms with this morally, it certainly made the animals more active. (The pandas are one of the few animals you can't feed, hence why they were so calm.) All of the other animals, though, came right up to the edge of their habitat and waited for you to throw a treat to them. Below, my friend April and I stand in front of some rhinos.

Santander/Bilbao- I suppose the biggest occurrence since I last posted would have to be my trip to Santander and Bilbao last weekend. For those of you who aren't experts in Spain's geography, they're both located in northern Spain, right by the Atlantic Ocean. The best part of the trip was our first day there, which we spent in Santander. We spent the whole day walking along the coast, where most the city's tourist attractions are, culminating in a visit to a lighthouse. After hiking for an hour or so along the cliff, it began to softly rain as we reached a valley of the softest, brightest green grass made only more brilliant by the contrast of the dark sky. The ocean was completely visible to our right, leaving plenty of room to see the complete and bright rainbow that had begun to form. The lighthouse itself was just across the valley, and since we arrived at dusk the light turned on just as we reached the pinnacle of the hill. Just as I thought I might cry from how beautiful it was, I turned around and saw a white horse grazing freely in the valley. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a leprechaun, that's how surreally beautiful this place was.

Concerts- I think I mentioned before that I went to see the band Explosions in the Sky in concert, which was an amazing experience. The only thing that threw me off was trying to figure out how Spanish concerts work. I've got it down in the U.S.- if the flier says 8pm, they start at nine; if it says 9pm, they start at ten; and so on. In Spain it's different. Usually, the Spaniards are much more laid-back when it comes to time, but the concert began approximately when they said it would, and was over before 11:30pm! In the United States this is blasphemy, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, but the band played well and sounded awesome so I can forgive it. Tomorrow Jenn and I are going to see the British pop-rock band The Subways, and I'll make sure to be there on time.