Anniversary

Well, here we are, one month in and none the worse. It has gone by rather fast looking back on it, though it didn't seem to at the time. Well, this weekend we didn't do too much, on Friday we went to their grandparent's other apartment to have dinner with them, which was pretty boring for me, but what can you do...and on Saturday we went to a little restaurant in the "mountains" that was pretty nice, and as I was eating my fish, I mused that it's a good things none of my other siblings are here because I don't think they would eat too much. At least once a week we have some fish dish. On Sunday, after church, of course, I went with my representative, thinking my family was coming with me, but I guess not, to her apartment for lunch. One thing about her is that she never stops talking. Now, this can be a good thing because then you don't have to say much in return, but it can also give you a headache from trying to pay attention to her. It was nice, overall, and I met another girl who took a trip to London for 3 weeks in the summer. We got back to the apartment at about 6 and by that time I was pretty much tired of listening, especially to Spanish, so I kind of hid in my room and then got in the shower. Tomorrow some members of my class and I are heading off to some old roman ruins, or ruins of some kind, that are being excavated not far from here. Not only is that interesting, but we don't have to go to school either! On Wednesday Isabel comes, and I cannot wait! Also on Wednesday I'm helping to teach an English class about Valentines day. I don't know why the teacher chose to ask for my help on this specific lesson, as if I am an aficionado, but I'll gladly give it. She is kind of stubborn in her way of thinking, and if I say something is written incorrectly she usually takes the excuse that British english and American english are different. Rather than fight with her about it, which I did once, to no avail, I just nod my head and smile, and on my paper write it correctly. I don't know what exactly I'm going to be doing with Isi, but anything with her will be great, and we can explore downtown together. I'll let you know how that goes.
The parents here read my blog...I was kind of nervous, not that I say anything bad, but, well, I don't know. They just laughed and said it was funny, and that someone wrote a comment that they were barbarians for not having cookies. They also said I was a very good writer and took great picutres, but I can't vouch for that. You'll have to decide for yourselves. That's about it for today. Nothing too exciting happens here, at least during the week, so I'll write again on the weekend. Much love!

Segovia

This is the retablo inside the Parral monastery
This is a picture of the Alcazar castle

The Aquaduct
The Cathedral
Me and my friend I met in the Alcazar castle
Vera Cruz church
Unfinished work on the front of the Parral monastery

So this weekend we ran off to Segovia, a beautiful little town about an hour out of Madrid. The first thing we saw when we got there, which is like the gateway to old Segovia, was the Roman Aquaduct. This aquaduct was built, and is still standing today, without any sort of binding agent such as cement. Isn´t that amazing! I thought it was. Then we walked on and eventually the cathedral came into the picture. I stopped to take a few pictures of the outside, but Dani was complaining like only a 12 year old boy can that he was hungry and grumping around so we tried to find somewhere to eat. After that we started out at the Alcazar, which is an old castle that was used when Isabella was the queen, and some time before her. It was awesome just to see all the beautiful craftwork, things that you never see today, nonetheless in Utah, or even the United States. After touring the main part of the castle we decided to climb up to the tower. Bad idea! Oscar counted and it was 152 steps or something like that up to the top, and they weren´t even normal steps, they were like two steps in one. By the time I reached the top, I was out of breath and sore, and it smelled like cow pucky, but the view was beautiful and only obscured by a mob of asians trying to take a picture with 30 cameras. Luckily we decided to leave before they tried to make their way down becuase the staircase is quite small. Then we went to the cathedral, which I can only tell you was marvelous because they didn´t let us take pictures inside. There are around 30 apses, each with their own gold plated retablo(thats in Spanish and I´m too lazy to look it up, but its like a wall that is decorated and carved) and other interesting artifacts. I probably could have spent a long time there if it hadn´t been so cold, having only a few windows and being completely made of stone. Then we headed of to a church called Vera Cruz, or True Cross, because years ago it recieved what was believed to be a part of the cross, and the name stuck. This church was built by the knights templar....interesting, and has twelve sides. The structure is meant to copy that of the jerusalem temple I believe, but it is mostly like one church inside of the other. When you go inside there is a corridor al the way around and then in the middle there is a two level smaller structure. It was really interesting, and I kind of felt like I should be in a Dan Brown novel or something and be trying to find an old treasure there, but I don´t think there is one...too bad. Then we went to an old monastery called Parral, which was beautiful. We had an old munk with horrible teeth show us around, but I didn´t really pay attention to what he was saying most of the time because I couldn´t understand too well and I wanted to take pictures because we could in here. What a beautiful old building! I guess it wasn´t ever really finished, at least the church part, as you can see by the front, because at a point in time the monarchy felt the church was a threat and closed down all monasteries and such, so that it was abandoned for 90 years. The monk said that when he got there it was almost falling apart and they had to de a whole bunch of cleanup and repairs. That was pretty much it. I have a lot of pictures, but I´m only going to include a few here now. Lots of them aren´t very good because of the lack of lighting in the old places, I´m guessing to help preserve artifacts and such. Well, I hope you enjoy them, and you can also find information about them online if you look up Segovia I´m sure. Love you all!

Culinary Delights

I have come to feel that my purpose here is not so much of the learning kind as of the teaching kind. Disclaimer:If you are faint of stomach or just in general, you may stop reading here. Viewer discretion is advised. I have lately learned that, not only has this family not had pancakes, but Teresa, let alone the others, who is around moms age, has NEVER MADE COOKIES!!!!! I don´t know what evil spirit has been residing in this apartment before I came, but it was soon banished with a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Although they were not, to my cuilinaily experienced cookie tasting abilities, very good, the family enjoyed them with the saying Muy Rico! being heard all around. I will try again next week because Dani has a kind of fundraiser bake sale thing, and we´ll see if they don´t turn out a little better than the last ones. I also have a commitment to make pancakes and banana bread.
Other than that, life has been normal here. This week I struck out on my own for the first time. I took the metro, through three lines, to find the temple, and upon doing so inquired as to when might be the best time to come for baptizms. I was shocked to learn that they only have one planned session a week! I was thinking like one a day, but, well, I guess there aren´t as many active youth as I thought. I was going to go see another building, but by the time I got off at the stop it was alreay getting dark, and I didn´t want to go wandering off in unknown territory by myself at night. So I got back on the metro. At one stop two performers came on and sang to us. It was quite entertaining and made me laugh. When I got on the line to come home, a strange black man kept staring at me the whole time. We ended up getting off at the same time and he came over to try to talk to me, but I had my headphones in and just pretended that I couldn´t hear him and kept walking. I´ll have to keep my player nearby for future uses. Today, I believe, we are going to a region called Segovia, which I hear is very beautiful. It has an old Roman aquaduct and old buildings as well as ruins of a castle I believe. I have been reading a lot lately, though that is hardly something new, to pass the time and have found it quite enjoyable, except for the fact that it is in English, and invariably if someone tries to talk to me while I´m reading I end up replying in English. Everyone at school tells me I should be reading in Spanish. I guess I might, but I don´t like to be reading more than one book at the same time, so we´ll have to wait until tomorrow to start another. wink wink Lena. Well I hope I find you all well, and thank for the comments, keep them coming. It gives me something to look forward to when I get home form school. Much love to all friends and family reading from home!

Excitement!!

I have reached the apex of my life, and can now only regress. The other day, I actually finished ye olde rubik´s cube, after three days of trying and looking up hints. I have included the following picture, just for proof.

And no, I didn´t just do these three sides and turn them to the camera. Other than that, life here in Spain goes on as normal. This weekend, we didn´t really do much. We went to see a movie Saturday night, which was kind of wierd. I understood almost everything, but mostly because it was accompanied my a picture. One thing that irks me is that the movies are dubbed in Spanish, so their mouths don´t match the words. I don´t know why, but when the sound doesn´t match what I see it is very irritating. On Sunday, after church, we went to Oscar´s parents house in a little town outside of Toledo, about a half hour from here. They were very nice and we played mus, pronounced moose, a popular card game with grandpa. Today, it was back to the old daily grind. Today was very boring because I have Art History twice and the teacher was sick, as well as Philosophy, in which I went to the English class for a second time because I don´t go. Speaking of English, I have been correcting a few of the essays, more like short answers, that the students turn in. They are overall, pretty good, but sometimes you get some good things. One that particularly tickled my funny bone was at the end of the persons paper, wanting to say to sum up, wrote to shump up. I was laughing about that one for a while. Writing it makes me giggle. She asked me what shump meant, becuase I was laughing really hard, and I told her nothing. I think she thought it was the wrong context or something like that. I hope soon to start my adventures after school. Today I got a map of the merto lines with prominent architecture you might find at each stop. There are other things I want to see, but we can start with that, and then you can see some of the splendor here.

I think my family here might think I´m aneorexic or something because they are always saying that I don´t eat enough. I eat what I normally do in the US. I just don´t like the idea of eating at 10 or 11, becuase I just go to bed after that, and when you don´t use the food you just ate, you ladies know where it goes. The toilet! Just kidding. I told Teresa that, but she didn´t really say anything, so I don´t know what she thinks. She pretty much makes me drink milk every morning, though I heap on the chocolate milk mix. I think that´s all I have to say for now.

Aside: Lena! If you are reading this, as I believe you will be, check your email. I sent you an email but it´s been a while and you haven´t written back. I´d like to hear from you, you bumoli! I miss you!