This past weekend we had a lot of fun before classes started. On Saturday morning we went to Toledo's mall, which was about a 10 minute bus ride outside of the old city walls. It was very modern, with a lot of different stores, much like the US. I bought a pair of jeans for 10 euro - there were a lot of sales. We also went to a Wal-Mart type store inside the mall so I could buy school supplies, hangers, and a hair dryer. The store was very large and confusing, everything is so different! After the mall, we came back to the fundación for lunch and got settled in. I downloaded Skype and was able to talk to mom, dad, and Sarah over my webcam. Saturday was pretty relaxing, then we had dinner at 8:30 (which is dinner time everyday) and then got ready to go out. A guy that was in this program 3 years ago is staying at the fundación (they rent the spare rooms out like a hostel) and told us about all the good places to eat/dance. La Boveda is a small restaurant that makes very good sangria - a group of 6 of us went there around 11:30 and had a couple pitchers. The bartender also brought us over a free "appetizer" that consisted of potato chips on a plate with sugary gumdrops on top...a little weird even for España. After the sangria, my friend wanted to go to O'Brien's for Irish Car Bombs. We met a lot of other students there, both from la fundación and La Universidad Castilla la Mancha, which is another university in Toledo antigua. Then our big group of American students tried to decide which discoteca to go to. We ended up going to more of a fancy one, but no one knows what it was called - they played a lot of techno music and we stayed there until around 4. A group of us then walked around Toledo which, on Saturday nights, is very lively. There were people walking all over the streets and all the clubs were full. We walked past El Circulo de Arte (the club we went to on Thursday night) and there was a line of around 30-40 people waiting to get inside - and this was at around 4:30 or 5am. The nightlife is crazy. Needless to say, my roommate and I slept very late on Sunday.
The weather on Sunday was beautiful, it was sunny and mid-50's. Mel and I missed lunch so we decided to walk around and find somewhere to eat. I don't know why there are so many Irish bars here, but we found another one called La Rincon and stopped to share a pizza. The weather was so nice that we walked until just before dark. After dinner, we went with a group of students from la fundación to O'Brien's again because they were showing the cardinals-eagles playoff game. We watched until around 11:30, then came back to get ready for classes which started today. My schedule right now is really nice, I have grammar on Monday mornings, then literature and Spanish conversation at night. Tuesdays I have politics and society in Latinoamerica once before lunch and once after, Wednesdays I have grammar again, then Spanish culture, literature, culture again, and finally conversation. No classes on Thursdays or Fridays! Its going to be a lot of work but I think the classes will work out nicely.
There are 4 day trips to Spanish cities that we will take with the fundación, they are to Madrid (this Friday), El Escorial, Cuenca, and Segovia. My friends and I are planning to stay in Madrid for the weekend so we can experience the famous nightlife as well as see the sights. The fundación also offers an optional weekend trip to Andalucía which my friends and I plan on going on. We have started to plan out our weekend trips - so far we will be going to Barcelona, Bilbao, Dublin, Lisboa, and maybe Salamanca and Valencia. For Semana Santa (Easter) we have a 10-day break; we want to go to the Canary Islands and Morocco, then to Sevilla for Semana Santa. But we have to wait for all our class schedules so there aren't any conflicts with our plans.
Today I am going to try to go for a run around the city - hopefully I can find a nice paved path as to avoid another sprained ankle. I also need to buy my books for the semester, and write a one-page composicion for my grammar class. We had a relaxing weekend but its getting busy very fast!
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