OMGoodness this place was amazing! As a last hurrah we all decided to take a last little trip to a nearby city instead of studying for finals like we probably should have. So on Friday the 4th we headed out. And when I say we all I mean Andrew, Brooke, Callie, Garrett, and I. We had to first head into Madrid and when we got there we were minutes behind a train that headed out to Aranjuez so we had to wait another 30 min but that is ok because I had a lot of journaling to catch up on. I think one of my favorite and most used Christmas presents, aside from my camera, which we are not going to talk about because it is still very painful for me, was my journal.
I take it everywhere I go these days and write down as much as I can about what’s been happening and my thoughts about it all and such. It’s really very great to have. I’ve done a lot better at it now than at any extended period of time in my life. And it’s really evolved a lot since I began. Anywho, we got into Aranjuez and even the train station was pretty impressive. We had a short walk towards the palace and it was a peaceful walk through a tree lined street. We walked into the palace complex and I was amazed. We had heard that it was big and beautiful but judging by the “quaintitude” of the city I wasn’t expecting something super huge. (In case you were confused, I was talking about the amount of quaint-ness.) But it was pretty impressive.
The pictures don’t do it justice. But that is ok. Take my word for it. Callie and I were sharing the camera so we each got a few more pictures than we normally would, which was good. We went in to get tickets and found out that there would be a guided tour at 2 o’clock so we decided to go and see the gardens for a bit and be back for that. That was a very good idea. The gardens were amazing.
I really enjoyed them because they were a little different from the gardens and parks in Madrid and it was a nice break from “studying”. I put that in quotes because we weren’t doing near as much as that sentence would normally imply. Anyways, there were a lot of fountains and bushes and beautiful yellow flowers and trees that seemed to fit perfectly with the atmosphere of the place. My lunch, because I love my madre so much, consisted of Corn Nuts and 2 Napolitanas we bought in Madrid the night before.
(Napolitans are often referred to as Heavens) Now, don’t get me wrong, my madre didn’t give me the corn nuts and napolitanas. (She would never be that nice!) But we forgot to tell her that we’d be traveling for lunch so we just had her hold on to our meals. (Because of everything we ended up doing we didn’t get back to eat till 6:30 or 7 and she had the audacity to assume that we didn’t want dinner because we ate lunch so late. She’s pretty freaking stingy and I don’t really enjoy stinginess from people who don’t really need stinginess.) Like I said, amazing fountains.
Towards the back side there was a running river and it was full of cool ducks.
Here we all are, except that I’m taking the picture.
And my corn nuts are being passed around because I don’t think it would be healthy to eat one by myself.
I just felt like it was a happy place.
It gave a Peter Pan feeling. Anyways, long story short. A bear attacked and I climbed a tree.
Dwight would speak against that except that there really was no bear. I really liked the fields of flowers and wild grass.
It was just so pretty.
Andrew got a little drunk.
Ok, he really didn’t but we were all just having so much fun and it was such a great day. We sat down for a picnic.
The gardens were really a lot of fun. As with all the beautiful places in Spain there were amazing fountains.
So we went to the palace and it was a lot of fun. It was all so amazingly beautiful.
But the most amazing part was our tour guide. She was the nicest old lady ever. Just imagine professor Umbrige but actually nice. Is that how she spelled her name? Oh well. The best was that she wasn’t a native English speaker obviously and her accent made the whole thing amazing. It was a really fun tour.
We walked around the town and it was pretty cool.
OK, I’m not going to lie to you all, I have been writing this blog while watching the majority of the 2nd half of season three of the office. I’ve been pretty distracted and it isn’t my best work. But needless to say, even though I’ve already said it and am about to say it again, I really really enjoyed Aranjuez and the whole experience we had on the tour and in the city. It was a quaint little place and a lot of fun. The palace had a bunch of rooms that were amazingly ornate and detailed. One room was patterned after the Alhambra in Granada, which I have been to. The dining room was AMAZING. There was a room with over 200 Chinese water colors. There was a room with 2500 pieces of porcelain. I loved it. There were tapestries that were so ornate that they took a person a year to make a square meter. WOW. So that was Aranjuez.
A few of the girls made paper plate awards and I won “Best Old Man Wardrobe”. 
If you notice that I look scruffy it is because I gave up shaving. Is it a good look for me? Probobly not. We’ll find out I guess because I'm not going to shave till I come home. With a broken camera I am very thankful to Rachel for taking some good pictures and posting them on Picassa. 
It was weird to think that it would be the last time I saw most of them till Fall and even when I saw them it would be under such different circumstances. That pretty much sucks because friendship is a really valuable thing and I fear that ours just won’t be the same. But that is ok. We had fun while it lasted. And what a long strange trip it’s been! Now I just have to look forward. Here comes school and here comes life! Its been fun blogging my semester but don’t think it’s over. I’ll try to keep on top of my Dad’s discovery of the Iberian Peninsula!
It was Paige, Chelsie, and me who went in and we had a lot of fun. As always, heavens from the Mallorquina are delicious so I bought 4 of them. We headed back to Alcalá and made it just in time for the opening of Institute. We had an amazing class and since it was the last time our Professor, Faustino Lopez, bore a powerful testimony about what it meant to be Christian and LDS in Spain. I was really impressed. After we all said our goodbyes and I got a picture shaking his hand because I knew deep down that he would be called a seventy at conference.
And he was! He is such a stud.
After we had our last FHE as a family so we decided to take some family photos. Here are the highlights.
Basically it was a night of laughs and fun and a great way to say farewell. Afterwards Andrew, Emily, Callie, and I were riding the bus home and I was eating one of the Heavens that I had brought home with me and out of no where Andrew dumped his water bottle on me and it gave an interesting appearance.
It was a very fun night.
Some started up a soccer game.
But, even with a broken camera I really wanted to find this arch and see the city. My camera was still on night shot at first.
But, because I know my camera pretty well I can change between night and normal without looking. The town was pretty chill. I liked it.
That house was covered in vines.
It had a pretty cool view out into the countryside.
And here it is, the famous arch.
We were a little late but there was really cool statue I wanted a picture with so I handed off my camera and ran down there.
There was a little problem with the zoom and I was nearly cut off.
But there I am. Don’t worry about me. (My “challenge” shirt is pretty hard to miss.) And then we headed home. Thus ended the last trip in Spain. Kind of sad.