im in spainn!
the easyjet pilot was excellent i have to say =) hopefully the return leg will be just as impressive. so anyhow. the last morning in oxford was niceee. it was sunny and yummy. =)
went around worcester college. there were 2 squirrels fighting in the tree...and one fell from the branch and dove straight into the lake. i screamed coz i thought it was going to drown but it happily swam to shore, scurried up the tree and hid in a hole recovering from the defeat.

spain's been absolutely lovely. lovely weather - sunshine! and it's been abt 17 - 19 in the day so it's perfect =) lots of yummy food too...sara's house is lovely and her mummy and grandma are lovely too =) oh yes, and so are her neighbours. hahaha...after the neighbours dropped by and told her grandma that they'd met me and I was nice blahblah she scolded sara for bringing me by their place and traumatizing me...haha...because they're very talkative (one asked me to guess her age) and sara's granny told her she should be born again for doing that. hahah. =) all this in spanish.

yesterday we went walking around spain...the central park equivalent, streets and such...which was really nice coz it's just how the locals spend the weekend~ (esp since everything's closed on sundays besides chinese grocery stores) saw lots of people with their dogs, roller blading, reading the newspapers etc. a relaxing day overall. at night we met up with a bunch of her friends for tapas =) yumyum. queso, mucho queso! muy rico =) haha. yes, it's been intensive spanish immersion the past 2 days =)
today was tIRing. we walked aLL around madrid city centre. plaza de espana, the royal palace, the palace gardens, to the egyptian temple, up to the air force building, down through the crooks and crannies, they have palaces for absolutely everything and everyone, to dessert shops and handicraft stores...haha. we're absolutely pooped.

and of course, the daily ritual of visiting billy-joe downstairs =)



people on the streets: 1. father and son feeding ducks. 2. a little boy writing "alvaro, mama, papa" on the pavement with his grandpa. 3. mother and daughter feeding ducks. 4. 2 little girls with their daddy in the town square. 5. guy getting his shoe shined and telling his lifestory. 6. a store with buttons, lace, ribbon, yarn, etcetc. 7. excursion to the park. 8. museo de jamon - museum of ham....with 100s of different kinds of ham. it's clearly a big part of their lives. 9. a dessert store =) yumyum.
inside the royal palace:
1. a room with walls all covered with chinesey drawings/art...
3. the king's dressing room which had terribly pretty walls and ceiling.
4/7/9. real farmacia - the amazing place with one room of little drawers each containing a different drug or whatever it was. (4 & 7) I'm certain they learnt that from the chinese palaces =) haha. and 9 is a photo of round bottom flasks from long ago. =)