Pictures!

 At the Opera

 The Perfect American Opera

 Orchestra Pit

 Bridge to Toledo

 Toledo!

 Toledo with Taylor Rawson

 Selfie

 Toledo Cathedral

 Ceramic Store-so cool!

1/27/13

Yesterday we went into Madrid to help with English classes at the church building again. I loved it! I think helping with that class has been one of my favorite things that I have done while being here in Madrid. The missionaries in charge of it are awesome, and the people that come to the class are all so nice and friendly and I just love being there with them and helping them practice their English. I wish I could do it everyday! Haha but seriously. After that we stayed and talked with the people for a while, and then Taylor and I came back up to Alcala for lunch with Blanca. Then we went back to Madrid and met with some other people in our group and we finished the Literary Walk for our Madrid Walks class so that was good. I really like being able to see new and different parts of Madrid. After that Taylor and I went and walked around the Serrano area of Madrid. It is like the 5^th Avenue of Madrid, so we felt very classy looking in all the windows among the fancy people out on the town all dressed up in their furs and high heels. It was a fun area! There was a park across the street we walked around with a ton of teenagers skateboarding and on bikes, so that was kinda fun to see. Then we threw a coin in a random fountain and made a wish! I don’t think people do in that particular fountain but we did and it was fun:] That night Blanca treated us to Jamón Serrano, which is a special dish in Spain, I think it is just dried or cured ham and we had it on a Bocadillo which is like a sub sandwich basically. I thought it was good! She put some tomato and olive oil on it…she puts olive oil literally on everything…and it was good!

Today we had church again, so we caught the bus this morning. There are some kids from BYU that are doing an internship in Portugal but are here for a few days, so that was fun talking in English to some people haha. Another fun thing from church was our Sunday school teacher was wearing a Slytherin tie! After class I told him how I liked his tie, and he told me how he liked it because it is a little bad haha it was so funny. Then in Sacrament meeting we heard from an American missionary, and the Mission President and his wife so I was able to understand basically every word during the talks! Haha but my favorite part was during the Sacrament and a boy in the ward, he is actually my religion professor’s son, and he is autistic and he was able to pass the Sacrament with the help of another boy in the ward to push his wheelchair. It was so cool to see. The Spirit was just radiating off of the boy as he was passing the Sacrament and smiling and everyone; it was a really cool experience for me. It reminded me how much Heavenly Father loves everyone and it was a good reminder for me to always remember to see others as He sees them. 

1/24/13

Today we had Spanish class again, and I understood what we were learning a little bit better so that was a plus. Taylor and I went to the park again for a run, and I realized that she runs and I jog in slow motion… haha it’s fine. After lunch Taylor and I met a girl from our group, Liz, at the train station and we went into Madrid. We went to the Theatre/Opera House to see if there were any tickets left for the Opera tonight. And after a confusing conversation in Spanglish we got the last 3 tickets! Four hours before productions they sell discounted tickets to young people (those under 30 ha) and we got our tickets 90% off!! So I paid 5 Euros to see an Opera in the Opera House of Madrid! Then we had a few hours to spare so we walked around for a little bit then grabbed some dinner in a café right by the theatre. After that we decided to get something sweet and kept it classy by getting some ice cream from McDonalds before going to the Opera. I liked the opera! It was in English! And it was about Walt Disney! It made me think of Scooter and her love for Disney:] It was called “The Perfect American.” It was way good I liked it. I was actually able to understand what they were saying which was cool, and it was interesting too. It was about the life of Walt Disney and it was way good! Pretty deep for Disney too. I really liked it a lot! I was in a little balcony box thing to the side with a way nice guy named Louis and it was just us two in there, the other two people never came. So he let me sit up by him so I could see better and that was way nice of him. We talked about operas and the United States and Obama ha and Madrid and Spanish and he is from Toledo and that’s where we are going tomorrow so that was cool! It was fun. It was kind of a bummer Taylor, Liz and I weren’t by each other, but for 5 Euros we had zero complaints. But yaa I totally loved it and had a lot of fun! I may have to go see some other shows if they have tickets for 90% the day of!

1/25/13

Today we went into Toledo. It was about an hour and a half bus ride so that wasn’t bad at all. Before we went into the city we stopped at a spot where we could get a great picture with the city in the background. It was beautiful, with all the buildings on the hill and everything. Then we drove into the city and the tour guide gave us some information about how Toledo used to be the capital of Spain and has been around for many years. We then were dropped off and took some escaladers up the hill to the city part. That was way cool! Who knew there were escalators for that type of thing? After that we went and saw the Cathedral of Toledo. It was so big and beautiful. It was freezing inside though, with all the stone and everything. It had many chapels inside, and I thought the Choir was way cool. There was a big pipe organ above and 166 seats in the choir! Everything was so ornate and detailed it was beautiful. We then were able to see some famous paintings, some by the famous Spanish artist Greco especially. After that we went into another church that was really pretty light yellow inside with white trim I liked it a lot. There also had a great work by Greco, which he made especially for that church. Lastly, our tour guide took us to an old Synagogue that is now a museum and we were able to see the Jewish decorations that were interesting too. Then we had lunch in a nearby park and were able to walk around the shops, and there were tons. Lots of sword shops especially because Toledo is famous for their swords and metalwork because the composition of the silt and water is perfect for sword making or something like that. So the swords from The Lord of the Rings were actually made there! So that was pretty cool. There were a lot of LOTR replica swords and stuff, our director’s son got Froto’s sword ha. When we got back to Alcala we hung out at the Knapp’s house for a while. I love our group everyone is so cool I really like them!

1/23/13

Today we had another hard day of Spanish classes. I really hope I start to understand these tenses and stuff more that would be awesome ha. After class Taylor and I attempted to get our homework done but got distracted by the Spanish One Direction band called Auryn haha. Then we came back and I was able to FaceTime with Mom and Dad so that was fun! Melissa and Sarah’s host mom was nice enough to let me come in and use her Wifi because mine doesn’t work in my apartment with my computer or phone. So that’s kind of inconvenient but it’s ok:] Then I talked with Lousia, the host mom, she is so sweet I like her a lot. After that we had a big lunch and then met with some of the other students to go into Madrid. We had another walk that we started our walk and then came to the Hotel Victoria and saw all of these people outside of the hotel and we were talking to them and apparently Taylor Swift was inside! So we first of all freaked out because it was Taylor Swift! And we were talking to the girls there and they were all super nice. Then we started singing and going crazy and everyone was joining it and taking videos of us haha it was so fun. We definitely brought the American to the party. We helped keep up the obnoxious stereotype that goes along with Americans. At one point one of the manager people gave us all a Taylor Swift guitar pic so that was exciting! We ended up staying for like an hour and a half! Haha it was so fun though, it didn’t even matter we were freezing and it was raining. When we saw two heavily tinted vans leave the parking lot we decided she left and we should probably go because we had dinner soon too. So on the way back we stopped and got hot chocolate. Blanca made us pasta with tuna which was delicious, and had some fresh soft cheese to go with it to, I’m not sure what kind but it was way good! Taylor and I came to the conclusion that we are going to miss all of the olive oil and salt that Blanca uses in all of her cooking.

1/22/13

Long day of classes today. And it was rainy! But still not as cold as it is at home so I have no complaints. Today in our Madrid class we talked about our trip to Toledo this week and I am really excited for that! After class Taylor and I looked in some shops on the way home and that’s always fun, and then we had our big lunch with Blanca and Jann, the Australian lady that is also living with us. We had paella again! So good. Then Taylor and I went with a girl in our group Liz, and we went down to the Opera house to ask about an upcoming show called The Perfect American, which is about Walt Disney that we want to see. We found out that if we come four hours early the day of the show we can get a discount so we are going to try that on Thursday! After that we walked around the shops in Madrid, which was kinda fun. Then we made it back home and were way tired from the day. And our heads hurt from trying to figure out our Spanish homework that is so hard. Blanca agrees that the subjunctive tense is horrible haha So that made me feel better that she said she doesn’t understand that stuff at all and she is Spanish and speaks Spanish all the time haha