So, Iīm in Toledo now which all of you know is in Castilla-La Mancha...you know, the homeland of Cervantes and Mr. Quijote. I love all the statues and souveniers around town of El Quijote, if I was going home tomorrow Iīd buy some. Anyway, Toledo is the medieval town of Spain. It is home to a great big church (it is considered the capital of Catholic Spain) which I havenīt been in yet as it is only open to the public after 2pm. But, I have been to some synogogues...yes, there are synogogues here, after all, Spain is where the sefardic jews came from. One of the synogogues was tiny and empty, just a shell of what used to be there (all the synogogues after the reconquista were converted into catholic churches, hospitals, etc). The other one is now a sefardic museum with artifacts from the history of the jews in spain..which dates back pretty far. the Alcazar is also here...but it is closed because they are adding an Army Museum to it to remember the civil war and the dictatorship of Franco. A little contravercial do to the fact that that whole period in Spanish history is a bit emotional for the folks here. There are all sorts of remenants of old walls (the Moores were here too as were the visigoths) and castles and some knights still walking around...ok, no. But you can buy armour and swords all over the place. So thatīs Toledo, a cute little town with roads so narrow that cars canīt get through them, the stone houses seem to grow out of the stone roads, there is a river that circles a large part of the city, lots of picturesque vistas to enjoy the lively landscape of old mountains and valleys. A few trees too. I got up this morning at about 9am and walked around...alone, the only person in the street for about an hour and a half. I enjoyed the silence and being able to look at everything without the hub bub of people..although it was a little annoying that I couldnīt get a cup of coffee until 11am because everything was closed. Spain sure does know how to sleep.
So, my summer classes have ended. I got good grades (surprisingly). Iīve said goodbye to my homestay after we finally began to warm up to each other and talk (it was the three year oldīs birthday on saturday when I left). I said goodbye to the other guys in my group after I began to warm up and flirt with them. It was a good time in Salamanca even if I did complain about the weather and the browness of it. It is a good city once the temp drops to livable levels. I took a trip the other weekend to Segovia where there is another Alcazar (fortress, castle type thing) which the castle in Cinderella is based on. Neat-O. Then went to La Granja, which was just a few minutes away, and was the summer house of Filipe V and Isabelle the Catholic. It is a miniature version of Versaille and really nice inside. Artwork wall to wall. Some by Isabelle as she hired some Italian dude to teach her to paint (not too bad either)...itīs good to be the queen. The last week in Salamanca I spent studying for my finals. Did a presentation on a book I had read. Learned that my lit prof. writes poetry...pretty depressing poetry at that. Partied until 10am my last night of partying...Now Iīm on vacation. Gonna head to the beach tomorrow in Valencia (there is warning about the amount of jellyfish in the water right now). Sit on the beach, read, try to quit smoking (maybe I shouldnīt write that here because then Iīll have to follow up with whether I did or not), and head to the Tomatino in Buņol right before I go down to Seville on Sept 1 to start my next program. The plan is to take a phonetics class, semantics class, and a syntax class, and maybe a class on how to teach english to foreigners as it would help me with my intercambios and I could actually teach them something other than crude expressions. well folks...lots a love to ya. donīt be shy about sending me emails because I like it yaīknow. Makes me feel like Iīm actually writing to other people rather than just to myself (I do have my own journal you know).
Later...
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