Hello! Apparently in Toledo July marks the beginning of annual sales. So there are rebajas in many stores all through the streets. The other girls are a bit giddy, I think. I bought a dress. It's the most I can do. But that was kind of fun because I legit-style haggled with the store keeper. He told me 15 € when I first looked at the dress, then later said that he had made a mistake, THIS dress was 28 €, wouldn't you know it? But I argued with him and said I could buy one at another store when the rebajas started the next day until he said Okay, for a chica tan guapa como tú, he would give me it for the crazy low price of only 15 €! Haha I walk past the store every day too, so now when I go past he salutes me and laughs.
Meanwhile, I have been quite busy. Yesterday I walked around with Lexi and another girl, Carla. Carla....while having taken the exact same 210 class as me in the spring, does not necessarily have the same command of language. It was fun following her around and trying to translate between her and wacky storekeepers, etc. The night before yesterday, Lexi, Kat, and I went on a tour of the city with a social group of Blanca's. The tour started at 9:30 and we got back to the house around midnight! It was such a long tour! But now we know a whole lot of little nuggets of half-understood information about the jewish district of the city. How strange.
I got kicked up two levels in the spanish classes here. Having attended level 6 for only one day, I think I could still go up a level or two but I'm not going to complain too much. It was the first day that I haven't almost fallen asleep in class, and it's certainly not because I've gotten more sleep...
Today I split off from the rest of the group in order to do my own thing. Most people are shopping at a centrocommercial in new Toledo because they want to take advantage of the rebajas. As for me, I decided it was a good day to look around some of the churches and monasteries. My first stop was the Convent of St. Úrsula. I talked for a little bit with the nun at the door because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to walk around, etc, but she was okay with it. She just told me NO pictures! Absolutemente no fotografías. Gotcha.
From there I spent the next half hour or so trying to find another convent. I tried approaching it from several places on my map and only ended up in weird little private courtyards and alleys, though I was pretty sure that I knew where the building began and stopped, I just couldn't find any doors. It turns out that it is closed for visitors right now, but at the time I was just super confused, and the shop keepers that I kept asking for directions didn't indicate that it was closed to me. They were probably mad that I wasn't stopping to buy their knick knacks and tiny knight crests.
Having been defeated by the elusive St. Antonio, I just kind of wandered around for a while. I checked out the parts of the map that I hadn't been through yet. I watched a few minutes of the Brazil - Netherlands game in an outdoor bar with a whole bunch of Brazilians (Kaká, Kaká! Sheesh, he's not THAT good, basta ya). I found a weird little museum about the Teutonic Knights and the Templars (Templados).
It was kind of lame until I discovered a back staircase and it opened up into the dungeons! It was kind of scary. Nobody else was down there and I had to turn on the lights and stuff so I made myself a bit creeped out that I would turn around and find myself locked in. After I thought about that for a while I didn't go into the actual cells anymore. haha. Apparently, up to 40 people could be held and tortured in each cell at one time. Cool?
I also walked around the outside of an old castle that I gather has something to do with Carlos V, but I'm not sure. There weren't any signs or anything. The library shares a wall with it, and once I got all the way around the building I found a little parque that looked out over the river and to a cool building across the way. Lots of pictures!
It has been raining lately. I think we are going to get another thunderstorm soon...
The view across the river from the park!
Now, understandably, I am a bit tired after all the walking around of the past few days. Still, no siesta for me, because today I figured out that there are museums open during siesta! Que bueno. haha. And because the girls from Texas left, now Lexi and I have a way bigger room, plus one more set of keys between the three of us than we had before. Another girl, Katie, has just moved in because she didn't like her old host family, so she has the Texans' other set of keys. She can't eat meat, dairy, fish, or eggs, and she can't use one arm and she has a leg brace. Blanca is a little worried, I think, because she doesn't know what to do for meals now, though if I heard her correctly she said she is going to just make a different one for Katie every time. I hope it works out. I feel bad that Blanca will have to do more work than she already is.
And today when I got home I was eating some gelado so I stood in the stairwell for a minute because I have heard it is considered rude to eat in the house when you are not in the kitchen. But Ricardo, the eldest son, came downstairs to grab something and saw me standing there. We talked for a bit and I asked to see the "third floor" which confused him for a bit. It turns out that they start counting floors after the ground floor, and so what we consider the third is for him the second. It's under construction and having told me "ten cuidado, chica" he let me come up to look around. They are basically remodeling everything with modern stuff up there. It's kind of a mess but I think it will look really good later. I asked Ricardo how old the building is and he said around 13th century, but parts of it are much newer. They added on wings and levels as the centuries went on. Pretty neat stuff!
I don't know what is in store for me tonight, but I hope not too much, because I have probably logged a good 4 or 5 miles on steep cobblestone streets just today, and I'm ready to stop moving for a while. Hasta luego!
Los capciones:
Caption 1: The streets are very steep in Toledo. So steep that sometimes you can look over the side of the road and see backyards!
Caption 2: The outside of the convent I visited
Caption 3: The dungeons!!! Did you know that there were Knights Templar in Spain? I certainly hadn't ever thought about it before, but now I've been in their building!
