Two weekends ago I stayed in town, tired after going to San Sebastian and Italy. That Friday we took a day trip that was free with school to El Escorial, which is a monastery and castle about 45 minutes outside of Madrid. It is a huge building and we toured quite a bit of it, about a 2 and ½ hour tour. I found the tour to be interesting but it was extremely stuffy inside the building and we were definitely all getting a little restless after about 2 hours. I think my favorite part was going to the room that held all the tombs of the Kings. It was just crazy to think about all of the hundreds of years of memories there. After the visit, we got lunch in town and it was fun for all of us to realize there were tentacles of some sort in our food. My friend Laura also got carried away laughing and flipped her plate. We were lovely company, I’m sure of it.
That Saturday my parents went to Zaragoza up north to visit their nephew who was in the hospital. He has since gotten out from and is back here at home recuperating. I stayed home with my sister and our grandma, Ya-Ya come over. We went to the market. I should say that going to the market never means just going to the market. It means we’ll go to the market. Then we will go get a coffee. Then we will go to the grocery story. Then maybe get another drink. It is quite a process really but now I really know what going to the market means. I ended up spending the day at home working on some papers because it was stinking hot out and my Ya-Ya didn’t want me out in the heat. That night we did go into Toledo to the Cathedral because they were doing something called El Greco Lights show. It was amazing. They displayed El Greco’s works on the Cathedral along with other images put to music. It was incredible to see on the side of such a huge Cathedral. Since the light show takes place at 3 different places in Toledo, our buses home were running differently than normal. We ended up missing the normal bus and had to wait for the night owl bus. But that turned out to be okay, we met an older couple that has lived in Toledo their entire life. They were really nice and it is always fun to be able to meet people around town and here what they think of the place.
That Sunday we went to the Miguel’s house, who is my dad’s best friend. He lives in the police cartel with his family. It was a great time but definitely a moment for me to try adventurous foods. For appetizers we had all kinds of sea urchins going on. I ate octopus, a tapa that was tomato with salmon and shrimp that had their whiskers and eyes. I kept saying that it was watching me and they all got a kick out of that. Our main meal was black rice, which is similar to paella. It is calamari with rice, some garlic and onion. It was absolutely delicious and of course Miguel had the wine coming and that turned into champagne. It was just a lot of fun with a lot of good food. Miguel also gave me a book about errors famous Spaniards have made with grammar or word meaning, something interesting to read. After that we all went home and siesta-ed. That night was the World Cup Finals, and it was definitely the most nerve-wracking game of them all. Spain won though! And the whole country went insane, jumping into fountains, blowing their car horns for hours and waving their flags. Monday they had a huge parade in Madrid that I watched on tv with my parents. They had a huge celebration with music. It was really awesome to just see how proud everyone was to be a Spaniard. It was definitely a privilege to be here and experience that with them.
That week I had a lot of papers due and work was really kicking in. We had another visit in art class, this time to a Monastery. I wasn’t a huge fan except for one amazing original El Greco painting. The week was classes and more class. Thursday night I was supposed to leave for Morocco with 14 other girls but when Thursday night came I wasn’t feeling great. I decided that given a) the level of planning put into the trip and b) how I felt, it would be better if I didn’t go. Thursday night I just tried to sleep off not feeling good. My sister here was so happy i didn’t go. It was also funny that after I decided not to go that my family started telling me that they really didn’t like Morocco all that much. Really no Spaniards that I’ve met do, the staff at school are very against us going just because they can’t do much from here if something were to happen. My friends did get home safely but none of them really said they had fun. I’ve gone to Morocco before so I didn’t call it a total loss, plus I had a great weekend.
Friday a few of us went on the excursion to Segovia, which is NW of Madrid, it took us about 2 hours each way. It was a beautiful city, smaller than Toledo and much more flat, with only 55,000 people that live there. We started at a castle/fortress on one side of town. It was used in the 16th century and had all of the details you’d expect on the outside to keep unwelcome visitors away. There were some really neat armor statues there. We also saw some very elaborate ceilings covered in gold and beautiful views. The tower there was open and we climbed it…all 152 steps. It doesn’t sound so bad but they are much steeper steps and turned out to be spiral stairs. It was worth it to see the view but going down was just as scary. All of us were still saying that our legs hurt all the next day. By the time all of us got down the stairs our legs were shaking. We figured out why our leaders decided they didn’t need to go up again. : )
After that we walked the city and went pass the place where the first book in Spain was printed. We also went past the main plaza and their Cathedral. We ended our tour at the amazing Roman aqueducts they have. We stopped for lunch then but had some time afterward to wander around so we walked to the top for a full view of the aqueducts, which were just breathtaking. Back in the day they were the latest technology. It was also covered in birds and so my friend did get pooped on. They say it’s good luck but I think she’d disagree. The rest of us thought it was great though. On the way home we stopped off a grocery store to explore. We ended up getting a bottle of Sangria there to take with us to the light show. Alcohol here is about 10 times cheaper than in the US and just as good, if not better. We went to a different light show on the opposite end of the city from where our bus stop is. Of course, my friend that should have the good luck broke her flip-flop about two minutes after we got there. The light show was good, but not as good as at the Cathedral. We rigged up a way to get her home with some hairbands. We ended up catching the bus and meeting up with my family at the bar. It is always fun to sit outside with my family and just hang out at our bar.
Saturday my friend Beth came over and my dad bought us churros and we made chocolate. Choc-o-la-tay is like hot chocolate, only so much sweeter and thicker, like you just melted a candy bar into a mug and called it a drink. The main protocol is to dip your churro into the chocolate or coffee, depending on what you prefer. It was delicious, as usual. After that, I went on the market adventure with my sister and mom. This included getting a coffee first, then going to the market. Then we went to the grocery store and stopped to get a drink. After that we went to the bread store and then the meat store. It is always quite a process. That took up a good while of the day and then I’m sure I took a siesta. The heat here is so intense it really fries you after a little while. I always find myself like wow how can I be this tired. But it really is because how hot it is. It is always 100 degrees, always, always. 92 degrees would be a breezy day. Saturday night my mom, sister and my friend Beth went to the mall to see Eclipse. We had some time before the movie started so we shopped a little. They also have a supermarket in the bottom of the mall and we all got water and a treat for the movie. I got a chocolate bar, which proved to be an adventure in the dark that resulted in many stains on my clothing. My mom here has caught onto me, she told me that I am a champion stainer. It is true and she has mastered getting all of them out just like my real mom has. Eclipse was actually good, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much in English though. It is dubbed pretty well and it’s not hard to understand. After the movie we went to the bar, of course. This is basically a way of life go sit outside and have something to drink and just chat.
I have pretty much reached the age where I cannot sleep past 8:30 in the morning but I do enjoy the mornings where I can lay in bed and read or listen to music, which I enjoyed Sunday morning. My family went to their grandparents house for lunch but I stayed home, as I was going to do some work. I went to Beth’s house, she has AC, internet and Sprite so basically it’s the best place ever. I actually got to skype with some people, catch up on emails and get some work done, although I definitely get more work down at my house without internet. It is just too easy here to be distracted by the internet so sometimes I really like that I don’t have it, but not all the time, it can be a pain.
Yesterday I got to school to find out that our Phonetics teacher is still sick. She basically had an asthma attack in class last Tuesday and hasn’t been good since then. The extreme temperatures really agitate her asthma. We did get all the info for the final exam, which is on Wednesday (yikes!) Today we did our visit to the cathedral. It was over two hours long. The Cathedral is one of the most famous in all of Europe. It was extremely ornate, sometimes what I would even consider, gasp, overdone. But it was interesting, they have some more Greco paintings in there. The coolest part is called the transparent, a spot where they designed light to shine in through the ceiling into a circle where they keep the Eucarist. All in all it was pretty interesting. It was definitely a good last spot to take for our art stops of Toledo.
After finals, we have Friday-Monday to do what we want. A lot of people are traveling but since I will be traveling with my friend Sarah from Xavier for two weeks straight, I’m going to stay here and enjoy time with my family and some friends. Friday I think we may take a day trip somewhere close by or go to a tour of a guitar factory close by. Saturday is a lot of things at school, we get our grades and also get a chance to talk with our professors. That night we have, no kidding, a graduation ceremony that all of our families are invited to attend. Sunday I believe will be a pool day and Monday a group of us are going to see Toy Story 3! It finally comes out here. Then it’s time to pack up and leave. I’m definitely starting to feel sad. However, I will be back in August. I’m leaving a bunch of things I don’t need for 2 weeks here with my family and I will be back to show Sarah all of Toledo and she will get to meet my family and my mom will cook for her! Sarah flies into Madrid a week from today and I’m very excited to get our whirlwind tour started! It just all seems to be happening so fast it’s hard to even believe I’ve been here 5 weeks.
Well that’s all I have for now, phew I know it’s a lot!
: )
Emily
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