Cooler Temps and Crunching Leaves Bring a Little Taste of Home to España :)

Where o' where to begin with this post?  As always, there is SO MUCH to catch everyone up on!!  For starters, I don't think I have told anyone this before, but on the first day that I arrived here and was in my host Mom's car driving to her house after we met for the first time at the fundacion, she thought my name was Nancy!  And was so confused when I told her it was Megan.  I was just reminiscing about this with my friend, Laura, this past week and we both realized just how funny this was!  So, I started off my Spain adventure as a Nancy!  hahaha!  I swear this stuff only happens to me!

Also, I left something very important out of my Granada blog.  On the bus ride down to Granada the bus driver stopped at a huge rest stop that had a cafeteria/cafe and then bathroom and tables to eat at.  Well, all of us were pretty hungry and most of us were too cheap to buy anything in the cafeteria since that stuff is always so overpriced because you are paying for "convenience."  One of my friends, Anny, came back to the table with some crackers and bread.  I asked her how much it cost because usually bread is pretty cheap here...and I was thinking that my stomach was telling me I needed to go buy SOMETHING, regardless of the cost.  She then proceeded to tell us that it was FREE!  We, naturally, all loved this idea and two of us went and nabbed some bread and a little bag of crackers for later when I would be hungry again.  My other friend wanted to go get some as well a little while later but didn't want to go up alone so I told her I would go with her to nab even more free bread for myself.  In doing so, we were caught, red handed.  Apparently the "free" bread and crackers was not so free and were only for the people who were eating/buying stuff in the cafeteria.  So, I ended up paying 70 cents for the little piece of bread!!  But, actually it was technically 70 cents for 2 slices of bread and 1 bag of crackers because she didn't see me the first time!  Oh the things you do when you are trying to save money while traveling!  One of my friends felt bad that she took the bread and went back up and paid for her first slice!  We knew it was going to be a good weekend from then on out because we started the day being ladrnes (thiefs).

Last Friday we had an excursion, led by those at the fundacion, which means that everything is free for us!  Well, "free" in terms that it was added onto our tuition at the beginning of the semester.  Anyway, they provide the bus to wherever it is we are going and then have planned activities the entire day for us.  This past Friday we went to a town called Alcala de Henares which is just a little Northeast of Madrid, about an hour and a half drive.  This is the town in which Miguel de Cervantes was born and lived so the town is just filled with history...as is basically every city/town in Spain!!  My history major friend Elizabeth had a field day here :)

We started off the day going and visiting the university there which is one of the oldest universities in Spain, second to the University of Salamanca.  We got a guided tour of this which was very helpful!  The guide spoke very clear Spanish, spoke slowly and explained big words/phrases that we didn't know.  This was probably my favorite part of the day!!  It was really interesting learning about the history of the University, but I think it also would have been interesting to learn more about how the University is now, but our tour guide just mainly talked about how it used to be.  Unfortunately, there was some construction going on in one of the patios so we weren't able to see it, but everything was so beautiful AND old AND rich with so much history!!

We had some free time so Elizabeth and I decided to go to the house/museum of Miguel de Cervantes.  Unfortunately, photos were prohibited in the house, but it was cool to see everything.  I kind of felt like I was at Heritage Hill...that is what it reminded me a lot of, except the workers were not dressed up for the time period!

After that we went to the Corral de Cervantes.  To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what this exactly is, but I am pretty sure it is kind of like a comedy club now, but back in the 16th century it was one of the first theaters, I believe.  We, also, got a guided tour of this, and that was interesting as well to see some of the original stone and brick of the building.  Although I am sure I wouldn't have understood a word they were saying, I kind of wish we would have been able to see a show here!

Then, it was time for lunch (finally!)  It is so funny because here, since they eat lunch so late in the day, I am always counting down the minutes until lunch time!  We ate at this very fancy restaurant (it even had tablecloths!)  The food was amazing to say the least!  I ate so much that I literally felt ill for the rest of the day because my stomach was so full!  For the starter dish we had a big slice of lasagna, this was kind of like in place of a salad.  For the main dish we had some type of meat and then fried potatoes in a brown sauce!  I was incredibly full at this point, but I could not waste any food on my plate...I NEEDED to eat it all!  Then for dessert we got what could probably be described like a raspberry cheesecake but not exactly cheesecake.  Again, this was soooo delicious, I just couldn't pass it up!  After lunch we really didn't have that much time before we needed to head to the bus and go back to Toledo so some of my friends and I went and walked around the city for a bit to burn off some of the thousand calories of deliciousness we just ate!!

When we got back to the fundacion, Fernando (my Puerto Rican friend) and I planned to go running!  I was a little apprehensive about this because we can never get the times right for some reason.  I told him to meet me at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (a plaza near my house) so we could take the bus or walk together to go to the track. Well, he never showed up again! :(  I waited for him for a half hour and he never showed and with waiting for him I missed the bus which sucked because the bus to the track only comes every 40 minutes after 3 o'clock so I found myself waiting for 36 minutes for the darn bus to come again.  And then when I finally got to the track I felt like krap running (probably due to my massive lunch that I ate!)  So, all in all, a very unsuccessful run!

On Friday night a bunch of us went out and explored the bars of Toledo (this was my first time doing this!)  It was a lot of fun with a lot of dancing!  We starated at El Ultimo, which is just down the steps of the fundacion.  There was a live band playing so that was fun to listen to!  We, then, went to Camelot and then headed to El Circulo.  El Circulo, to my surprise, is a church by day and a dance club by night.  Spaniards are so classy!!  Also, at El Circulo we saw Jose Luis, one of the guys who works at my school!  At about 4 o' clock in the morning we decided we had enough and headed back to our houses.  My friend, Elizabeth, lives in Poligono, the suburb of Toledo, and needed to take the 4am bus (the last bus) back from Toledo to Poligono.  This way she didn't need to get a taxi!

On Saturday I really didn't do much of anything!  I slept until 1pm since I had been out half the night!  I worked on homework and enjoyed the wonderful smells of my host Mom cooking lunch.  Whenever she cooks here on the weekends, she spends basically the whole day cooking.  Just making one dish takes so much time!!  I needed to get all my homework done for the week on Saturday because I knew there wouldn't be any time on Sunday because my friends and I had tickets to go to the BULLFIGHT on Sunday in Madrid.

My Sunday started out pretty routine...went running at the track, spent what seemed like forever waiting for the bus, got back to my house late and had to rush in the shower...blah blah blah!  We had planned to leave the Toledo bus station at 2.  At this point it is like 1:06 and my Mom insists on me eating lunch at home before I leave.  This is all fine and dandy and I loved that she was looking out for me but I still had to walk to the bus station from my house and be ON the bus by 2!  And, mind you, she wouldn't let me eat lunch until she walked to the panaderia (bread store) to buy bread for me to eat with my lunch!  That's how much they love bread here!!  When she finally got back and served me lunch I was basically inhaling my food because otherwise I knew I was going to be late to catch the bus.  As I am running with cargo (AGAIN, I know!) to the bus station from my house because I think I am going to be late I get a call from Elizabeth saying that she missed her bus from Poligono and asked if we would wait for her and take the 2:30 bus to Madrid instead.  The buses from Madrid are very convenient as they leave every half hour, so it really isn't a huge deal if you miss one!  That is what we decided to do and we still conquered the metro in Madrid and made it to the Plaza de Torros in plenty of time.

The bullfight was definitely interesting.  I was a little nervous to go because my host Mom was telling me about a lot of people that have to leave because it is just too much for them to handle.  But I made it!  I needed to go to witness it at least once since it is such a big part of their culture here!  Would I go again?  Probably not, but we had a lot of fun at my first and last bullfight! :)  It would have been better, too, if we would have had someone with us that knew what was going on to explain things to us because we really didn't have a clue!  At dinner though on Sunday night my Mom was trying to explain some things to me.  There are 6 bulls and 3 matadores so they each fight 2 bulls.  The first bull was white which was probably the worst because obviously all the blood is going to show so much more on a while bull then on a brown or black bull.  Before the matadores come out the picaros (I think that's what they are called) come out on their horses and stab the bull in the neck/spinal cord region with a long stick.  They blind the horses so they cannot see the bull and pad them with what we are assuming is VERY THICK padding.  One of the horses actually fell over because the bull was bucking so bad and we thought it was dead, but it really wasn't.  I think they just train the horses to play dead so the bull runs away from it.  Then the "assistants" of the matadores come out and taunt the bull with pink and each assistant jabs what look like big needles into the bulls back as well.  Then the matador finally comes out and taunts the bull with the red.  One of the things that surprised us the most was that the bull doesn't go after the human...it only goes after the red!  After the bull has lost too much blood or is just about to give up they kill the bull almost immediately.  I guess that is one good thing of the situation...that they just put the bull out of its misery almost right away.  Then, from my understanding, and from what my host Mom told me is that they eat the bulls, like us eating cow.  Also, when I came home and told my Mom that no one was throwing flowers down on the ring or waving white handkerchiefs she told me that all the matadores were pretty bad then.  haha I guess when people see a really good fight or a really good bullfighter they throw flowers and wave white hankies.  All in all, though, I am so glad I had the chance to be in attendance at the last bullfight of the season with Elizabeth, Laura, Alyssa, Anny, Elle, Amani and Molly!  Oh and luckily for one of my patients at the hospital, I didn't wear yellow to the bullfight because that is disrespectful to the bullfighter, he told me!

On Monday, my day at the hospital was kind of boring because when I went to go talk to my patients they were either getting x-rays taken or sleeping!  And one of my patients who is from far away and doesn't have family visit that often had her Mom and Dad surprise her!  Her Mom was not very welcoming in meeting me, and I didn't want to intrude so I just told my patient that I would talk to her next week to give her time to be with her family.  My one patient, though, that is usually very quiet and is never excited to talk to me was very open with me this week and seemed a lot happier and was very excited!  She was telling me about her new shoes that she got from her niece and then showed me a picture of her two nieces!  I really want to bring my scrapbook that I have here with me on Monday so I can show all my patients my family and friends :)  My English speaking patient (and what I learned last week, Miami Dolphin fan!!) was resting when I went and looked for him both times.  Then before I was leaving I wanted to run to his room quick just to say hi, but the doors of the wing were shut and the lights were off and I wasn't sure if that meant restricted access or something so I just didn't go in.  Can't wait to talk to him next week though!  And my patient who gave me the fan last week was able to leave!  Good for her, but again, I didn't get to say good-bye which makes me really sad!!

Then, on Tuesday, was my first day teaching English to Spanish children!  I was a little nervous for this, but I had so much fun!!!  The instructor lady was late meeting me at the fundacion which should be expected because Spaniards are always late, but when she finally showed up she was soooo sorry that she was late!  I told her that it was no big deal at all!  As we were walking out of my school and to the car she was telling me a little bit about herself and she told me that she speaks English and is an English teacher.  At this comment my face must have lit up because then she quickly informed me that we would be speaking in Spanish in order to practice conversing!  Darn it!!  haha  When we got into the car her husband was driving and her 2 kids were also in there.  They were all super nice and very welcoming to me.  We drove to a building that is very near the Plaza de Zocodover where the husband dropped us off.  Nuria (the mother) informed that this was the "classroom" where they teach the kids.  It was a small, but very nice building.  In the class there are 5 kids (4 girls and 1 boy).  They each have English names that are similar to their Spanish names: Daniel, Sophie, Agnes, Helen and Charlotte.  Daniel is such a hoot...I just love him!  We practiced telling time and our body parts!  And sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!"  All of them know quite a bit of English, more than I expected anyway!  I also served them a snack which included foods from the Spanish culture as well as the American one.  Nuria goes to a store in Madrid that has American snacks.  The kids could choose from milk or Capri Sun and pixie sticks, nerd ropes, Cap'n Crunch cereal, cookies, or sausage things that are very popular for kids to snack on here.  Daniel chose cookies and the rest of them chose the peanut butter cereal.  As I was pouring the cereal onto their plates it was really interesting because they were all telling me, "no, no, con leche!"  This means that they wanted the cereal with milk!  They all enjoy that we eat cereal with milk because they don't do that here!  It was so cute to see them get so happy and excited over something I take so for granted.  I just eat cereal everyday for breakfast without even thinking about it!  Nuria invited me to a Halloween fiesta that they are having for the children on Monday night (and she told me I could bring friends too!) but unfortunately I have class at 7:45 so I won't be able to make it!  I am excited to teach them all about Halloween on Tuesday though!  Jen gave me a great idea and told me that I should wear my Aaron Rodgers jersey so it is kind of like I am dressing up as something...because I obviously don't have a costume here!!

On Wednesday I had my first midterm for Conversation class and as usual I was kind of freaking out and nervous for it, but it ended up being nothing at all.  I think the whole entire test only added up to 10 points so I am really not too concerned.  On Wednesday morning, too, was my first fail at attempting to run at the track.  I arrived at the track at the same time that I do every single Wednesday, did my warm-up and while I was stretching about 5 different gym classes arrived to have their gym class on the track.  No room for Lil' Meg to do her workout :(

On Thursday, for my Art class, we went and visited San Martir which used to be a convent and now is a residence hall for la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha.  I want to ask my host Mom about the University here because it is not all located together, but rather, has different branches all around Toledo.  That is very interesting to me!

Want to know how I know that my host Mom and I were meant to be placed together?  She drank out of the big water jug we have in the fridge the other day!  I laughed (inside!) hysterically!  I do that all the time and my (real) Mom gets so upset!  I tell her that I just don't want to dirty a glass!!

Also, another curious thing about my host Mom is that she has books for everything!  She seriously has a mini library in her room!  When we took our trip to Granada in Andalucia she gave me an information book on Andalucia!  I have to do this project for my Art Class where I go walking around Toledo and look for torres (towers), and she has a book on torres that she shared with me!  When I got back from the bullfight on Sunday night she was showing me a book she has on bullfights and bullfighters!  She is awesome :)

Oh and in case any of you thought that they don't do daylight savings time here and that the time difference between here and the states would be 6 hours soon, WRONG :(  Turns out they do daylight savings time here as well!  One of my patients was telling me that their reasoning here for doing it is that it saves energy.  Interesting.

I learned in one of my classes that if you are ages 16-40 here you are considered YOUNG!  I think I will just have to move here when I get older though because I want to be considered young when I am 40 haha :)

The weather is finally starting to feel like fall!  I wore my fleece and winter scarf for the first time this week, and it felt so good!  The weather forecast even says that it will be getting down to the 50s next week and is predicting rain.  I'll believe the rain when I see it though!

I had a very traumatic experience last night after running at the track and while at the bus station waiting for the bus.  I was just waiting and my eye must have itched or something and as I go to itch it I move my contact off my eye.  My eye is burning so bad, I am basically crying, and am practically unable to open my eye.  I have been having issues yet again with my right eye and have stopped wearing my contact in that eye so with my contact off my left eye I am basically blind.  I am kind of freaking out because I am so blind without glasses/contacts that I cannot see the numbers on the bus so I am a little confused as to how I am going to know which bus to get on and to know when it is coming.  It was burning so bad that I decided to walk back to the track and use the bathroom to rinse it.  When I took my contact out in the bathroom I saw that it was completely ripped in half.  I, obviously, couldn't put my contact back in my eye so I begin to panic again because now I really can't see anything.  Rather than waiting for a bus that I can't really tell if it is the correct one I need, I decided to walk home.  I am a little nervous, mind you, because I have to cross 3 very busy streets.  Luckily, I made it home and have never been happier to see my house or to put on my glasses!  I know I complain about my eye a lot and how it is annoying that I cannot wear contacts in both eyes and how it is annoying that I always get infections, but, WOW I sure am glad I at least have two eyes that can see!  SO THANKFUL for that!!

Thank you all again for reading my blog :)  I hope it is allowing us to keep in touch, and I hope you enjoy reading up on all my adventures!  Until next time, ciao!

Mucho amor para todos de Toledo!

The entrance to one of the buildings of the University in Alcala de Henares

the gorgeous ceiling of one of the rooms

the theatre of Cervantes

cool looking gutters

the house/museum of Miguel de Cervantes...AND Elizabeth!

Plaza de Torros in Madrid

las chicas at the bullfight :)

hauling the dead bull away

the matador and the bull

statue outside of the Plaza

¡Me encanta Granada!

Hola!  I have been so busy this past week, it is crazy!  There is so much to fill everyone in on!

Although this is a painfully embarrassing story, it is one worth sharing.  Last week I went to the track and needed to get a longer recovery run in so I decided to run around the huge park where the track is located rather than running like 15 laps around the track.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea because there were so many people running and walking, it was nuts!  I was dodging people left and right in trying to avoid running into them or a bench and, in doing so, I neglected to dodge the brick wall that surrounds the park.  Fail.  I ended up with a huge gash in my arm and blooding gushing everywhere!  I came home and showed my host Mom, and she freaked out.  She was running around the house trying to find alcohol to clean it with and a big enough band-aid to cover it.  She was so upset with herself when she realized she didn't have any alcohol, but nonetheless she just used some other stuff that made the gash burn like crazy!  She took care of me like I was a little kid; it was so precious!!

Last Thursday I had a presentation/debate in my cultural heritage class, and as you all can expect, I was freaking out for it.  I spent the whole week preparing and then was up late on Wednesday night getting all my notes in order and the such.  It ended up going pretty well, but I am very glad that it's over!  (We only have to do it once the whole semester!)  I really am not a huge fan of presentations in English, much less in Spanish.  

This past weekend I went to Granada which is in the province of Andalucia, about 4 hours south of Toledo.  I was so excited for this trip because in telling all my patients at the hospital about my plans to take a trip to Granada I received the same excited reaction from them all.  They were all so happy for me that I was getting the opportunity to travel there.  

It all started on Friday morning, bright and early.  I woke up at 5am in order to take a shower and get ready because we needed to catch the 6:30am bus to Madrid at the Toledo bus station.  Since the buses in Toledo do not start running that early we (Elizabeth, Willie, Anny, Rachel, Laura and myself) had to walk to the bus station.  Since Willie lives in the same neighborhood I do we planned to meet at the Fundacion (my school) and then walk the approximately 20 minute walk together.  Well, to make a long story short, Willie's alarm clock malfunctioned and I was sitting at school waiting for him.  As 6am came and went I started to get a little nervous that maybe he wasn't going to show up and that possibly I should just walk to the bus station by myself.  I was nervous to do this, however, because I didn't have Willie's number to text/call him to tell him I was going to leave without him.  Regardless, I decided to just leave, and by this point, it was getting very close to 6:15.  Do the math!!  haha  I ended up running from my school to the bus station.  I felt like I was on Amazing Race because I had my backpack and my purse with me!  In arriving at the bus station I couldn't figure out where to enter the actual building.  I called my friends, Elizabeth and Anny, and they tried to talk me through it, but I just wasn't getting it.  The building that I originally thought was the bus station was pitch black and didn't even look like it was open which just confused me even more.  With that being said, I ended up running down the ramp that the buses usually use to come up from the bus station and onto the street.  I said a little prayer before doing this that a bus wouldn't be coming up because there really isn't room for a bus and a person!  Who knows why?  haha  I frantically got on the bus, and mind you, at this point I am sweating and stinky and gross and thinking that the shower I took an hour earlier was quite pointless.  The bus was full with a lot of angry looking Spaniards, but I don't know why because I arrived just in time!  We left at 6:31.  It took me the whole hour to Madrid to calm myself down.  I felt like I had ran a marathon already and it wasn't even 8am yet!  

After arriving in Madrid (and please keep in mind that Willie, the friend I supposed to go to the bus station with, did not make it to the bus station in Toledo and we are still without him) we needed to take the metro to get to the other bus station to get on the bus to Granada.  The metro was a success, but when arriving at the teller and telling her we wanted to buy a ticket for the 8am bus to Granada she said that that bus was already full and we would need to wait until 11:30.  Darn it!  We woke up early for nothing, and I ran to the bus station for nothing!  Since we had like 3 hours to kill we did some walking around Madrid and then sat in a cafe in the Madrid bus station (the bus station was like an airport, kind of).  At this point we finally got a hold of Willie and he arrived before 11:30 so he made the Granada bus.  

The bus ride was nice with amazing views of the mountains once we got closer to Granada.  After arriving in Granada and paying 1.20 euro for the local bus (so expensive compared to Toledo!) and with the help of some locals pointing us in the right direction we found our hostal.  It was so nice!  It was kind of like a loft and even had a patio with views of the ever-popular Alhambra.  There was two rooms to the hostal...one with 2 beds and the other with 4, complete with a bathroom with a practically see- through door...a little awkward I must say, with no "little" about it.  The people that worked there were very nice as well!  On Friday night we did some exploring around Granada and did some shopping in the Arab stores.  We were all in awe of the beauty that Granada had to offer.  I wish you all could just see it for yourselves because my descriptions and pictures DO NOT do it justice in the least bit.  We ate at Kabob King on Friday night for dinner, and it was basically just a giant gyro.  It was pretty good actually.  After dinner we decided to go to a restaurant that was very near our hostal for drinks and tapas.  We had heard that the tapas in Granada were the biggest of all the cities in Spain so we were very excited to try them!  Well, turns out we didn't really need dinner at all...all we had to do was get drinks and the tapas could be our dinner because they were huge!  And whenever someone orders another drink they get another tapa.  They were so yummy :)  We all came to the conclusion that they should have tapas in the states!  We sat and talked and laughed A LOT until pretty late evening/early morning!  We ended up meeting a couple who was from the United States as well and talked with them for a bit IN ENGLISH (yay!)  They were very interested in all of us, and it turns out the wife is a psychologist!  Small world.  

We woke up pretty early on Saturday morning because we wanted to fit a lot in before our 5:30 appointment to the Alhambra.  For breakfast Anny found this great cafe that served American breakfast so we went there, and it was delicious.  I got toast with jam (they have the best jam here!!) and then fried eggs.  We went and visited the cathedral, which is the 2nd biggest in Spain (thanks to my history major friend, Elizabeth!)  The cathedral is sooo beautiful!!  Laura and I had fun trying to read the old Spanish and making up stories about the history of the cathedral.  We think the big song book was for the whole congregation to read while they were sitting in the pews, but we're not really sure!  After the cathedral we did some more shopping and some people went into the chapel where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried.  Rachel and I waited outside for the others and tried to avoid the gypsies as much as possible.  Granada is known for lots and lots of gypsies in which try to rope you in to them reading your palm and then they expect you to pay them.  Some are very persistent and will even grab your hand and follow you.  One of my friends was telling me that a lot of the gypsies are sons and daughters of rich families that live in Northern Spain and the kids come down to Granada to be gypsies just to make their parents mad.  hahaha!  I had to get a laugh out of that!  After, we ate and then headed to Alhambra.  We were at the Alhambra for 5 hours!!  It is so big, it is craziness!  And I definitely had a bad shoe choice that morning as I chose to wear flip flops!  Yea, not a good idea in the least bit.  We walked through all of the Alhambra and took in all of the beautiful views!  Everyone should visit the Alhambra at least once in their lifetime, in my opinion.  It was kind of funny because the group got a little split up here because we all wanted to see different things, and at one point Willie and I ended up together.  Our appointment to enter the palacio was at 5:30 and around 5:20 Willie realized that we were wandering in the complete opposite direction of the palacio.  Soooo...I soon found myself running again.  I said that I had done way too much running with cargo while on this trip and that I wasn't a fan of it! ;)  After weaving in and out of people and tour groups we made it in plenty of time!  Whew!  Rachel and Laura were sitting on a bench waiting outside the palacio and saw two people running and asked themselves, "who are those people running?"  "Oh, hey, we know them!"  hahaha :)  We basically got kicked out of the Alhambra because they were closing and by this point we were all exhausted and starving!  We went back to the hostal and suddenly realized that we still needed to buy our return bus ticket from Granada to Madrid.  I was a little nervous about the fact that the bus(es) might be full because I was the only one that absolutely needed to be back on Monday morning.  So, Laura and I rode the bus back to the bus station and bought everyone's return tickets to make sure everyone had a spot.  Next time we will know to buy them the day we arrive at the bus station!  This must have all just slipped our minds because we were so excited to begin our adventures on the first day!  

For dinner Laura and I ate at this really great cafe very near our hostal.  I had a tuna sandwich and chips that were very good!  The workers were very nice to us as well; this is the first time we experienced the workers waiting on us (like they do in the states).  Usually you have to do all the work when you go to a restaurant and even need to ask for the bill when you are finished.  However, waiters and waitresses here do not get tips, so it kind of makes sense I guess.  

On Sunday we went back to the cafe we ate at for breakfast on Saturday and did a little more shopping in different Arab stores.  Everyone but Anny and Willie (they stayed to go paragliding) left in the early afternoon.  It was a very long day of traveling as I did not get back to my house until around 8pm.  And I still had my homework to do, boo.  The weekend was so worth it though :)  I HAD SO MUCH FUN!  I know I have not seen that much in Spain yet, but I would have to say that Granada is one of my favorites so far, and I would not mind living there at all!!!  The atmosphere was just so much different than Toledo or Madrid.  There were a lot more younger people there due to so many universities and students studying there.  And there was a Domino's so who wouldn't love Granada?!  Just a little taste of the states in Granada!  

On Monday, I went to the hospital as usual.  And it was a great experience, as it always is.  I talked with the same patients I have been.  One of my patients even gave me a little gift, a fan like all the women use here in Toledo because of the heat.  She was so excited to give it to me!  And it is from Sevilla so that is kind of cool because I probably won't make it there, which I am a little upset about.  I will have to make that a priority when I return to Spain :)

This past week, too, I met with Yuki, one of the nicest women you will ever meet who works at the fundacion, about teaching English to children.  I will be going to this family's house every Tuesday for an hour and a half and playing and talking with 2 kids all in English.  I am very excited for this opportunity!   

Yesterday, Elizabeth and I went and people watched in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento and then the Plaza de Zocodover.  People watching in Spain is so much fun...it is fun in the states but it is SO much better here, I don't know how to explain it!  We did that for probably 3 hours before our conversation class.  Good times!!  

This coming week classes will start to pick up a bit since the following week is our midterms and then our fall break already.  I know I ask this same question over and over, but seriously, where is the time going?  It needs to slow down!  For fall break I will be going to Barcelona, Spain for a few days and then traveling from Barcelona to Italy for the rest of break!  And I couldn't be more excited for it all! :)  It will be a nice break after midterms, that's for sure.  

Today for my art class we went and visited the cathedral in Toledo.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Again, my pictures do not do it justice.  In fact, taking pictures in Spain, just makes me angry because my camera sucks at capturing the beauty of everything.  You all will just have to come with me when I return to Spain one day so you can see for yourselves!!

It is kind of hard right now because with fall break quickly approaching a lot of people's friends and family are visiting!  Some families are even staying in the dorms of the fundacion for a few days before they get their hostals or hotels.  I am so very happy for all of them though!!

I think this is basically all for now.  Tomorrow I am going with others from the fundacion on an excursion!  Then, on Sunday I will be in attendance at the last bullfight of the season in Madrid!  I am very excited for this, but also a little nervous.

Mucho amor para todos!

P.S. In honor of me not being able to eat pretzels because they are not in abundance here, everyone should eat a pretzel for me!  Although this past weekend Elizabeth did spot a pretzel in some chex mix one of the restaurants had for a tapa and she nabbed me one!!  So, thank you Elizabeth :)  Oh and eat peanut butter because that does not exist here...sad day, I know :(

exploring the streets of Granada

one of the many Arab shops!

upon entering Alhambra

las chicas at Alhambra :)

gorgeous sunset

showing our guns!

Willie getting his name written in Arabic

the cathedral in Granada

a delicious American breakfast

one of our very large tapas!!

A Little Taste of Spanish Culture

It has been awhile since my last post, and I am very excited to fill you all in on my adventures!!  First and foremost, I think it is really interesting because immediately when I tell Spaniards what my name is they translate it to Maria.  And for many of them, including my host Mom, it is very hard for them to pronounce "Meg"so a lot of them just say "Megan."  This took awhile for me to get used to.  They like to shorten names here too.  In fact, no one really uses their full name.  It is the same as using "Meg" for "Megan" or "Bob" for "Robert."  Also, everyone asks what my LIVESTRONG band is for.  Since cycling is very popular in Europe they luckily understand pretty quickly as I have a difficult time explaining it in Spanish.  To my surprise, many people do not know Lance Armstrong too well over here.  It's not like he won the Tour de France 7 times or anything!  One of my patients at the hospital that I just started talking to this week goes to the Tour de France every year with his brother.  How cool is that?  I was telling him how jealous I was of that, and he just wasn't really getting it, because it is just so "everyday'' to him.

Last Thursday, as promised, my host Mom went with me to the track and introduced me to some of her runner friends!  They were both very nice to me and everyone else with the little running club was too!  Sometimes I get a laugh out of how blunt Spaniards can be!  Before our run we were all stretching and everyone was talking and I was just kind of standing there minding my own business and all of a sudden a younger guy walks up to our group.  He is part of the club as well, but him and I kind of stuck out like sore thumbs because we were so much younger than everyone in the group.  They proceed to ask him if he knows English (for me).  A lot of the younger people know English here because they begin taking English classes when they are 6 years old.  But, anyway, he says that he doesn't know any English and one of my Mom's friends turn to me and says, "Oh, dang it!  He is much cuter and much younger for you!"  haha I got a nice long run in with them--we ran for 56 minutes at a pretty good clip too!  Needless to say, I was very glad I brought my bus pass and could just take the bus back to my house rather than running back from the track.  Pretty sure at that point I didn't even want to be walking!  It was so nice to be able to run with other people though!!  They run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays so I think I will try to run with them at least once a week, and I can count that as my long run for the week.

Also last week, Laura and I went and did some shopping in the little stores in the heart of Toledo.  They were so cute, and I bought some great gifts at them.  I, also, had to buy a belt because I neglected to bring one :(  And I am sick of pulling up my pants every 10 minutes!  We also found this really great candy store that is just like Seroogy's!  It is AWESOME!  And we even got free samples when we walked in!  We got a cookie that was filled with something that kind of tasted like apple, and then we also got a chocolate covered almond!  Pretty sure I am going to have to do everything in my power to not return back to that store everyday that I am here!!  It is a little too near my house!

On Friday night a few of my friends and I went to Enebro's and got drinks and tapas!  There are two Enebro's in the Casco area of Toledo.  One is right outside my school and the other is near the library.  The one near the library is much nicer and has a flat screen TV outside!  However, the one by my school does have signs in English which I kind of get a kick out of.  They have signs of many American colleges and universities as well as signs having to do with sororities and fraternities.  It actually kind of reminds me of an Applebee's with a bunch of just random stuff hanging up on the walls.  But, it is all in English!  Friday night we went to both and got tapas at both!  The tapa that we received at the one near the library was absolutely huge...it was more like a dinner than a little appetizer!  It was 2 ham and cheese sliders with french fries!  Very American as well.  

On Saturday a bunch of us from my school woke up bright and early (and by "bright and early" I mean by 8am) and took a bus from Toledo to Olias del Rey which is a small town about 10 minutes from Toledo.  They were having their annual city fiesta or festival (which mind you, lasts for about 2 weeks, with something new going on everyday).  On Saturday they were having a bull run and what we thought was also going to be a bull fight at night, but it actually just turned out to be just the bull run.  There were three bulls that ran and obviously lots of brave people!  One of the guys from my school actually ended up running and said it was one of the best experiences of his life!!  (and probably one of the scariest too!)  It was very exciting to watch, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to see it at least once while I am here because it is such a big part of their culture.  After the run, everyone went into the plaza (the bull ring) and we watched people taunt the bulls and get them mad.  It was interesting and exhilarating to watch as people would taunt a bull and then it would come chasing after them and they would have to jump over a 6 foot fence to escape the danger!!  Some of our other friends saw someone break their ankle, and my host Mom said that someone was seriously injured because she saw it on the news.  In fact, right now there is a lot of controversy in Spain regarding this and the debate of whether or not it is ethically right to do what they do to the bulls.  My host Mom was telling me there have been a lot of riots and protests regarding this subject recently.  

Since the bull run was at 10am and after knowing there wasn't a bull fight at night, we were kind of undecided as to what we wanted to do for the rest of the day.  Of course we went and explored the town a little bit, but with it being so small that didn't take up much time.  Some of us went and explored the best place to eat and we ended up eating at a small bar.  I got a bocadillo (which is like a sub sandwich) with ham and cheese, but I remembered I don't like their ham here and just had a cheese bocadillo.  It was really good, but a little expensive.  For dessert, I had my first ice cream cone in Spain!  It wasn't gelato, but it was still soooo good!!  It was raspberry flavored with little raspberry seeds inside.    I had other people try it, and they ran and got some too.  So delicious :)  Other than that we just sat in the sun near this gorgeous water fountain they had, and when people got hot they ran through it!  We also met a lot of great locals!!  And some not so great locals that pushed me into the water fountain!  haha I am just kidding!  I didn't mind it at all since it was SO HOT!  Around 5pm four of us girls took the bus back to Toledo, while some other people stayed a little longer.  

On Sunday, Alyssa, Laura, Anny and I went to La Casa and El Museo del Greco because it is free admission on Sunday!  It was very interesting!!  A lot of state of the art and famous monuments/buildings here in Toledo are free on Sundays so I am thinking I will probably take advantage of that every week!  Then, on Sunday, too I had to do my homework and lots of it!  I have a presentation on Thursday for my cultural heritage class that I started to prepare for and, mind you, am still freaking out a little bit about!  Wish me luck :)

On Monday I had another day at the hospital!  This was probably the best and most fun I have had in all the days that I have been going!  I am really starting to open up, and it is becoming easier to converse with the patients in Spanish!  It was a little sad, though, because one of my patients was able to go back to her house last weekend.  Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that she got to leave the hospital because she was always so sad, but I was a little upset I didn't get to say goodbye or anything.  Or get a picture with her!  I didn't find out that she left until I went to her room and she wasn't in there so I just talked with her roommate who is a lot of fun also :)  She always seems happy to just be able to talk to someone.  I also learned a lot of Spanish bromas (jokes) from another patient.  He actually isn't one of my patients that I usually talk to, but many patients will just come up to me when I am talking in the hallway and join in on the conversation which I love!  I met a new patient this week that speaks really good English so I hate to admit we talked in English the whole time!  I still did learn a lot though, and it was actually kind of helpful to ask him some things in English about Spanish just for clarification.    I told him next time though we need to speak in Spanish!  Every week I am there it is such an eye opening experience.  That sounds so cliche but there really is no other way to describe it.  My professor who is in charge of this internship class told us that we would not be the same people at the beginning and at the end.  When he said this I just kind of pushed it out the window and thought, "yea right!  he probably just has to say that..."  But, honestly, even after 3 weeks of being there, I am not the same person that I was on day 1.  I can tell already that it is going to be very hard to say goodbye to them all!  

One thing here that is very interesting to me is all of the stray cats and dogs!  It is unbelievable.  There is a pregnant stray cat that is always roaming around by our school and a few of the girls have named her Mohita.  It is really sad to see them picking through the garbage at night.  

Another thing that is different is when my host Mom and I use cloth napkins she doesn't wash them after we use them.  I think we have been using them for over a week now and they still have yet to be washed.  It is just so weird to me because Spanish women are very very clean...they are just very conservative with their resources.  Like my host Mom takes the quickest showers ever!  Today she woke up at like 8:50 and was out the door by 9:15 and that is with showering, blow drying her hair and eating breakfast!  Now that is impressive!!

One of the things I miss most about back home is going to church with my family.  Although I really do want to go to mass here, I haven't yet.  It will be a little difficult to go on Sundays with traveling over the weekends, but I do know that they hold mass here everyday.  I want to ask my host Mom about this and see if she maybe would like to go with me too.  It is interesting here because Spanish people are very religious but very few practice religion or go to mass on Sundays.  This is another thing that surprised me a lot in coming here!

I tried a new fruit this week with my host Mom!  It is called Granada (different from the city.)  It is so good!  The next time we eat it I will have to take a picture of it because it really can't be compared to anything we have in the states, the look or the taste.  

Also, I have come to the realization that Spanish kids are the cutest things ever!  The other day, after my workout at the track, I was waiting at the bus stop and so was this Mom, her son and her daughter.  The boy was so cute and was playing the license plate game where the first and last number on the license plate have to be the same.  He was having so much fun and was so entertained by this it was crazy!!  It was kind of funny because on my run the other day I found myself playing this game by myself!  Kids here are very different from kids in the states.  It seems like they have more fun here!  They are always making their own fun and entertaining themselves rather than having to always watch the TV or play video games in order to be entertained.  

I am very excited, too, because I am going to be getting an intercambio!  I will meet with her probably once a week and she will help me practice my Spanish, and I will help her practice her English.  I have not met her yet, but the professor in charge of the intercambio program told me that she is my age so I am very excited :)    

Oh and I am going to be running in a 5k road race here in a few weeks!  It is on a Saturday night and is through the streets of Toledo!  I am so stoked for this!  I think my running buddy from my school is going to do it too as well as two other guys that work at my school.  I believe some of my Mom's friends are running it too!  They were telling me that this is the season for road races with one almost every weekend.  Right now, in fall, it is the perfect temperature here with it starting to cool off a bit...FINALLY!!  

My Mom sent me a package this past week and it was awesome!!  She sent me some American snacks and I have never been happier to eat almonds and trail mix!  Spaniards don't do much snacking, and it is even rather difficult to find them in markets here so I was very happy to receive some food from her :)  She also sent me a card with a great quote from Mark Twain, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  How awesome is that quote?  And definitely can be applied to the way everyone should live their life!! I am so thankful for the memories that I have already created, and cannot wait for the many more that I will create!  

This weekend I am going to Granada and could not be more excited for it!  Whenever I tell people that is where I am traveling this weekend they have the same reaction!  They tell me how lucky I am, how great of a place it is, and that I am going to love it!  Can't get much better than that.

This is all for now!  Can't wait to write next week about my adventures in Granada!  So proud to say I am from Wisconsin with a Badger win, a Packer win, AND a Brewer win!!

Much love from España :)

Flowers that looked like feather dusters! 

our ham and cheese sliders at Enebro's

sunrise on Saturday morning :)

a giant churro at the festival in Olias del Rey

a few of our local friends we met!

the bulls in the bull ring after the running

the giant fountain in the middle of Olias del Rey