El Escorial

These are the mountains!
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Hola!

This past weekend was quite adventurous, and I got a full dose of the Spanish culture. On Friday, the entire group at the Fundacion went to the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which was ordered to be built by King Philip II of Spain to commemorate the victory at the Battle of St. Quentin in 1557 over the King of France and his troops. King Philip II treated this palace as sort of a summer home; it serves as a church, library, and art museum. Many Kings since have been buried here, and we saw there tombs! There were many, many rooms in it, and we toured them all. El Escorial is about 2 hours north of Toledo, so it was colder there, and the building was not heated. Therefore, for the majority of the 4 hour tour, we were freezing our behinds off. We were Still, it was a great experience and an absolutely beautiful building. It was as though we went to one big art museum!

Kids play soccer outside of the palace.
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The next day, I was back in Toledo and my host family’s oldest daughter, Judi, came to visit. She lives in Madrid and visits about once per month. She brought her boyfriend along as well. That night, Isa prepared a FEAST of food for the family. She invited over the grandparents and the uncle, plus me, Judi and her boyfriend, Gema, Roberto and her husband were all there to devour the feast. Isa made Spanish tortilla (which is egg and potato, kind of like an omelet), anchovies on weird bread with weird cream-cheese-like stuff, sardines in vinegar, mussels with the salsa stuff (my personal favorite), shrimp with mushrooms in a delicious sauce, fried chalomitas (I think that’s what they are called – they are basically fried breading with milk and yeast inside, which turns it into a sort of paste….sounds gross, I know…), potato salad, and cake! For that hour and a half, the house was absolutely insane – everyone was talking too loud (and fast, for me!) and shouting, and grabbing at the food, telling stories, and just being a bit crazy. I sat back and enjoyed my food, and attempted to tune in to a couple of the conversations, but quickly zoned back out, because everything was fast, and difficult to understand. Once, when I tuned in, I turned to Gema, and in Spanish I said, “I don’t understand much of this conversation” and she laughed, and suddenly all eyes were on me. Then they started asking me questions about what they were talking about, and I had picked up on the fact that they were talking about some relative that was feo (ugly), so I said that. And they roared in laughter, because I was right!!!

El Escorial
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Tonight, I was talking to Isa, and I told her that I had really enjoyed that night with the family and that I was glad that I could understand bits and pieces, because if I had listened to that conversation when I first arrived in Toledo, I never would’ve had a clue what was goin on! I feel that I have improved a great deal at understanding the language. I don’t feel like my speaking skills have improved a great deal, but I can definitely hold a conversation and understand almost everything that the other person says, which I am very happy about! It is much more difficult to formulate grammatically correct sentences than it is to listen and comprehend.

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The next day, I went with a few friends to a Real Madrid Futbol game (soccer!), which was SO much fun! Soccer is huge here, and the game was absolutely packed. We took the Ave Train to Madrid, and ate at TGI Friday’s! I ate my first American meal of the semester, and although I enjoy all the seafood, etc., having a burger was incredible. After this fabulous, fabulous meal, we shopped around at the stands surrounding the field. At football games, or games for any sport really, in the US, it is normal to purchase a sweatshirt or a baseball cap or something along those lines. Well, sweatshirts are not worn often in Spain, or the majority of Europe so I hear, so what did they sell at the game? Scarves. How European, huh?! And yes, I purchased a Real Madrid Scarf! There’s stand after stand after stand of scarves, scarves, scarves. They come in all colors, and they all have Real Madrid stitched in. They also sell jerseys, but that is about it. So, onto the actual game aspect – we sat up toward the top of the stadium, but we could see the field very well. The stadium filled up VERY quickly, and it is absolutely huge! The fans are loud and get very into the game. One of the workers at the Fundacion helped us purchase the tickets, and told us where to sit, in order to avoid the “hooligans” who get quite rowdy. Also, he got us tickets for 25 euros instead of the 80 euros we had found online, so that was lucky and much cheaper! Unfortunately, we lost the game by one. After the game was when the adventure really began……

This is inside the church portion of the palace.
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The game ended, and we had planed on bookin’ it to the metro to get back to the train station and take the last Ave out at 10. However, as we made our way to the metro, we realized this was entirely unrealistic, and we were absolutely not going to make it; the crowds were huge and the line for the metro was out the door. So, we walked up and down the stairs to the metro multiple times, attempting to decide what to do. The thought that we might have to spend the night in Madrid and take the Ave in the morning crossed my mind over and over again. We walked around the streets, and stared at maps, and asked directions to find a bus that would take us there, walked up and down those metro stairs; we looked, and felt, like chickens running around with our heads cut off! After running around in no particular direction for a half hour, we found some police officers that told us we would be able to catch a bus back to Toledo. They told us which metro to take and where to go to find the bus station. So, we did just that. And yes, after that frantic episode, we finally got to our destination at the bus stop. Buses run much later than the Ave, which is lucky. An hour and half and 4 euro later, we were in Toledo. SUCCESS!

Inside the church....beautiful!
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Yesterday, I went to the market in Toledo. Every Tuesday morning, there is a big market, where people sell clothes, shoes, snacks, wallets, blankets, scarves; that type of thing. It was fun, and everything was very cheap. I’m not sure where the venders get their clothes, etc. because they can sell them cheap, and they look cheap too. They were selling big winter coats for 15 euros, for example, which is just crazy! It’s a bit of a mystery to me….

As far as the family goes, I am still loving it! Roberto loves to paint on my computer daily, and he’s gotten to be very attached to me. He always gives me kisses when I come home, and gives a big hug and kiss before he goes to bed at 9. He is just precious. Let little Sean Harvatine know that he LOVED the car from the movie “Cars” that we picked out. He plays with it all the time, and he owns the movie “Cars” in Spanish, of course. Since I’ve been here, he has had that movie on at least 4 times! It’s his favorite; so that gift was perfect! This weekend I am heading to Paris! Take care, and I’ll write again soon!