3400 Miles to Spain: “The love of a family is life's greatest blessing”

OFFICIALLY BEEN IN SPAIN FOR TWO MONTHS <3

Unfortunatly, last Thursday my skating trip was cancelled. We did not have enough students in my class who wanted to go. The other grade, however, was able to go, and I didn´t fully understand why the six or so kids in my grade couldn´t tag along with the other grade, but I got over it.

This past weekend has been amazing. Not only have I seen a million gorgeous sites of Spain, but I really feel this weekend has helped me bond with my host family. In Malaga we do not participate in activities as just the family, we are generally with a larger group of people or doing our own thing. This weekend was focused solely on my host parents, Pablo, Maria and me. To relate to my quote, I feel doubly blessed becuase I have recieved the love of a family, not only from my real family in the US, but from my host family here in Spain. This weekend has really helped me to establish a place in this family, a family that I know I never will forget.

This whole weekend my family learned more about me and I learned more about them. For example, they discovered my obsession with taking pictures, they also realized my love for simple foods. My host dad said I am an inexpensive girl to take out to dinner. Which is true, I don´t care much for seafood or anything crazy, pasta is fine, actually pasta is what I prefer, and by the end of the weekend they would point me to the most simple meals on the menu, which I found quite helpful.

My host family also gave me brief pronounciation lessons during dinners, that resulted in them looking up the most difficult words ever to pronouce, ones that have a lot of "z´s" and rolled "r´s" which are impossible for me. But I am getting better. I think I had to say "caro" about a million times, all the while my face bright red out of embarassment at my horrible pronounciation of such a simple looking word.

On Friday I left school early to head off to Toledo with my host family. We arrived in Toledo after 4 hours of driving. Toledo is beautiful. The next day we also spent in Toledo. We visited countless churches and even a few synagogues. I can now say that I am a pro at visited religious centers respectfully, seeing as I visited these churches with a very religious family. Now to overwhelm with photos, like I do best.

Iglesia del Salvador (iglesia=church)

Outside the Holy Church Cathedral

Inside the Holy Church Cathedral (this is literally only one room of about 50...)

Holy Church Cathedral...again

I absolutly love the little european streets

La Casa del Greco; a famous painter; on this trip
I visited a lot of museums of art.

a synagogue

Saturday afternoon, we piled in the car and drove one hour to Madrid where we visited a massive Monastery (where we also went to mass on Sunday morning). The monastery was really all I saw of Madrid, but it was gorgeous and full of art, so I wasn´t allowed to take many pictures. But here are some:

I also got to witness some fall colors that I do not have on the sunny southern coast.

fall leaves :)

On our way out of Madrid on Sunday we stopped at a fascist monument. It was beautiful, but it is also a monument of extreme controversy because it was built by Franco through the slave labor of war prisoners. In the Valle de los Caidos (which signifies "Valley of the Fallen") I saw this:

On Sunday night we arrived in Segovia where we stayed in a quaint rural house like hotel. We visited the University of Segovia (hmm new college option? they offer most of the majors i have considered...) and we visited the Alcazar of Segovia, which resembles Cinderella´s castle and Hogwarts all in one. Now for some more pictures: