Madrid, Easter, and the other weeks I missed

Let's see Madrid ok...

Thursday March 11:

Rode on a bus there at 6 with a few friends who were going to Paris that week. We played a fun game like pictionary and telephone, sort of where someone writes something the next person draws it and so on until the pictures have got back to the original person, pretty funny usually. Arrived in Madrid to ride a metro for the first time, bit nervous, but now I love them. Anyways found mom at the hotel after a bit. It was a nice pad very high technology and modern decor and the nicest accommodations i had seen in Spain. Anyways we didn't do much that night.

Friday March 12:

Let's see we got up found a cool little place for breakfast where they made toad-in-the-hole sandwiches with eggs, ham, and cheese, awesome! Then we went to the Prado, which is an art museum 2nd only to the Louvre. There I saw all the paintings we had talked about in my art class, and I explained some of them to mom and my brothers. Then we went out the Reina Sofia museum of Modern Art where Picasso and Dalí paintings are. Sounds kind of boring, but I have learned to appreciate art more than I thought i would. After that we went to the Hard Rock and I had a Medium-Rare BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger, u don't know how rare that is here, it was awesome and i was stuffed. Afterwords, we went to San Bernabeu home to the soccer team Real Madrid. It was really huge and really cool to see since I have started watching soocer a bit, but my favorite team is Barca(Barcelona), which is Madrid's biggest rival so...
Anyways after that me and mom went around the Puerta de Sol and the Plaza Mayor for a little while and had some tapas before returning to the hotel.


Saturday March 13:
We went to Toledo today which is a cool medieval town about an hour southeast of Madrid. Toledo is built on a big hill overlooking a river, but the bus station is not. So to mom's chagrin we climbed switchbacks to the old city of Toledo. There we were greeted by a large plaza full of people(unfortunately mostly tourists). There we got some information then headed to the Cathedral. I have been to a lot of Cathedral's, so I feel qualified to say that the inside decoration behind the alter was beautiful. It had a cherub motif going in statues as well as a painted cupola to top it off. The church was large, but nothing incredibly expansive, and was pretty gray except for the aforementioned part. After that we went to a Chapel, where a very famous El Greco painting, "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz", is.
After that we searched for a restaurant and and found a good cheap place where I had eggs, fries, pork chop, and some other stuff, but it was a lot like what my mom cooks me at our house. After we headed back to Madrid. There we took mom(seriously she was like a little kid) to Faunia where there was a penguin exhibit. So we went there surrounded by 2-10 yr olds with their parents and us with our mom. It was actually a pretty cool zoo, but I was tired. After that we went back to the hotel then to see the Royal Palace at Night which was a massive white stone building.

The next day we left for Cáceres. When we got there we dropped their stuff off at the hotel then I showed them all the sights of the Old City, where I live. That evening my host mom made hot chocolate for all of us and we sat around talking for awhile. After that I told Mom, Nathan, and Jeremy some parks to go to while I was at class. Also my host mom invited them for lunch the next day and a little day trip.

Monday March 15:
We ate a pretty typical lunch(don't really remember what it was) at the house and then went out to a cool nature preserve called Los Barruecos. There were lots of interesting rock formations and storks, as well as lots of water from all the rain we had. After that we went to the mountain near Cáceres to get a view of the whole city a night it was really pretty cool.

Post-Semana Santa Trip-Processions

I got back Friday the 2nd of April around 4 and there was a procession(that happens once every 5 years(kind of a big deal)) that night at 7. I went to that and saw about 15 floats(it took 3.5 hours) of Jesus and the Virgin Mary(have pics), while asking a Spanish family about some of the peculiarities of the procession.

Saturday, 3rd of April
Hung around the house most of the day, Manoli wasn't home, so i had it to myself which was nice. At 7ish I met the girls, that i had met in Cinque Terre, to go to the procession for the day. Firste we went to Sanchez Cortes(AWESOME candy store) and i got some white chocolate M&Ms and cherry gummies. Then we went to the old city to watch the procession of the Virgin Mary(fortunately only one this time). After that we went to Canovas a tree lined walk, sat at a bench and talked for a bit. There we saw some other girls from the group. So i went with them to meet up with some others, we talked for awhile, and also met some of the ERASMUS kids(It is really cool how many times i randomly run into people i know). After that we watched the procession come back and met a guy from the US that was backpacking Europe.

Sunday: Was in the house for awhile and completely forgot about the procession at 12(the Easter one kind of a big deal), I left the house at 2 to go play Ultimate Frisbee with some friends, and ran into the procession and saw all of it(only in Spain). After I played some intense frisbee with my friends until 6ish and came back to the house just as Manoli was getting home.

On that note the other times I was in class, running, or at the house. But highlights I have been playing ultimate frisbee every thursday with a German girl, Spanish guy, and Alabama guy as well as whoever else shows up. It is a ton of fun and great exercise. Also the Spanish guy is making a movie, that i was volunteered to be in by some ERASMUS girls. I thought it was a minor role, but no it is the main role. So i am the part of the Erasmus kid in his movie about, well i have no idea, but i have been doing that also...so now you guys are all caught up on everything.