It hit me today that I am in the "less than a week" period. In less that a week now I will be home. I am incredibly excited to see you guys. I have missed you terribly and welcome the sight of your faces smiling at me (outside of my computer screen). However, as I was walking from Sol to Plaza Mayor today ... it hit me that I am going to really miss these streets. This is the first city that I have gotten to know almost completely on my own. Madrid has been a wonderful home to me these past few months so these feelings are not surprising. But I will miss her. And the shorter my time here, the more I realize that. These streets are familiar now and I love walking them. And I know that it will be hard to leave them. But I have to. And all I can do is hope to revisit them soon. Ok, enough sappy reflection ...
So today Lindsay checked a few more things of our Madrid bucket list. The first of these was to buy cookies from the nuns! These are the cloistered nuns that make cookies and sell them through a lazy susan so that they can remain cloistered ... after already having tried this a few times unsuccessfully, I had my fingers crossed. I pushed the buzzer and heard a nun-ish voice reply "¿Hola? ¿Dulces?" Dulces were what we wanted so I answered Sí! and she buzzed us in. We walked through a passage, then through a small courtyard and finally into another small hallawy to the a brown window with a lazy susan in it. There the crackly voice of a nun called out to us and told us that they only had almond cookies right now. They were making others but they wouldn't be ready until 11:30. We said almond were fine and the laz susan whirled around with a box of cookies sitting there. This was exciting. We got our cookies (I even got normal change - a 5 euro bill) and made out way back outside. Nun candies at last!
Then we continued on to a cafe for a much needed café con leche to combat the cold. We warmed up in a cosy corner and drank our coffee as we reviewed history notes together. Then at 11:30 we paid and went to the Palace to get a spot to watch the Solemn Changing of the Gaurd. This event only happens the first Wednesday of every month so this was our chance to see it! It was pretty impressive. The show started as mounted uniformed soldiers on horses appeared from the side of the palace at about 11:45. We watched them process and followed
them into the plaza between the Cathedral and the Palace. They trotted around in a circle for a while before entering the Palace courtyard. They performed some neat military style formations. Then a band came from around the corner (from whence the horses came) followed my men with rifels. They too continued into the courtyard. They mounted men, foot soldiers, mounted band and foot band played and marched for a while. An announcer then came on to tell us about the history of this unit and its importance ... this was a good tiny review for our exam later that day. The show continued until at about 11:35 two men switched places with two other men who had been just standing there the whole time (and the gaurd was changed). Then they all processed out again and the show was over. It was very impressive and I am glad we got to see it while we were here. 
After this we too the necessary metros and busses to get to school. There we ate lunch and studied, studied, studied until our 4 o´clock history exam. Lots of writing, my hand hurt after ... but if all goes well I think I came out ok in that class. Now I sit back under my favorite leopard print blanket, writing a blog as I study for another exam, Art this time. The only exceptional thing about this exam: It is the LAST ONE!
NUN CANDIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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