November is FLYING BY.

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted...this month is really just going way too fast.  I'll try to fill you in on what has been going on this month.

Early in the month, the weather really took a turn to the cold side, dropping to highs in the mid 50's!  But don't worry, its been back up in the high 60's and sunny recently!  The first Thursday of the month was a full day.  I didn't have class because we already made up a day of class before, so I actually got up early and went on a walk (we were out of the building by 11AM!) with a few people on the south side of the city, across the river, for almost 3 hours, exploring some new areas.  Later that day, I met with my intercambios again and we walked all around the city as they explained any bit of trivia they knew about it.  That night was one of the funnest nights out on the town in Toledo that we've had since coming here.  We had a big, highly varied group of people from just about every clique that exists in the Fund and everyone went out and stayed out until well into the morning, going from bar to bar, club to club.  Here in Spain, that means we were out until 5:30 or 6 AM! The next night, I went out with a smaller group to get tapas.  Tapas are like little appetizers that you sometimes get with a drink, or you can order them alone.  During the whole month of November, there is a tapas challenge in Toledo and the surrounding areas, so all of the restaurants are making the best they have to try to win the title of the Best Tapas in Toledo.  This turns out to be a great deal; for 2 euros at all the participating restaurants, you can go try their tapas.  The only problem we ran into was finding a place with any free space.  But we eventually made it around to and had tapas at 3 or 4 places and returning to the Fund...by all accounts, a calm night. 

School, classes...school, classes, papers...escuela, clases...

Then, last weekend we had another excursion through the Fund.  On Friday, we went to El Escorial; this used to be a summer (??) residence of the Spanish royalty.  We went on a tour, guided by one of the history professors here at the Fund and probably only saw about a fourth of it...It was huge.  The three most impressive and important parts were definitely the library, the basilica, and the Pantheon of the Kings, especially the Pantheon.  You could only reach this part of the building, under the altar of the basilica, by going a few floors down a completely marble stairway (stairs, walls, and ceiling were ALL Toledo marble).  In this room are all the sepulchers of the kings and queens from Carlos I till the present.  They only have three spaces left, but they're already reserved for the current king's grandfather, grandmother and father who didn't actually act as kings because they would have reigned during Franco's era.  Speaking of Franco, a couple of us tried to catch a bus to the nearby Valle de los Caídos, or the Valley of the Fallen, which is a huge monument where Franco is buried, but the internet was not updated, so we missed the bus by 15 minutes.

The next day, I went with a couple people to Segovia, a city to the northwest of Madrid, about an hour and 15 minutes by bus.  The main things there to see were the aqueducts and the Alcazar.  The aqueducts were built in the first or second century by the Romans!  The Alcazar was probably built sometime in the 11th of 12th centuries as an Arab fortification.  Most of the description of these places is told by the pictures in my albums.

Lately, I've been keeping busy trying to get Mom and Dad to make some decisions about their trip over here, and I just booked some tickets for us to go to Barcelona for a few days while they're here.  Tomorrow, I am going to the Reina Sofia, a museum, for my Grandes maestros de la pintura española class and I am planning on staying in Madrid till Sunday.  Saturday night, I am going to a Real Madrid versus Racing de Santander fútbol game!  Next weekend, I am going to Barcelona with some friends from the Fund and the following weekend I will be going to Granada.  After that I have finals, then Mom and Dad come...not much time left.

Again, here's the link to my online albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/bsh11820
Just go to the first album, Escorial, Segovia to see the newest pics.

Adios.