The End of October

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Hello Everyone! I hope everything is going well with all of you and that you are enjoying fall (or winter for some of you).

We did end up going to El Parque Warner Bros. We had a lot of fun and rode all of the open rides, including the swings and the kiddy rollercoaster. We also saw a live performance of Batman Begins, which ended up being really neat. Some of them went on water rides, but it wasn't very warm outside, so I decided to opt out of that.

The following Friday (the 17th) the school had an excursion planned to Alcala de Henares. It is home to one of the oldest Universities in Europe. It's also a very pretty city, just outside of Madrid. The weather was really nice and we had a good day. However, the rest of that weekend was dedicated to studying as Midterm Exams were the following week. I made it through them, though, and I'm glad they are done.

Last week we went to Madrid on Friday for the day. We were at the Zoo for a majority of the time, but also went to Hard Rock Cafe and went shopping for a little while.

Yesterday we had another excursion with the Fundacion to El Escorial. El Escorial is the biggest building in all of Europe, and in it (when it was not purely a tourist attraction) was a choral school, a Basilica, the king's house, many gardens, a crypt, and a monastery. It was very pretty and overwhelmingly huge. Last night, for Halloween (which isn't celebrated by many people here) a group of us went to Madrid. There was a nightclub that we found that had a Halloween party, so we went there and had a lot of fun. We didn't leave Toledo until 10:30 last night and then stayed at the club until 5:00 this morning and caught a bus back home. I've been told that that is what most kids from Toledo do every weekend, but I can't do it very often. We had a lot of fun, but we are beat.

I can't believe how quickly the time is passing, but I am glad to be having fun. I have different trips planned for the weekends in November, so I will try to keep the blog updated with new information.

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Photos

Waiting...
Freddy and I waiting to enter El Parque de Warner Bros.

Nati and the Batmobile
She loves Batman, so was very excited about anything Batman we saw.

The Show
The cast of Batman Begins after it had finished.

Arrgh
A pirate ship going through the streets

Train Station
This is in the Train Station in Madrid. Ashley and I were excited to see green, so we took a picture.

Roses
Roses in mid-October? I didn't know that happened.

The University
In Alcala

The Theatre
The inside workings of a very old comedy theater

Apartamentos
This is what I think of when I think Spanish streets

WOW
That cigar was HUGE. I had to take a photo

What?
I thought this was a funny name.

Penguins
Look at the one on his belly!

Los Tigres
They started fighting soon after this, and it was pretty impresive and loud.

Giraffe
No, my camera wasn't zoomed in. All of the animals were really close.

Natalie, Nati, Jill, and Ashley
The girls riding their rides.

Kate, Nati, Ashley, Jill, Natalie, and Erin
Watching the baboons

Big fish
No, I don't know what kind.

Nati and the Shark
Watch out, you're going to get eaten!

Ashley, Natalie, Erin, Jill, Nati, and Karen
We were more excited about this park than any of the little kids.

Nati, Erin, Karen, and Ashley
The four of us at Hard Rock. The other three are roomates, but they call me the fourth roomate because we are always together.

El Escorial
This is just the front of the Basilica part.

Ashley
We were leaving El Escorial, and the fog and mountains were really pretty.