(Originally written Thursday, September 20, 2007)

Hola a todos!

I don't know about all of you guys, but time here is passing way too quickly for
me! It's lucky for you I'm an English major, otherwise I'd probably stay another
semester. So, let me back track and fill you in on things that have happened a
while ago, but that I didn't have room to tell you about.

My first week here was Orientation, which was rather worthless. Learning that
cough drops are only in a farmacia, where to buy notebooks, how to send
packages, and all of the other important stuff was left out. Well, it made for
interesting conversations here. Anyhow, one nice thing about Orientation was
that they took us to Madrid on Friday. After the "official" tour was over, one
of our teachers, Edgard, took us on another. We walked all over Madrid and
ended up at the Royal Park, which I still haven't completely seen. As you might
imagine, you can't cover Madrid in one day, so he took us back on Sunday. All of
the museums are free on Sundays, so that first Sunday, we went to the Prado.
It's so big, I don't think I even covered half of it, and we were there three
hours. To give you an idea, there isn't one book on the Prado that you can buy,
only sections, and each book is about 200 pages. However, Edgard knows his art
history, so it was like having a personal guide. Las Meninas was my favorite by
far. It's so surreal to see something in real life when you've seen it in books
so many times. Like everything in Spain, Edgard compared it to Don Quijote, and
how you can't pick the center of the painting, similar to the book. Anyhow, I'm
planning to go back to the Prado this weekend. Saturday night is Noche en
Blanco, which is when Madrid opens all of its museums and sets up booths with
goods and EVERYONE goes out from 11pm until 7am. I cannot wait!!

Last Friday, we went to Toledo. Oh my gosh, I fell in love without setting foot
in the city! There's so much history, it's impossible to tell you everything I
learned. One monastery has the real shackles of Spanish slaves hanging on the
outside. We went into the house of Samuel Levi, a prominent Jew in the
fifteenth century or so, who was treasurer. He has a synagogue in his house!
Then we went into the Cathedral, which is the 4th largest in all Europe and
took 300 years to build. If you go inside, you'll understand. It's so big and
there's so much art work; I could spend an entire day only there and still not
see everything! Art history students have written their theses (plural? Sorry,
no hablo ingles) only on one of the doors. Basically, it's incredible. Toledo
is known for its knives and marzipan. Toledo is amazing, too amazing to convey
in an email, so if you ever come to Spain, I would give Toledo at least 2 days,
and it IS a must-see!

Now onto classes. Mondays and Wednesdays I have 2 classes. My first one is
Espanol Superior, a class that's already gotten my mind spinning with grammar I
thought I knew already. Next I have Cervantes y su obra. Who comes to Spain and
doesn't study the demi-God Cervantes? Especially in his birth place?!?
Seriously, Quijote is huge here and has influenced basically every part of the
life here. FYI, 'quijote' is armor that protects the thigh muscle. That's only
one funny thing in the story. Tuesdays and Thursdays I also have two classes. I
start with a speaking, writing, and listening course, which is basically
grammar, phonetics, reading, and speaking, and requires a second cafe con leche
after class is done. I finish the week off with 20th century Spanish writers,
which is actually my favorite class. We read Unamuno earlier this week, and I
was so impressed by the portion of Niebla, a great modern novel, that I bought
it and am starting to read it. I've been really good about not buying books,
actually (amazingly!). It's the first fun book I've bought. A cool thing about
the teachers here is that we'll see them at the bars that we frequent. It's
quite nice, actually. Most people drink in moderation, and it's nice to know
that teachers have normal lives and go out and party. It's also nice that the
drinking age is 18 here :) Don't worry, everything in moderation; my parents
taught me well.

Although I said I was going to cover food and weather in this blog, I'm afraid
it's already too long. Here's what's up for next week:

-food
-weather
-El Kapital (7 floor disco in Madrid that I went to last weekend)
-Noche en Blanco
-Madrid bullfight
-nightlife in Alcala

Love you all! Hasta luego!

Lily