The Past Few Weeks

Avila

Wow it's been awhile. Time is flying by - a little over a month left! We had our final Prado visit last Friday. Our art teacher came with us each time and taught a lesson about either Velazquez, Goya, or some other artist as we looked at different paintings. The Prado is huge. After going 5 different times, I still have not seen a good majority of the paintings there.

A few weeks ago, we took a tour of the Spanish Congress. In 1981, there was an attempted coup d'etat and members of the Congress were held hostage there. We could see bullet holes in the walls that they keep there as a reminder.

Two weekends ago, I took a day trip by myself to Avila where Saint Teresa of Avila is from. It is about a 1.5 hour train ride from Madrid. It is a medieval city with a huge 12th century wall surrounding it. They had a small museum with some of Saint Teresa's belongings like her rosary and a crucifix she carried. Oh - and her ring finger. There wasn't much else to see there but it was a neat little town.

Last weekend, our group traveled to Toledo which is about an hour south of Madrid. It was one of my favorite trips we have taken. We saw lots of churches and buildings. They are famous for having some of the best mazapán (marzipan) in Spain and the world. They sold it everywhere and it was so good!

Our school also took us to see an authentic flamenco performance. That was really neat. We also went to see a play for our theatre class last week. It was called "El perro del hortelano." I couldn't understand all of it, but it was still entertaining.

The Spanish elections were on Sunday. Instead of just having two main political parties like in the U.S., they have several different parties. This year, the conservative Popular Party won with President Mariano Rajoy. My Señora freaked out a little. She basically said that all of Spain would change for the worst and that everyone was being ignorant. She has extremely strong opinions over almost everything and especially politics, but I suppose I have learned a lot from her!