I always run into this problem with writing journals, and I think the same issue applies to blogs: when I have time to write, I have nothing interesting to say, and when everything interesting is happening, of course I don't want to stop to write about it. And writing about things after the fact feels like a list of facts rather than something that captures the moment. So apologies if the writing here is a little flat!
Last weekend a lot of people were travelling, but I stayed in Toledo and so had a lot of time! Perhaps a bit too much time, because I am not used to it and did not know what to do with it. (Or, I knew what I could do with it, but still didn't take the time to write!) On Friday, the Fund had a tour of Toledo. We rode a bus up a hill with a great view of Toledo (in all of the pictures, my eyes are closed or half-closed, but the city view is still wonderful). Then we walked around Toledo with a guide. I couldn't understand everything she said, but what I did hear was fascinating. Toledo's history is a mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and you can see mixtures of different architecture styles in some of the buildings. We saw a church connected to a convent for cloistered nuns. Toledo is known for its marzapan, and the best is supposedly made by these nuns.
On Friday night, I went out to some of the bars with my host sister. I realized how little Spanish I actually know! I can understand teachers, other students, and my host family fairly well, but with all the sounds and conversation at the bar, I couldn't understand anything anyone said. I decided to skip the discotecas, I went back to the apartment at 1:00 (which is very early here-- my host sister did not return until 6 or 7 the following morning).
Saturday was fairly uneventful, but I have to mention it because of the food! First, a little bit about the mealtimes in general. Breakfast is fairly normal (toast or cereal when you wake up) but lunch is not until 2:00 or later, and dinner is very late, 8:30 at the earliest. The biggest meal of the day is lunch, and on Saturday we had paella, which was delicious. It is basically rice cooked with saffron and a million different things. Ours had chorizo (a type of sausage), whole shrimps, calamari, chicken, bell peppers, peas, tomatoes, and some other kind of seafood in a shell. There might have been other things in there; I'm not really sure. My host mother promised to teach me how to make it, so I suppose I will find out then!
Dinner is usually smaller: sandwiches, soup, or leftovers from lunch. On Saturday, though, we had churros con chocolate and nothing else! I went with my host sister to a small churro shop that makes them fresh. The shop was similar to an ice cream shop where you order your food outside. We could see inside where they had the dough in a bowl ready to make into churros. We got the churros and went back to the apartment where my host mother had made the chocolate. It was not like any hot chocolate I had tried before-- so thick and rich it was like drinking a melted chocolate bar. We dipped the churros in the chocolate and then drank the rest of the chocolate at the bottom of our mugs. So delicious!
On Sunday, I went to mass at the Cathedral. I can't really describe it, except to say that it was very ornate. There are paintings by El Greco inside, but we weren't allowed to wander around after the mass, so I didn't see them. Later that afternoon, I went for a walk by the river with the rest the students who stayed in Toledo for the weekend. It was so beautiful! The Rio Tajo winds around almost all of Toledo, and there are paths below and above, and old bridges that cross over it (I walk over one of the bridges on my wayto the Fund every day). We took a lot of pictures, and happened upon a drum circle along the way.
I have more to say about classes, about travel plans, but I will save that for later. :)
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