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Published: October 24th 2005
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Valle de los Caidos
Me in front of the entrance to the basilica where Franco is buried ¡Hola a todos!
I´ve almost been in Spain two months now! Yesterday was day 53, our halfway point as we have 106 days in total. But when we were looking at the days we have left, we counted that out of 53 days, 31 of them are travel days. HECK YEAH!! 😊 I really feel at home in Madrid now. I know my way around the city easily (don´t have to break out the map every 5 minutes!) and feel comfortable in my casa, at school, talking to madrileños (people from Madrid), etc. So I guess that´s a really good thing!
Tuesday was an emotional day for us from Furman. That afternoon we went with Nebrija to the Palacio Real, the huge palace in Madrid where the king used to live. The palace is HUGE! It has 2800 rooms (sadly, our tour didn´t take us through all of them...😉 ) and each room is gorgeous. We saw the throne room, the dressing room of the king, the ballroom, etc. But at the beginning of our tour, I was standing on the stairs next to Mary Grant, our professor from Furman, when she got a phone call. We continued on
El Escorial
Tombs lined up in the monastery of El Escorial with the tour like normal. At the end, our guide told the group that anyone from Furman had to wait because she had something to tell us. Mary Grant had just received a phone call that her 21 year old son had just died and she was leaving straight away. We were all in shock. We stood there for a good 20 minutes, some people crying. Its crazy because Maggie, another girl on our trip, had to leave 2 weeks ago because her father died. So life kind of slapped us in the face with both of these things combined. Especially since I´m out of the country, I have become more thankful for what God has given me.
Enough sad stories. Both Maggie and Mary Grant called and said they are going to return, so I am very excited about that! Wednesday I had my midterm for my Spanish art and history class. It was 4 essays and I wrote 5 pages, front and back, of spanish essays. My hand definitely hurt after that one! Wednesday night I went to a Spanish play "DQ III: Pasajero en transito." Basically, it was a play about Don Quijote in modern times.
The gateway to hell
Here it is, one of the 5 "gateways to hell" in the world! Don Quijote was trapped in a video game and had to fight to get to each level. It was so weird! Probably one of the weirdest plays I´ve ever seen. But the dancing was spectacular (flamenco).
Thursday, two girls from Furman who are studying in Edinburg this semester came to visit the Madrid group! So after class we took them around the city. That night, I went out with Belen, my Spanish friend, and her brother. They took me to a bar in their neighborhood. It was filled with natives, so I knew going in it was going to be good. You buy a drink there, and they give you as many free tapas as you want. And the tapas were so good! We had crab, empañadas, ham, cheese, bread, pieces of fish, french fries, etc. Belen and her brother, Miguel Angel, are so nice too, so I really enjoyed getting to talk with them.
Saturday we had an excursion to El Escorial and Valle de los Caidos. In El Escorial, we toured the monastery there which is where all the kings of Spain and their families are buried. It was pretty cool to see the tombs of
La basilica
Inside the basilica at Valle de los Caidos all these famous kings that I have been learning about in my history class. Supposedly, there are 5 "gateways to hell" in the world (this is what our guide said) and the monastery at El Escorial is one of them. So I went to hell and back on Saturday 😊 After lunch, we went to Valle de los Caidos (The Valley of the Fallen). Now this was a creepy place! Francisco Franco is buried here along his head commander and soldiers that fought on his side during the civil war. Franco supposedly had this constructed to commemorate the soldiers who died in the civil war. But he had the prisoners of war (the Republican soldiers) build it and it was basically built for his tomb. Our guide said that he built it so close to El Escorial to signify that he was equal to the royalty buried there. Basically, Franco took this mountain and blew out the inside and built a basilica. Its really dark inside and the statues all around the basilica are freaky! But outside the views from the outside are amazing!
Sunday I went to the Rastro with Oli and his parents (they are here visiting
Franco´s grave
This is where Franco is buried him this week) and then Sunday night I went to a Real Madrid soccer game at Estadio Santiago Bernebeau!! Real Madrid (the name of Madrid´s soccer team) played Valencia. There were 78,000 people at the game! I got to see David Beckham play because he plays for Madrid. The game was awesome, so much excitement among the fans, but Madrid lost 1 to 2. Que triste.
This Friday morning I leave for Barcelona!! We come back Tuesday, Nov. 1st so I will be in Barcelona over Halloween. ¡Que pasen bien con todos!
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Jillo
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ewwwwwwwwwwwww
hehehehehehe sorry about the other comment I sent u!1 I pushed enter when I finished putting in my name instead of puttign the curser ont eh bottom so it sent it :) hehehe well, I'm goin for 2 kyu's on m yGreen belt on Saturday so at about 5.. well, actually, itll b;e a different time 4 u but anyways think of how I'm getting beat up to the crisp! hehehehe A kyu is a black strip on my belt if u didnt know:) well, time 4 homework!! ewwwwwww kk C ya!! :) -Jillo aka: Wolfo :#