We have finally arrived!

It has been a few days since my last post so I figured I should update ya’ll on what I have been up to. Shortly after my last post, my roommate, Brittany, arrived. It was so nice to finally meet her and I’m so glad that we get along so well. I can tell that we are going to have a lot of fun this semester.

On Thursday, we went to the Prado and the Reina Sofia museums in Madrid. At both museums we had a guided tour with a man named Carlos. I did the whole tour in Spanish and I was surprised how much I understood. At the Prado we saw works by El Greco, Goya and Velazquez. Las Meninas by Velazquez was my favorite. It was interesting to hear how each artist influenced the art of the time. For example, Velazquez was one of the first Spanish artists to paint lower class portraits and to include himself in his paintings. Another very interesting part of the museum was Goya’s dark paintings, I think that was what they were called. Goya painted these paintings for his own personal enjoyment. Because Goya was very tormented mentally, the paintings were disturbing.

At the Reina Sofia, we saw work by Dalí, Picasso, and Miró. Me encanta Dalí. One of his paintings is called The Invisible Man and it represents his older brother, who was named Salvador Dalí también. When his older brother died, his dad, who was also named Salvador Dalí, wanted to have another child, which was the famous Salvador Dalí. Dalí always felt like he had a second identity and that he was supposed to be someone else, hence, the painting. We also saw Picasso´s Guernica, which is another awesome painting.

We finished the day by going out to dinner, drinking sangria and skyping our friends and families.

On Friday, we woke up early to visit the Valle de los Caidos. This is the place where Franco is buried. It is also a memorial for all the people who died fighting in the Spanish civil war. The view from the memorial was beautiful, however, the memorial itself is rather controversial because many people died building the memorial. In order to build it, after winning the war, Franco used Spanish prisoners to build his tomb and the memorial. Franco said these prisoners would not have to serve as much time in jail if they helped, but most of the prisoners ended up drying trying to build that memorial.

After that, we traveled to El Escorial. El Escorial is a castle, monastery, burial ground, and school. On our tour around, we went inside the tomb where all the kings and queens of Spain are buried. The room was constructed 40 meters below the group and was made of Spanish marble. It was such an awesome feeling to be standing in a room filled with so much history. Also there was a room in El Escorial called the secret room. And in this room you can stand in one corner and wisper something while facing the corner and another person can hear your secret in the other corner. It was crazy.

After we finished our tour, we headed to Toledo. We had a beautiful view of the whole city from our hotel. It was amazing.

For dinner we went into the city of Toledo and had pealla, a spanish dish with rice, vegies, and otras cosas, usually meat or seafood. We tried one with chicken and rabbit. Yes, I tried rabbit. It was interesting. A little tougher than chicken but pretty good. After dinner, we searched for a bar to get a few drinks. Being in a large group of Americans, we found an Irish bar and drank there. The bartender played very "American" music such as Tom Petty, the Beatles, and even Avril Lavine. It was quite entertaining. The bartender also had a very strong Irish accent.

When we asked him for directions to a discoteca loacted in a church, he told us, "not to take the second right, but the terd right. Ha ha.

Now, I am in Barcelona. We arrived yesterday (Sunday). Brittany and I have a señora named Doloras and a hermanita named Laura. They are very nice. They are so animated and love to talk. Their apartment is very nice too. There is a large living room, a terrace, kitchen, two bathrooms and three bedrooms. Brittany and I share a bedroom and a bathroom. So far there hasn't been too many communication problems, except when my señora told me to get out of the elevator and I go in. Está bien. They laughed.

Tomorrow we start school. Wish me luck! Hopefully I won´t get lost :/