At the Moment: November 24

WHAT I'M READING

A Dance with Dragons

Like the last time I posted one of these, I'm reading a Song of Ice and Fire novel. In the past 2 weeks, I've made it all the way to...page 232. I'm hoping to finish before Christmas so that I can send it home with my family, and therefore have extra room in my luggage. Probably for a new pair of boots :)

WHAT I'M WATCHING

La Patrona

This is the Spanish-language [Mexican] telenovela I've been watching consistently. Except for a few stretches where either not much happened, or a lot of really bad things happened to the protagonist, it's been delightful. Bonus: there aren't too many long, drawn out, dramatic stares.

War and Peace

So far, I've watched the first part of this miniseries - like the novel [which I haven't read], it's ridiculously long. But I really enjoyed it. I mean, it's about Russia and the 1800s, I have every reason to like it. Plus the cast is fantastic, full of talented actors from all across Europe, including Brenda Blethlyn and Malcom McDowell and Clemence Posey [Fleur in Harry Potter].

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

Christmas! It's only one month away! I get to see my family, travel in Andalucia, and then spend some time in Istanbul or Morocco as well. I cannot wait to feel warm again.

WHAT I'M DREADING

Sweeping. Mopping. Doing dishes. Laundry. Ugh, so many chores. I get lazy about cleaning my apartment and then accumulate a really long list of things that need to get done. The dishes are the worst, no sooner have I gotten around to cleaning the dirty ones than I need to cook again. And especially since I don't have a roommate, I'm bad about cleaning the floors as often as I probably should. Oh well.

WHAT I DID INSTEAD OF MOPPING

Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Espino

Went on walks and took pictures! After this weekend, I'm pretty much out of touristy things to do in Soria. I still have plenty of masses to go to in order to see the insides of all the churches, but other than that...I've been to all the "highlights" that are listed on my tourist map.

So that just means that I'm going to start going to all the other cities on my ever-increasing list of Places to See. I'm focusing on Northern Spain for the moment - Barcelona, Burgos, San Sebastian, Segovia, Valladolid and Zaragoza are up first, mostly because they're fairly close to me. [I definitely did not make that alphabetical on purpose...OCD in action.] It'll be a little difficult to travel on weekends, since I only have three days and it takes a while to get anywhere by bus. There is, however, a nice 4 day holiday weekend coming up :)