funny thing san sebastian

the town or village i live in is called san sebastian de los reyes and it its neighboring and touching town is called alcobendas. i have found something very amusing about these two villages...old men gomon their afternoon, mid morning, morning whatever time walks with out their shirts. ha ha ha! oh how i have wanted to capture this with my camera but how can i? i just can not force myself to ask an old man if i can take his photo without his shirt on. heehee. i have no idea if it is just something you can do around your local village or if the people of madrid do it as well. i have been on a few day trips to madrid and have yet to see a shirtless jerriatric man, although, i have only been to tourismo spots. in any case, everytime i see an old man leisurely strolling along i giggle to myself, becuase often as not, he´s got no shirt!

oh and on that fashion note, two things i´ve noticed. genie pants are in for women. they can go anywhere from the knee to to the ankle and be more like billowy sweat pants or full on i dream of genie going on. its quite intersting.

for men, they wear capries. i have seen this on a few guys in the states, but every other man is wearing capries here. again they go anywhere from under the knee to 6 or so inches about the ankle. i have to say...i like it. and i´ve seen everystyle of man wearing them. sporty, preppish, grunged, whatev.

oh! i forgot! when i was in london i noticed several guys wearing oldschool letterman sweaters, like the 1950´s thing. and again, the sweater was not designated to one type of look. kind of cool.

Faunia with Felix

wednesday felix and i went to a zoo/musuem/activity center about 20 minutes from san sebastian, where we live, called faunia. it is a small park with different sections where you can see different habitats and the animals that inhabit them. they also have a small water show with seals. felix told me that they did have dolphins. its a big enoough that you can spend the whole day there, but small enough that you do not need to rush. my favorite parts were the rainforest the african forest because the animals were not closed in. the path that you walked was completely open to the animals. i could have easily touched a lemur, some crazy bird things, parrots, squirrel monkeys, and in one of the exhibits butterflys flew all around. it was very cool.

the water show was pretty lame, but for younger kids it worked. i was hoping for a show like at seaworld or something. ah well.

science museum

the science museum was a ton of fun. for some reason i fell inlove with these two things. the ¨sarah¨from the land before time skull and the albert dice mosaic. i should have taken a picture, but there was one of those electricity clear balls where victor and i spent the most of our time. we kept shocking each other over and over. we would try different things to make the shock stronger or just feel like ants or what not.

there were all sorts of exhibits that showed different geological, electrical, chemical, and every type of science. there were lizards, crazy looking fish, a wave machine, etc.

then we went to a presentation of microscopes. we started looking at a fly and then we were looking at all sorts of tee tiny little creatures. we saw bacteria floating and amoebas...yeah it was cool. ofcourse i didn´t understand a single thing...it being in spanish. but victor is a good interpreter.

Royal Palace - Madrid

i have had a few day trips with victor who is 10. we have alot of fun together. he is a very smart kid. we end up making fun of each other. he keeps me from being to serious, but remembering that he is a kid and so he has tender feelings. i can´t make fun to much. victor took the majority of these photos.

we went to the royal palace in madrid to see the castle, which is open to the public, and to see the changing of the guards. the first of every month is supposed to be bigger than anyother day. so turns out they do not do changing of the guards from july to september. we think because it too hot. but the castle was great. i can not believe how elaborate everything was! ofcourse i could not take pictures in the castle, but i did buy postcards of my favorite rooms.

there also is a royal armory. that was cool. it had weapons, shields,suits of armor, and horse armor from forever. they even had moorish weaponry and dress from the time when spain was trying to kick out all the moors (islamic). very cool.

as i was looking at the elaborate decorations and the weapons of war, i could not help but think about what my friend janae said. she expressed to me how she used to look in awe at the castles and the amazing structures that have stood for thousands of years...now all she can see is the proof that the many were kept down, left without food, clothing, or shelter. The many were the ones to sweat, bleed, toil, and die for next to nothing (if anything) so that the very few rich could have their elaborate palaces. the many, the people, the masses left little to remember them by becuase they had nothing.

yes, i was in awe over the beauty and detail of this amazing building, but it was tinged with sadness for the people on whose backs this building rests.