enjoy these pictures!
the catedral in leon...
the doors to the entrance of the catedral in leon.
an example of the windows in the cathedral. imagine these covering the whole building. awesome.
the museo de arte contemporaneo in leon... soo cool!
mr. mark rowan, everybody... he likes to make fun of my non-functional buttons on my shirt. very nice of him.
random statue.
a pilgrim walking along the pilgrimage route! captured from a moving bus!
the one time it actually rained while we were in burgos.
the view from the castillo of the city of burgos.
just this nice walkway right next to our hotel..
k so my one of my favorite things about spain: the random statues that they have in random places without any explanation or plaque or anything... like that girl with the umbrella and this random merman (he's covered in barnacles if you can't tell). i am a big fan of these. i'm taking pictures with as many of them as i can.
this is what the burgos cathedral looks like at 6:45 am when the sun is rising, but you can't tell because there are too many clouds to see the sunrise.
just some doors in the cathedral...
a SECRET PASSAGEWAY we discovered in covarrubias! 
this was our last long, more-than-an-overnighter trip. we went to León, Frómista, Burgos, Covarrubias, and Santo Domingo de Silos... all in a three-day time period. León y Burgos were some of my favorite places we've been to so far. i guess it's hard for me to say that because i've loved everywhere we've been so far. but some of these sights were to die for.
Thursday: we took off in the morning and drove to León. the bus ride was fun: filled with sing alongs to high school musical and styx, and discussions about each of our individual lists of things to do before we die (i made one right then and there). when we got there, we went to visit the real basilica de san isidoro, to see the sarcophagi (sp?) of a lot of the past kings of león. there was some beautiful artwork there and a museum and a really old library filled with ancient books and manuscripts. the fresco on the ceiling of the tomb room was incredible--it was totally well-preserved and had a lot of scenes from the Bible and Jesus' life.
after that, we went to the cathedral there.. and i think that it has to be the highlight of my trip. it was the most beautiful building i have seen in my life. basically, some of the most incredible stained-glass windows i have ever seen covering all of the walls and illuminating everything. it was BEAUTIFUL, the kind that makes you gasp as you walk into the building. dad, i suggest León as a place for us to visit so we can come see this cathedral. because all of the cathedrals are impressive. they're HUGE! they're larger than life; you look at them or go inside them and think, "how on EARTH could people have built something this large/grandiose/ornate thousands of years ago without technology or anything?" but after a while they all start to run together. and it also gets annoying when they're as big and as confusing as hogwarts and there's no way you could walk around the whole thing without getting lost. this one was still huge, still inspiring, but a lot more reasonably sized and not overboard. all in all, i give the cathedral in León an A+.
we went to visit the museo de arte contemporaneo in león but it was closed. it was a really cool multicolored building though, and maybe if we come back here we can visit it, right, dad? after leaving león on friday, we headed to frómista and saw another small little church there. and then we headed to burgos and visited the monasterio there (about 7 of us got totally 100% lost on our way there but we eventually looked into the sky and realized you could see the monastery in the distance... another reason you should be aware of your surroundings). monks and nuns still live there! who knew that people still did that? i kind of didn't realize it. but there they were. and then after that, we went to the castillo de burgos, which sits on the top of the hill overlooking burgos, and gives you a beautiful view of the city. there were some awesome gardens there too, which we explored and walked through. the cathedral there really is an impressive sight as well (it definitely is one of those that falls into the category of the overly large and grandiose cathedrals. i mean, it's absolutely stunning how large it is, but once you get inside, it's just too big!). we hiked back up there on saturday morning to try and watch the sunrise, but here's some advice: check the weather forecast before you do something like that. it was too cloudy for us to see anything. ugh. but the best thing was on friday night: a huge rock concert smack dab up next to the cathedral. hahaha... what a venue!
saturday, we went to covarrubias, this tiny little town with another little church (population 630ish) and then to santo domingo de silos, an even tinier little town with an even tinier little church (population 311, according to the lonely planet book). we got to watch the monks do their gregorian chant in santo domingo de silos, though. don't worry, they produced an album in the 1990's that reached the top of the pop charts in the UK. impressive, right?
okay, well, i'll add some pictures after this. it was a great trip. we were exhausted but it was really fun at the same time.. i'm so happy to be experiencing all of this!
dear family and friends,
the last few days have been great days, although not totally exciting or eventful. here is a swift summary of events to keep you updated on my life!
tuesday:
-classes. no comment. i'm kind of avoiding thinking about that.
-gelato after school. (duhhhhh)
-dane, kristine, jessica and i visited a grocery store, and had the most hilarious 5-minute excursion there. we walked in the wrong door, like where trucks are supposed to be loading stuff, and they yelled at us, but then we just pretended that we couldn't speak spanish and just walked really fast past them. then once we were in there, more ladies yelled at us to put our backpacks in these locker things, but we again pretended that we didn't speak spanish and put them instead into these little rolly carts they have and pulled them along with us. they looked absolutely disgusted with us and we went around a corner and started laughing so hard i almost started crying. it was incredible. they seriously looked at us like we were this sub-human species but it was hilarious.. you probably had to be there. no worries.
-it was our friend mark's birthday, so we went into madrid and ate dinner there at this restaurant, and then came home and had cake and ice cream in someone's apartment. mark had people sing happy birthday to him in 6 languages: english, spanish, french, sign language, arabic, and portugese (that was me). i tried to start a dance party and miserably failed. everyone just looked at me like i was an alien. it was really cool. i missed mlk and cookies and g is for classes. i can't wait to have dance parties at the club again.
wednesday:
-classes. no comment.
-played soccer in the park. i fell and skinned my knee and was really hardcore... it was fun.
-we watched john q. at someone's house... and i bawled my eyes out. it was actually kind of embarrassing how much i cried. if you haven't seen that movie, you should, but it's really really sad. just FYI.
and now i'm here writing this to you.
oh yeah, the biggest thing: i booked a flight to portugal yesterday! we have a free weekend (next weekend) (or maybe 2 weekends from now i can't remember) and so a group of us are going to travel to portugal for a day and halfish to visit. lisbon. cool, huh??? i'm pretty excited. i get to visit another country! woop!
words of the day:
panderetas = bagpipes
neoyorquino/a = New Yorker (that's for you sar)
ruiseñor = nightingale
so, one of the things that people warned me about before coming to spain was the LISP that people in spain here have. i was told by multiple spanish speaking friends that if i came home saying "grathias" and "platha" that nobody would ever talk to me again, and i told them that there was of course no way that i would willingly adopt a lisp. i mean, who wants to get a speech impediment? of course, i come to spain, and people speak with a lisp like everyone said, and turns out it's not annoying at all. it's actually kind of enjoyable, and entertaining. i kind of like it. and you feel stupid saying "gracias" back to the store clerk who says "grathias" so you adopt it there, and it starts to spread throughout most of your conversation. it's slightly difficult to differentiate between the c's and z's and the s's (because the lisp is only used on c's and z's, not on s's... so that's why you say "grathias" and "platha de espana"), but that's all just part of the game. so parents, if i come home with a lisp... will you still accept me as your child? will everyone else still talk to me? i don't think that the theta will spread to my english, but who knows. what if it's permanent?
okay, but on another note, we made the BEST discovery today: the alcala de henares equivalent of the O.C. swap meet. it was pretty much incredible... i bought a sweet umbrella (which clearly i needed) for 5 euros, a ring for 1 euro, some burned CDs, and the best purchase of the day: a huge box of strawberries for only 2 euros. i should have taken a picture of it. i didn't get any pictures today, but we're planning on going back every monday becuase it's only on monday's. it was INCREDIBLE though... we ate all of them before we finished shopping. it was the day of strawberries. other good things that are fresh here: the tomatoes (tomatos? what on earth is the correct spelling of that word? i really don't think i've ever known...). absolutely amazing.
word of the day: velas = candles
enjoy these fotos. there are many. this set of fotos goes with the previous really long blog post, that if you haven't seen, you probably don't have to read because it's really extensively long.
the architecture of la mezquita was incredible... there were hundreds of these doubled arched looking hallways throughout it.. there are over 1000 columns. it looks like a forest of columns.
an ancient roman bridge across the street from the mezquita. no big deal.
la torre de oro in sevilla. aubri is from grandma and grandpa's del mar ward... her last name is darton. do you guys know her family, mom?
the vista from the top of the torre de oro... this is the giant catedral in sevilla. how absolutely ridiculously large is that?
the remains of christopher columbus. jealous?
some absolutely sweet spanish graffiti. it's seriously EVERYWHERE and it's SO COOL... i want to do some while i'm here. don't worry, i probably won't, i'm guessing.
i don't actually get this.. i think it's equal to saying "look out!"
the view from la alhambra of granada. i want to run on rooftops here.
visiting the beautiful gardens in granada. this is jessica, my freshman friend who reminds me of sarah e.f. don't worry, we both had changed into our pajama shirts becuase everything else was wet. but then it started raining again and those got wet, too. dang it.
just a nice view of the gardens... alex is all into the model posing.
and to end on a note of comic relief...
