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Published: January 17th 2007
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Plaza Mayor
This is an old building in the Plaza Mayor, the old center of town in Madrid. This was our first stop in Madrid. Hola! I am in Spain now. We spent our first day in Madrid, then most of the second day in Toledo, and then took a long bus ride (with a short stop in Alarcon) to Valencia. Today was our first full day in Valencia. I love it here so far, the language is hard, but I am actually much better than most people on the trip, I can get by. My host mother (we call them senoras) is super nice and her house is also very nice. Kate is my roomate, she is really nice as well, but she doesn't know any spanish yet, so I translate for her most of the time. But she and my host mother know a little italian so that helps too. All the people on the trip are really nice and fun, we are a huge group of Americans (40 of us), and we stick out everywhere we go! Well, I will tell more details about where I have been below:
Madrid
Madrid was huge! A lot like New York, but much older. The streets were crowded all the time (but we were there on the weekend). But it was really clean there,
Girls in Plaza Mayor
Elise, Me, Rachel, Natasha, and Katie they cleaned the streets daily! We didn't have much time there and we were all suffering from jet lag, but it was fun. The first day we walked around and went to the big park in the middle of the city and we saw the Plaza Mayor which was nice. Then later we went on the Panoramic Bus Tour. Which was great because there were a few stops where we could take pictures of the big attractions. We went to an Irish bar at night, which was funny, but it was a good time and we even ventured out and tried to talk to natives a little. The next day we went to Toledo for most of the day, and then when we got back, we went to the Prado museum, which had some amazing paintings and sculptures from Goya, El Greco, Velazquez, and many more. We all wish we could have spent more time in Madrid, there is so much to see there, and very little time we had to see it.
Toledo
Toledo is a small, old town in Spain, only an hour south of Madrid. We took a bus there on Saturday. It is known
Pretty Building near our Hostel
I don't know what it was, possibly a hotel. as the center of the Catholic Church in Spain, it has a huge Cathedral where the Bishop is. The Cathedral was amazing! It was huge and full of gold, treasures, and organs, and artwork! El Greco also lived there and there were lots of paintings of his. After that, we went to a synagogue, it was very plain, but interesting. The town was gorgeous and the streets were very confusing and tiny. It was so typical European! We walked around a bit and enjoyed the scenery and then went back to Madrid.
Alarcon
Alarcon is a very tiny little town, it was an old Roman fortress and it was founded in the 9th century. I still can't get over how much older things are here than in America! It was cool to see the old buildings, and we had lunch there as well. We didn't have too much time since we were running late, but it was beautiful and on a big hill surrounded by water, perfect place for an old fort.
Valencia
We arrived in Valencia Sunday around 5 and we met our host families. My senora, Marisa, is sooo nice! I understand most of
Tomb of the Unknown soldier
you can barely see the eternal flame at the bottom what she says, and am getting better at speaking little by little. She cooks vegetarian for me and my roomate, and the food is amazing! It is hard eating out though, so we have a nice haven here of great food (and free too!). This morning we went to school (with a host mother from next door and two girls that live there too). The walk is about 20 to 30 minutes, it is really nice weather here and hardly ever rains, so we will be walking a lot. It was about 63 degrees for the high today, which was very nice, it is a little chilly in the mornings, but not too bad at all. For orientation this morning, we learned about the classes we can take and security in Valencia, and also about cell phones and bus passes and things to communicate and get around town. I am thinking about taking spanish class, literature, history, and possibly art history and cinema. People that were in the program last semester and this (the whole year) say that the classes are really easy and to take as many as possible. I got a SIM card for my phone today, and
Parque del Buen Retiro
Beautiful park in the middle of Madrid we got a pretty good deal, I only paid 24 Euros for the card and out of that I have 18 Euros worth of minutes for the phone. It is a prepaid thing, but I get free incoming calls and text messages, and also all the kids in the program decided to get the same service provider so we can talk for free to each other for only a 12 cent connection fee. It is really a good deal, and anyone who wants to call me from home can (it won't cost me money), but it may cost you! I am stealing wireless internet from another apartment, so I have internet in my room, which is very nice! I was afraid I would feel so unconnected, but now the only annoyance is the time difference. Well, I live in an area surrounded by apartment buildings and small shops, there is a small park-like/playground/basketball court in front of our apartment, and a main street in front of that, which is convenient. I used the metro (subway) to get to the place to buy phones today, which was another adventure, but very easy to understand, and Marisa gave me good directions. Tomorrow
Big Statue on other side of the lake up close
We sat by the lake for a while (we were tired after not sleeping on the flight then going out exploring the city!) and we watched the people who rented row boats and were out on the lake...very peaceful! we have a second day of orientation, then a tour around the city in the afternoon. We have been so busy since we got here, that there was very little time to walk around, I haven't even seen the Mediterranean yet! I will make a point to see it tomorrow! Well, that is about all that is going on in Valencia, it is pretty as far as I can see it. There are palm trees and orange trees along all the streets.
Well, I don't have much else to say, and it is getting late, so I want to post some pictures and go to bed soon. My phone number is: 011 (US long distance code) 34 (Spain country code) 664-576-666 (my number). I think this should work. I will write again soon, and post pictures of Valencia too.
I have been trying to upload pictures for a while, and was only able to upload a few at this time, but decided to publish this entry either way. i will hopefully post pictures tomorrow at school.
-Robin
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Michele
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That 'pretty building'
... is the Ritz Carlton!