Hola Todas....

Just a short little note to tell everyone that I am in Spain for the fall semester. Once I am settled in Almeria I will try to update my blog with stories of class, my day, thesis research and any other information that seems interesting. I arrived on Wed and stayed in Madrid for two nights. Although I am heading to Almeria, I was put with the Salamanca group and thus have been forced into hanging out with a group of people that I will only know for a limited amount of time. And one thing that I dislike is touring around tourist sights with a bunch of english speaking people. The toures have generally been great but the sur amount of people in the groups makes me uncomfertable.
The day of arrival I just made myself stay up until about 10pm before passing out from pure jet lag...
Thursday we visited the Prado and the Royal Palace. Because of stupied people who can not turn off there flashes on there cameras both places have stopped allowing pictures. THis seems a bit extreme and thus I took the oppurtuniuty to take pictures regardlss....although I had to senak them in and caugh when my shutter closed and opened. Although the Prado was beutifal, the tour was limited in not only what they were showing us but in the amount of time given to interrpurt the paintings to get a better understanding of the paintings. Vasquez, Goya and Ribiera were basically the only painting we saw....my favorite are Goyas darker paintings. Mosy of my op undercover pictures did not turn out to well but a few made it into the photo album.
After the Prado we walked towards the Royal Palace with an hour break for lunch inbetween. I made the mistake of ordering tripe marinated soup............which I did the last time here except this trip I am even less of a meat eater. Thus I dipped my bread in it a few times left and went and got an apple and water from a chinese run grocery store. The royal palace was not that impressive besides a few rooms and again I attempted to take a few pictures inside.....all of which did not turn out. Once that was over with I walked back to the hotel by myself with a short stop for internet, tapaps and beer.....in that order.
Thursday night I watched the Real Madrid soccer game (they won 2-0), had a beer, then went back to the room and drank some beer with my temp room mate until 2am before crashing out.
Friday (Today) we headed to "The Valley of the Fallen". This is a park that was built by Franco to be a memorial for the soilders under Franco that dies in the 1930s Civil War against the republic sipporters. The inglesia that is built into the mountain and the cross that sits apon the ssame moutain are huge massses of rock that seem unlikely built by human hand. However, Franco had plenty of prisoners at his disposal and they would work 24/7 (to death) to complete this place. Franco is burried there as well. There was a church ceremony going on when we got there and I def got the opes dei felling from the place???? Amassing yes, but the stroy behind it makes it that less important for me!!!!
After that we visited the old winter palace of the royal family in San Lorenzo. Beutifal, no pictures and one of the best guides I have ever had. He was a maestro and used Spanglish to make the tour that more fun and interesting.
Now im in Toledo. I went into town with a group of the Salamanca students but like I said....me and groups do not do to well!!! Like I said I will be glad to be in ALmeria.
PEACE LOVE NO MORE WAR
TY