make your best ugly face!

This journal entry is dedicated to Courtney Latta and Lindsey Foss.

Yesterday morning on the Metro, I was reminded of a conversation that Courtney, Lindsey, and myself had probably over a year ago. We were laughing about how, to avoid people staring at us, trying to kidnap us, etc. we would make an "ugly face" to deter the offender. Apparently, blatantly staring a hole into someone else is socially acceptable here in Espain, and it´s beginning to make me really uncomfortable, because I never can tell why people are glaring at me, or what I´m wearing, or what shoes I have on... oh well. I thought of that whole "ugly face" theory of Courtney and Lindsey´s and had a good belly laugh about it. I may start using it here soon.

Yesterday afternoon, Ashley and I and two other girls from the program went back to the Museo Thyssen for the opening of a Van Gogh exhibit. The exhibit showcases the final over 70 works of Van Gogh during the last 70 days of his life, as well as a few comparable paintings by Cézanne and Pisarro. They were mostly landscapes, but really beautiful nonetheless. This afternoon we´re going to the Museo del Prado, which is probably one of the biggest collections of classical artwork in Europe outside of the Louvre- couldn´t be more excited! All that´s left now is next week´s visit to the Reina Sofia (modern and contemporary art, AKA Picasso) to make my artistic pilgrimage complete :)

This weekend, everyone is going on independent journeys to Andalucia ("the south")and there is a group of 4 of us taking the high velocity train to Sevilla for 2 nights and staying in a pretty cool hostel there. On Saturday we are taking a bus to Tarifa, which is the southernmost point of Spain, where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet, and the African coastline is visible on a clear day. I can´t wait! We´re also stopping to see the world famous mezquita de Cordoba on the way home on Sunday. Please pray for our safety on this trip!

[Insert comment about Colin here because he is reading over my shoulder and feeling dejected that I have not written anything about him.]

Love you all!
Erin