This is going to be a little long so hang in there! Sorry I didn’t post Sunday like I said. We don’t have Internet in our house so I can only get online at the ISA office. I got on Monday but mostly to check emails…and Facebook. Our host mom has an ethernet cable that is just in her computer. So, Samantha (my roommate) and are going to buy a wireless stick made by the same company that our phones are from. We are going to share it so that it’s half the price. When we get that, it’ll be easy for me to post from at home, Skype, check emails, etc.
So, as for this weekend: we toured Madrid Thursday night and Friday and then Toledo on Saturday. Madrid was ok. We went to a museum with a bunch of paintings in it. Everything was beautiful and what not, but it’d be different if I was really into art. I could appreciate it a little more. Plus, our tour guide spoke ZERO English, which would be good in a month, but the first day is kind of like umm help me a little please. The city itself is cool, but it’s not one of my favorites by any means. I can’t really explain why it was just ok but it probably had something to do with all of us being tired, etc. However, when we went to Toledo on Saturday, I loved it!! It was gorgeous. It’s like this little walled city that has so many ancient buildings. Here, our tour guide was great! He would speak all Spanish and then repeat words that were uncommon in English. It was so helpful and I learned a lot more with him. We went to a Jewish Synagogue, a Cathedral, San Juan de los Reyes, and walked all over town. It was so cool. We stayed the night in Toledo, the hotel had a pool, so I was happy :) The next morning we got on the bus to Valencia. It is about a four-hour drive from Toledo to Valencia. When we arrived at the Futbol Stadium our host families were all there waiting to pick us up! Our host mom is so nice. We love her. She is super fashionable/stylish. Her favorite color must be purple because the walls are purple and she has a purple couch, purple decorations, etc. Our house is really close to the campus, which is good because it’s less than a 5-minute walk. It's very quaint but great! Our room is perfect; we have plenty of closet/drawer space. We have filtered water, so we don’t have to worry about drinking weird tap water. Our living room/dining room is nice, it's the only room in the house that has AC but at least it has it! We think she has money because all her decorations are beautiful, and she's technologically up to date; at least more so than a lot of other people!
I love speaking to her. We definitely have difficulty with some things, but she told us when we first got there to tell her when we don't understand so she will repeat it or rephrase it. She talks slow for us, which is great. Poor Samantha doesn't really speak Spanish though. The last time she took it was her junior year of high school. She just needed a foreign language credit, so she decided to do it abroad--super brave of her! So, I'm kind of like translating what I can between us. We are both in the Intermediate Level of classes, so we have the exact same schedule which is nice. Our schedule is amazing. We start at 9:15 AM and end at 1:15. Lunch is usually around 2 here, and then we can go to the beach afterwards. And…there’s never class on Friday!! We went to the beach today, it was wonderful. The sand is soft soft soft! The water is calm, salty, and so pretty. It’s like an extended summer. I love it so much here! The food has been great, people are nice, the traffic isn’t crazy, and it’s beautiful. I’m having so much fun!
I’ll update as often as I can. When I get the WIFI stick it’ll be a lot easier! I’ll post pictures of Madrid, Toledo, and Valencia ASAP!
Buenos noches!
