This week we found stroopwafels at the local market for €1.50 a sleeve and I'm not sure anything else really needs to be said.
Jk. This week I started my Spanish class! I think it's going to be really good to learn how to speak not just more fluently, but more accurately. Sometimes I feel like I can communicate pretty well, but I know my conjugations are way off a lot of the time and people are just being nice when they say, "Hablas muy bien!" So, this class is a really good opportunity.
Plus, I get to take the class with my new amiga/name twin Sydney, who is here with her husband who's doing an exchange program through BYU. We met Sydney and McKay at the temple a couple of weeks ago and they've become our adventure buddies/churro-and-chocolate pals/soon-to-be housemates.
Only the most flattering of pics of Syd and me. This is in El Escorial, the little mountain town north of Madrid that we visited on Friday. Peep the new kicks--I had to get some better shoes to walk around in because my feet have been suffering and I found these on the "shoe road" in Madrid (literally an entire road lined with dozens of stores that only sell shoes). If you'd told me to buy a pair of Sketchers to wear in Europe I would've shot you down so fast but...here I am. Rockin' a type of shoe I probs haven't owned since like fourth grade and I LOVE THEM. Sketchers for the win.
Anyway, yes, El Escorial! What a beautiful little place! The palace/monastery was commissioned by King Philip II in the late 1500s as a "summer home" and a burial place for members of the royal family. We took a little day trip from Madrid to walk through and it was so nice to get out of the city and into the mountains.
It was a little dark and chilly, and even colder inside the palace, but it was so nice to be breathing the fresh mountain air. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures inside the palace, but here are some highlights brought to you by Google:
Here's an overview of the entire palace/monastery.
The Royal Library was incredible! There are over 40,000 books from each of the Seven Disciplines organized according to the paintings on the ceiling in this place. There were also several globes on display including this one in the foreground of the photo. Apparently, Phillip II collected them and loved learning about the cosmos. Of course, these globes are built according to the belief that all the planets rotate around the Earth...not exactly the "latest in scientific innovation."
Okay, kind of creepy, but you're looking at only a few of the many, many, MANY graves of members of the royal family lining the lower rooms in the palace. I couldn't believe how many intricately carved marble tombs we saw. Apparently, all the Hapsburgs are buried here, who were the ruling family in Spain for hundreds of years.
And here are the graves of the kings and queens of Spain since the time the palace was built. So so over-the-top!
Hayden actually did snag this picture of the Hall of Battles (quite literally a hall). The whole room is filled with depictions of different wars in Spain. There has been SO MUCH WAR on this peninsula! People have been fighting over this place for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Cool place. Cool mountains. It will probably be even cooler in the springtime, just like everything else on this continent. I'm just so ready to see some blossoms and leaves and put away our winter clothes! (I guess we can't really complain...sorry Provo friends;).
Well, that's about all I've got for today. This weekend we had stake conference and got to hear from the temple president and mission president and their wives along with the stake and area presidencies. It was so mentally exhausting for me to pay attention enough to really understand the talks given. The good news is, I understood almost everything that was said over the pulpit! The bad news? Only one of the speakers was a native Spaniard. Everyone else was either Latin American or spoke Spanish as a second language soooo I've still got a ways to go before I really understand the Spanish accent (although, if you ask anyone from around here, Spain Spanish is really the only pure Spanish out there).
Next weekend I'll be in London helping out with a research project that a group of students and faculty from the BYU School of Communications are conducting. Stay tuned for next week to hear all about my adventures across the pond!
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