Excursions Excursions Excursions

Hola a todos! Spain continues to amaze me. Everyday I can't believe that I am actually here. My CIDE program here has brought me on some incredible excursions. A few weekends ago we were able to go to Madrid and Toledo.

Everyone in my program jumping in front of the Royal Palace. This was probably my favorite part of our time in Madrid because the inside of the palace is beautiful. 

Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

Museo Nacional del Prado.

We were in Madrid for a day and a half and went on a few tours (one for every picture above). It was a cool city, but much different than I expected. Personally, I like Toledo more. All I wanted to do in Toledo was take a million pictures... SO PRETTY.

Right when we got to Toledo our bus stopped in front of this view and let us take photos for awhile. This is exactly what I pictured Spain to look like before I came. 

We stopped and watched this man make a bunch of swords.

On the floor above there was a store where you could buy his swords and also they sold a lot of jewelry too. Clearly I didn't buy the sword. Someone had to show me how to hold it.... haha

We were given two hours of free time to roam around. My friends and I took a bunch of pictures and stopped in a few shops.

Then we got a tour of the Toledo Cathedral. It is GIGANTIC. I don't have any idea which part of the church they would even use for Mass. HUGE.

Toledo Cathedral.

Toledo Cathedral.

Two weeks later, my program went to two cities in France: Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Biarritz. I had visted these two cities a few weeks ago with my host family, but this time it was fun to have more time to explore the cities with other students in my program. 

For lunch we had a huge meal... but I guess every lunch is gigantic here. Anyways, we had FRENCH fries in FRANCE. Pretty cool. Also, we said Bon Appetit more times than necessary haha.

Catie, Mary, and I on the beach in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. (Same beach I luckily had the chance to swim at once before)

I had been hearing that the chocolate here was delicious. So I bought three bars. (Trying to wait to open them until the fam arrives!) 

After Saint-Jean-de-Luz, we went to Biarritz. So incredibly beautiful here. 

Climbed up on some rocks.

Beach in Biarritz. I attempted climbing that rock... in a dress. I made it about two feet up.

I also bought a chocolate crepe to share with friends.

In addition to these two excursions, I have my four classes. One of which is a cooking class! This week we learned how to make pencas rebozadas, tortilla de patata, and arroz con leche. 

I am obsessed with tortilla patatas. They are my go to food when I go anywhere. I will most definitely be making them when I go home. The arroz con leche was not my favorite because it was just super sweet rice. The pencas rebozada were good... to me it tasted like water chestnuts with cheese and ham. Oh and the pop can that says KAS limon... so good. It's basically carbonated lemonade. 

Also, I have days where I feel like my Spanish is improving a lot, and then days where I struggle. But I know it is improving because I conjugate verbs into forms on a day to day basis that previously I had only used when forced to in class. I also am catching myself thinking in Spanish most of the time... now I'm just waiting until I start dreaming in Spanish... that's my goal. My family here has been very nice and are one of the main reasons my Spanish is improving.

This is a selfie we took while climbing up a mountain nearby. 

Hope all is going well for everyone!