Quiet weekend #2

I had no travel plans the weekend of the 21-24 after midterms ended because our programmers had already planned a Toledo day trip on Friday. The Saturday after, my host mom and dad invited my housemates and I to go to their farm house. Yeah, sure. I will go to your Spanish farmhouse. Note: I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have been put with this family for 10 months. 

On Thursday night, Natalie, my roomates and I went to see "The Social Network." I know you are curious, so I have to admit, I did see it in English with Spanish subtitles, not dubbed in Spanish. I am slightly ashamed but I don´t know if I could have soaked up the PURE AWESOMENESS of this movie if I had not seen it in my native language. You have to see it.

The next morning the students in my program and I headed to Toledo, Spain to spend the day. You may know by now how much I enjoy bullet-points, so I will go through some of the more important events of the day:

• Taking pictures in front of the well known view of Toledo, made famous by Greco and his "Vista de Toledo" 
• Visiting the famous Cathedral of Saint Mary and having an unnecessarily long tour (we could not take any pictures inside... not quite sure why I obeyed this rule)
• Seeing the original "El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz" painted by El Greco in the Church of Santo de Tome (Is is bad that I could only think of Marisa Tomei when we went? GO BU ALUMS!)
• Visiting the Jewish Quarter of Toledo (why does every city have a Jewish Quarter? Love it)
• Visiting the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca- very austere- very Jewish 
• Walking and shopping in the confusing, narrow, windy streets of Toledo
• One of the guys in my program bought a sword. I was so pleased. 
• Euro cones at MacDonalds. Sorry.

Greco´s View of Toledo. Your point of reference for the next photo.

Stripes!

Natalie, Ray Green, and I. Ray Green is the head of the Madrid program
and also serves as the most amazing man in the world.

Sancho Panza's as the "pawns" in this Don Quijote chess set.
The literary cuteness is killing me



Matt and his sword. Yes. his SWORD.

We stumbled upon a wedding too...

After returning to Madrid, Natalie and I enjoyed some Indian Food on La Calle Lavapíes, recommended by one of our programmers. Since we went at about 8:30PM we were LITERALLY the only people there. Embarassing. When I ordered the lamb tikka masala, the waiter said it was "muy picante," (very spicy) but I figured he meant spicy in Spanish standards (Spaniards are NOT mexican; they do not eat spicy foods and it is very upsetting) so I told him VENGA. It turns out he meant spicy in Indian standards. You know the feeling when you touch something really hot and you do not realize it until one or two entire seconds after because it is so mind-blowingly hot? That is what that dish was like. I ate the entire thing however, sweating, reddening, and possibly with smoke coming out my ears and the top of my head. Natalie comfortably ate her butter chicken next to me. The major difference between Indian food in America and in Spain? You have to pay for white rice and it does NOT come in unlimited amounts. We were not pleased with this facet.

The next day my host Mamá, Papá, three housemates and I prepared to go to the Campo (farm/field). We were excited to see what type of car they had that would fit all six of us. The four Americanas laughed hysterically when our host-dad came out of the underground garage with one of the longest cars we had ever seen. It was sedan size, but as long as a van, with two back seats, both facing forward. He ordered the two smallest ones, Kirstyn and I, to go the back seat. To summarize the hour drive, I will just show you two pictures.

The situation: The ceiling was too low to sit up, but the seat back only went up
to the middle of our backs. Hello neck-ache.

The car ride was a little awkward, of course. Since we all cannot fully communicate, our host-dad did a lot talking and playing tour-guide. We stopped in a town called Buitrago (del lozoya). There is no reason you should have ever heard of it, don't worry. It's a really charming place 75 km outside of Madrid. We stopped at the Picasso museum there (naturally, there is a Picasso museum in every friggen city in Europe). It had a small collection of his paintings, etchings, sketches, and doodles. Then, our host-mother took us to the Mendoza fortress, built between the 14th and 15th century, a tiny, old bullfighting ring, and to La Iglesia de Santá María del Castillo (Church built in the 15th century). The town itself is surrounded by a wall and a river; it had a very medieval feel.

Picasso engraved art

La Iglesia 

We continued North and our señora pointed out where her family´s land ownership began. We figured that we would see their house soon after, but it was not for another ten minutes that we arrived to their incredibly quaint Andalusian style home. Needless to say, they own A LOT of land.

Never expected to see this view in Spain

DELICIOUS. Picture stolen from my housemate, Kirstyn.

Adorable host-dad

It is scary how accurately this depicts my relationship with my host parents...

USD girls and I at our host family´s home on the farm. AKA family photo.

The only live thing left at the campo. I cannot wait to go back in May!

The five of us had a delicious lunch and custard cake together, talking about about the differences between the Spanish lifestyle and the American lifestyle and life in general. "La cosa más importante en la vida es con quién se casa," our host dad said. the most important thing in life is with whom you get married. So scary and so true. Dad #2 is already imposing his wisdom.   

After dessert, we took a walk around their land, hung out with their horse, saw some deer, and took a nap. We headed back to Madrid when it started to get dark, and I began my 12 hour hibernation/night's sleep. 

The next day, I got to see my friend Jenn who I worked with this summer! We went to the Reina Sofia museum (home of "Guernica" by Picasso) and I found out my friend Justin from high school was staying at the same hostel (I had already planned on hanging out with him, but I did not know where he was staying)! I was SO excited that I did not have to somehow divide my time between them and meet in different places. I met up with both of them that night and we went to La Chocolatería de San Gines (the most famous place for Churros con Chocolate in Madrid) then to see El Templo de Debod at night (an ancient Egyptian temple given to Franco from the Egyptian government for helping save the temples of Abu Simbel) and walk around in the freezing cold.

Jenn and I!

Teehee Justin and I, awkward and frozen in front of Palacio Real.

I was happy to stay in Madrid for a weekend. Not only did I save money (YAY!), I got to see friends from high school and college, got to know my host family and housemates from USD better, and explore areas of Madrid to which I have never been. That whole weekend though, I had my upcoming trip to Paris in the back of my mind...