Missing Madrid

Beth's 'Things I miss from abroad' post from a few months ago made me realise that I'm also feelings pangs of "homesickness" for my summer "home" in Madrid. Here's my list of things Spanish wonders that I long for...

• Tortillas
• The ubiquity of good coffee
• The metro (except for the 'circular' line that is six flights underground)
• My pain au chocolat breakfast
• Red wine
• The design on iron entrances
• Shabby lifts
• Zara
• Late dinners - even by European standards
• My incredibly passionate astronomy professors, who are also twin brothers
• The pedestrian-friendly structuring of the entire city
• Sliced dry sausages
• The food market
• The incredible architecture
• Going out for expressos with my Guatemalan roommates/"sisters"
• Wooden floors
• Fried pork intestines (which sounds terrible, but is really good and can be eaten like popcorn)
• My household of women
• Lively dinner debates
• Dancing until sunrise
• The heat
• My Mandarin-speaking Spanish mother
• Crazy football matches

La Sagrada Familia

Last weekend, I went to see La Sagrada Familia with a couple friends from my Spanish class. The first time I saw it was on a field trip with my high school in 2007, and the interior was still in construction. I saw it again this summer - not much has changed since then - but it's still an impressive structure to admire. According to the construction panels in the museum, they still have 60% of the church to build and the finalisation is expected to be in 2030. If you scroll through the photos, you'll be able to see that every detail - the tiles on the floor, the way the light is reflected off the walls, the design of the fence on the balcony - has been meticulously accounted for.