Mark and I woke up relatively early, checked out of our hotel and set off to meet our señora, excited and maybe even a little nervous. We hopped in a cab with a driver that reeked of BO...of all the cabs in Madrid we may have chosen the smelliest. Once again, our driver got lost, but not nearly as badly as the last time. Just bought us some extra time to bathe in his stink, exactly what we needed. We arrived at the apartment around 10:30 and the portero (doorman) led us up to our door in the worlds smallest elevator (I later found out it was the freight elevator...but honestly I don't know how much freight would fit in there anyway). We knock...hear a dog barking for a moment, and then silence. ¿Donde está nuestra señora? We go back down to the portero and he tells us that she won't be back for a few hours, so much for getting there early. Fortunately her sister came to take the dog for a walk, and she let us in. We unpacked, got situated, and waited for our 3 month mother to arrive. Our room has 2 twin beds in it, 2 desks, and a built in wall unit/closet thing. Comfortable, roomy enough, and it has its own bathroom...extremely sufficient.
Our house mother finally arrived and came up to meet us. She is an incredibly nice woman, speaks only spanish, quickly, and is a good cook...well be fine. Our first night, we had to get up early so we went to a little cafeteria right by our house and they gave us potato chips with our beer again...but this time they had anchovies on top? Far too strange.
The next morning we woke up early, and took the metro with our señora to the school, Fundacion de Jose Ortega y Gassett. The school is an old mansion that houses the administration offices and the library and 1 other building with classrooms...very small. Until October, it will be just the SMU kids there so we are gonna get to know the staff well. We had class to talk about classes (weird) and then we left for toledo. Pretty ugly drive actually, but everything changed once Toledo came into view. Its a beautiful city, with the old part walled in, all perched on a small mountain. We went to the Toledo campus of the Fundación and got settled, then went to walk around. Toledo is everything you would expect from a medieval city. Narrow, winding cobblestone roads, big wooden doors, and buildings made from stone that make you wonder how they made them without all the cranes and stuff we use to build today. We were walking around and happened upon a massive line of very excited people. We asked one of our teachers, Saúl, who happened to be walking with us, what the commotion was about and he told us in a tone far too nonchalant that the World Cup Trophy was visiting Toledo for that day only. Really? No one felt like telling us that? Our next move, obviously, was to go wait in the very long line to get a picture with it and even touch it. How many people, especially Americans, can say they have done that? It is surprisingly small though.
Our first evening out in Toledo was highlighted by the torrential downpour none of us saw coming, and we went to a bar called "El Circulo del Arte". Bar is a general term...it is an old church that is an art museum by day and a bar/ dance hall by night. It was pretty cool, and Mark and I met the Santa Clause of Toledo and talked to him for an hour or so about all kinds of stuff. He hasn't shaved his beard for 25 years. He once shaved it when his son was little and didn't get a good reaction, so he hasn't shaved since. He seemed perfectly content chatting with us gringos, and was a pretty interesting guy who has spent his entire life in Toledo.
Our house mother finally arrived and came up to meet us. She is an incredibly nice woman, speaks only spanish, quickly, and is a good cook...well be fine. Our first night, we had to get up early so we went to a little cafeteria right by our house and they gave us potato chips with our beer again...but this time they had anchovies on top? Far too strange.
The next morning we woke up early, and took the metro with our señora to the school, Fundacion de Jose Ortega y Gassett. The school is an old mansion that houses the administration offices and the library and 1 other building with classrooms...very small. Until October, it will be just the SMU kids there so we are gonna get to know the staff well. We had class to talk about classes (weird) and then we left for toledo. Pretty ugly drive actually, but everything changed once Toledo came into view. Its a beautiful city, with the old part walled in, all perched on a small mountain. We went to the Toledo campus of the Fundación and got settled, then went to walk around. Toledo is everything you would expect from a medieval city. Narrow, winding cobblestone roads, big wooden doors, and buildings made from stone that make you wonder how they made them without all the cranes and stuff we use to build today. We were walking around and happened upon a massive line of very excited people. We asked one of our teachers, Saúl, who happened to be walking with us, what the commotion was about and he told us in a tone far too nonchalant that the World Cup Trophy was visiting Toledo for that day only. Really? No one felt like telling us that? Our next move, obviously, was to go wait in the very long line to get a picture with it and even touch it. How many people, especially Americans, can say they have done that? It is surprisingly small though.
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| Frustration that it is touring Spain, not the US |
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| Santa Clause de Toledo |
The next day we did our sightseeing after a quick history class on Spain. We learned about how it is a city of 3 cultures, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. The coolest part is that in the architecture, all 3 elements come together and make a really interesting combination. We first went to San Juan de los Reyes, a church/monastery with a beautiful cloister. There are shackles hanging from the side of the church, hung by Ferdinand and Isabella as a symbol of the victory over the Moorish opression. In the cloister, there is a pattern of "F"s and "I"s and their symbols, a quiver of arrows and a yolk on a Moorish style roof, with alot of Jewish colors and stuff. Very interesting. They were pretty narcissistic....they really liked exalting themselves in as many ways as possible. Sounds like another important political figure I know (Had to, can't discuss politics over here). Annnnywho, back to to Spain. We went to the synagogue next....Muslim style arches and ceiling, and a pretty cool museum too. The roof has an interesting, geometric wood framing not like most of the old buildings I have visited. After that we went and saw El Greco's "Burial of Count Orgaz" which is cool in itself, but the coolest part is that El Greco painted himself into the picture. He is the only character who is looking outward, and his eyes follow you creepily. It's housed in a Jesuit church as well, which is awesome. Finally, we went to the cathedral. It is the 2nd biggest in Europe with the exception of the vatican...massive. It has tons of paintings by El Greco as well, in addition to so many others. You cant take pictures in the cathedral which is a bummer, but it is so regal that you cannot describe it. The treasury is the coolest part, full of invaluable artifacts and treasures meant to show how powerful the church was....a theory that still seems to work today because I was certainly amazed. After that, and a nap, we had our welcome dinner, complete with sangria. Mark and I had already napped so we went to the "University Bar" right by our school and got a head start on the rest of the group. After that, we went to an Irish Pub (who knew the Irish were so worldwide?), then back to the church bar. The vibe was entirely different tonight, everyone was dancing and it was way more crowded. We met these Norwegians....all about 25, they had just gotten jobs at Ernst and Young, and they were on a company "retreat" before they started work with their boss. That being said, you never would have known because boy did they like to party. They all spoke perfect english too, and were really fun to talk to. When we we're leaving, they said "oh I forgot, you Americans need your sleep." Patriotism kicked in and I obviously couldn't back down from a challenge, so we stayed until they left...late.
The next morning we had to get up...early...for the bus ride back. Not good. After we went to the top of the mountain across the river from toledo for a panoramic view, which was awesome, but I'm pretty sure nobodys BAC had gotten back down to zero seeing as the Norwegians had us out so late.
Now we're back home in Madrid for our first weekend, which will definitely not provide much rest...
More to come!
-Gates
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| La Catedral |
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| Toledo from across the Tagus River |
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| The Crew |
More to come!
-Gates
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