Las fotografías

Because siesta truly is rather boring, I think I shall spend this time just putting up a bunch of pictures. I think every couple days or so I will make a photo blog post in order to get them all off my conscience but keep them from messing with the little storylines I have going in my other posts.

Sooooo here we go! The pictures that you have not seen. Comments on the top, pictures below.

Here are my two lovely roommates, Andy and Becky. They are "sad" to see me go, though I am confident that they have been throwing wild parties this entire week.

Thanks Becky, for the picture of me working my way into packing swing. I was rather stubborn for I was not in the mood.

The backpack is done and Lad is stowed safely away!!!
Man, in the morning Brad was sharp as a tack. Look at those focused eyes and jaunty attitude! haha poor Brad, he only got about two or three hours of sleep by the time I was done with packing and chatting.

This is in one of the buildings at the university! Lexi is standing inside old Roman ruins inside the building. No biggie. I was surprised that they have Roman ruins, but that's pretty cool I guess. They have a lot of glass set up over the floor and over walls so that you can see old stuff but still walk over it on your way to the bathroom. haha.

And here is a photo taken looking into the courtyard in the center of the house! It looks exactly like Southern California! Soon I am going to have to post a bunch of pictures of all the plants and things. There are hydrangeas and geraniums and a lot of succulents, and I should figure out if they originated in Spain or if they were brought back from the New World.
Here is "La catedral." I don't know what cathedral off the top of my head, sorry. All of the maps and signs simply say "The Cathedral" so it must be SO famous it doesn't need to have its name anywhere.

Here is an example of a typical car-pedestrian interaction. With such narrow streets when you hear a car you basically just squish against the wall and try to tuck in your toes. Many streets are far more narrow and winding, so sometimes it doesn't work out super great.
Here are a couple views of new Toledo for your enjoyment! Que bonita, etc, etc.

And these pictures are of the futbol game! I tried to get footage of the goal, and I actually was successful in predicting it but I must have hit record twice because I only have a second at the end and at the beginning and nothing in between. I'm pretty sad. It was nuts! Fortunately marching band had adequately prepared me for that kind of enthusiasm, though I had not yet seen that many people get together to watch a sporting event that wasn't even taking place live.

Another view of the cathedral, but this time from the Ayuntamiento, or the building where we met the mayor.
Inside the mayor's building (or whatever it is...I'm not entirely sure. It definitely had a religious background however because of the murals, etc inside. I took a picture of a wall that I found interesting. They kept the original stonework and just kind of built around it.

Es todo! Hasta.

Miércoles, 30 junio

Wow, a lot of stuff has happened since yesterday! We walked around for a while in the afternoon and got some shampoo and conditioner, etc. We found a couple perfumerías where that kind of stuff wasn't very expensive, though if you were interested in brands familiar in the US then you would have had to shell out a lot of dough. I also bought an alarm clock in a small store, which was exciting because I had to ask if they had any smaller and less expensive, etc, and then myself and the lady helping me figured out how it worked together too. So that was fun. I am feeling pretty confident about my spanish most of the time, actually. If people are going slow I don't have a problem following them (except for the occasional ridiculous accent).

For lunch Blanca served us one of the best things I've had since I got here! Paella! I was afraid to have it because other people staying with host families said it was sea food, but the kind that Blanca made was chicken and perhaps pork? I'm not certain. But yeah, que deliciosa. And it's a good thing I ate a lot because the futbol game interrupted normal dinner plans!

We went looking for flamenco lessons in the afternoon and ended up in the Jewish quarter by La casa del Greco. When we finally found the flamenco lessons we were pretty tired, but it was kind of interesting. Next to the building where the lessons were being held was the division between "nueva" and "antiguo" Toledo. We live in el antiguo, but a lot of the people in host families are in the more modern portion. You can see a pretty interesting view of the river and the steep ledges up to the new side.

After flamenco we started walking north, across into the modern part of the city. We had been told that the Plaza de los Toros was THE PLACE (el lugar) to watch the game. We weren't sure if this meant that it was a bunch of bars in a plaza or a screen or what. We rode the escalators down the cliff which was nice. I have not encountered outdoor escalators before but they are ridiculously handy. They close at 10 pm (22.00) so I was not as lucky on the way UP but that's okay, it's good for me.

It took us a LOOONG time to find the plaza, plus a bit of direction asking. There were people in la roja (the uniforms of Spain) everywhere, but with the directions of an elderly caballero and following the basic stream of people we found ourselves at a huge bullfighting ring! It was surprising that while there were thousands of people we immediately saw our new friend Ben and his host brothers. Upon greeting new acquaintances you are expected to kiss cheeks, and everyone thought it was hilarious that I ended up with Spanish flags on my face from Ben's host brother's painted face. haha. Once inside my party split off and went upstairs where we bumped into OUR host brother, Carlos, and his friends. So we sat with them for the rest of the game.

SPAIN WON!!!! It was intense. People had brought vuvuzelas, large plastic tubes, and some drums, so all together it was quite an experience. During the second half when we were winning I learned some sweet cheers and hand signals. One of Carlos's friends explained to me over the crowd what some of it meant when I didn't know. It was a very very smoky, loud, hot, interesting time.

On the way back, having walked allllll the way back up that gnarly hill alongside people with flags, honking cars, and hilarious getups (remind you of Huskernation at all?), I took some pictures of nighttime new Toledo. But my night wasn't over! It was time to go to the bars, of course! Where else would you go in Toledo on a night with a Spanish futbol victory?! We followed our Texas compañeras to their favorite bar. It was only about four minutes away from our house, which was awesome. With any drink you order here in Spain you get tapas.

The tapas from this bar was papas fritas y bocadillos (a fancy way of saying french fries and small sandwiches). Which was AWESOME because I was lacking dinner still at 11 at night.

Then this morning, having met the mayor instead of going to class, we returned to the plaza near our house and found that the strike in Madrid had followed us to Toledo! There is una huelga (strike) on the subways (La Red) in Madrid because of the bad economy and poor worker pay. I could understand the man speaking at the protest fairly well, actually, most likely because he is speaking simply for his comrades. haha. Socialism was a pretty big topic. I don't remember where I started taping, but basically he was just advocating that todos de sus compañeros y compañeras should come together and work against those in the government who don't understand their needs. For my spanish speaking / comprehending friends, here is some footage for your enjoyment:

Anyway, it is about time for lunch! I must be off!

Captions:

Picture 1: A view off the side of the cliffs during our search for flamenco lessons

Picture 2: Riding down the escalators and looking towards nuevo Toledo

Picture 3: Carlos, one of my host brothers, and the crowd arriving in the arena before the game

Picture 4: Toledo at night

Martes, 29 Junio

¡Hola de Toledo!

Because I am unwilling and unable to sleep during "siesta" I am choosing to use this time instead to blog! I do not expect most people to be particularly intrigued, but as Becky is obsessed with my life, my parents are at least moderately interested, and the odd person visiting may enjoy a picture or two of Spain, I

will do my best to keep this blog up to date.

I arrived Sunday and met my host family! My host mom's name is Blanca Sanz. She has two sons who live with us, a boyfriend, and also a daughter who has a husband and child. She also has a nephew or two, plus two foreign exchange students from Texas who are leaving Friday. So besides myself, Lexi, and Kat, there are quite a few people in this house! It makes having one bathroom pretty exciting. Normally we eat in shifts.

La universidad de Castilla-La Mancha is really close to the house. It takes us about five or six minutes in the morning to walk to class.

Projects forthcoming: A video walkthrough of the house, a picture walkthrough of the path to school, and probably a gallery of cool things in Toledo once I see more of them. So far I haven't seen a lot besides the university and the plaza near the house.

Tonight I am going to see the futbol partido de España y Portugal en La Plaza de los Toros. It seems that most of the city is going to go there in order to watch on some sort of a projection. I am pretty excited. I want to go look for a Fernando Torres jersey but of course, it's siesta and everyone is sleeping. Que triste.

In the meanwhile, I post this for Andy's enjoyment. We were minding our own business eating tapas when SUDDENLY a fight broke out! I got the whole thing on video:

What a violent town this has turned out to be!

Captions:

Photo 1: The first view outside of the Barajas Aeropuerta en Madrid

Photo 2: A furtive camera shot of my host mom through some windows

Photo 3: The view out of my current classroom window (though I will probably move up a class or two tomorrow)