El Metro, las clases, y Toledo!

I've done quite a bit over the last two days, and I took lots of pictures to share with you guys!

First off, we figured out the metro system...it was really easy once we figured out how to read the map, and how to know what direction we were going. I wish more big cities had fantastic public transportation like this! I got my metro pass, no problem; unfortunately, I am not a young person anymore because I am 22 (young person passes are for 21 and under), so I have to pay 46 euro a month for mine, compared to 23 or something. But at least I got mine right away, they have to screen the young people or something so it takes 15 days. Oh the joys of getting old.

I was placed into high intermediate level for my language intensive month of classes, but after having 3 hours of class on Friday (there are 4 Americans, 2 British students, and 1 German student, it's a very small class, which rocks), I know this is the level I need to be at. I need to talk to the ISA guy and figure out if I can take a couple of the advanced level classes next month when we register for our actual classes so I get some credit for the major, and then I can take a couple Spanish classes when I get back, which I assume would work out perfectly, but if it that's not how the classes here work, if I actually have to test into the level, then I may be switching to a minor, which would still be great. Once I talk to the ISA guy, I will email my advisor at Idaho and figure this out, I know I'm not the only one in this predicament.

After classes, I went out with my roommate and Ally for Sangria:

I liked this footstool/chair:


We later went to the supermercado and I saw these bacon-flavored sunflower seeds...they have bacon flavored everything!


And then we walked around our neighborhood for a little bit, it's a beautiful, old part of town:


Later that night, Emily and I went out dancing with some of the girls, which was a lot of fun. The culture here towards American girls is so interesting, we walked in and immediately a guy bought the four of us shots of something lemon flavored, and then after that no one talked to us or approached us or anything. And the alcohol is so expensive! I paid 5 euro for a "Coronita", which is about $7, and my friend Kait paid 8 euro for her rum and coke! So no one needs to worry about me getting wasted in Europe, I can't afford it lol.

We didn't stay out super late (we left at 2:30am, which in Spain time is just when everything is starting to get going...they party until like 6 in the morning!) because today we went to Toledo! Toledo is the old capital of Spain, and it's a beautiful city that feels like a small town because it has been so well preserved for the last 600-800 years. The streets were still cobblestoned and everything. It was very humbling to be in a place with SO MUCH history; we have history in the US, but it only goes back 200 years. We don't have any buildings or streets or anything older than that.

While we were waiting for the group to show up at the metro station, I took a picture of this Madrid Space Needle wannabe:


Just some pictures I took, from the bus and then from a viewpoint that we stopped at:






And here's from our walking tour of Toledo:




El Museo Sefardi-Sinagoga del Transito:




San Juan de los Reyes:






The handcuffs symbolize the Christian's freedom from the Moors in Granada:


One of the streets of Toledo...unfortunately didn't take a photo earlier when I should have:


La Iglesia de Santo Tome, where we saw El Greco's "El Entierro del Senor de Orgaz", but we couldn't take pictures inside, so I bought a postcard I will take a picture of:


This was a church in the center of where we walked...I don't remember the name of it:



Ally and I with Miguel Cervantes, the author of "Don Quijote":


And tomorrow we're going to the market! It should be fun! :-)