que mi alma no descanse

wow, so much to catch up on! sorry i'm a little behind on the blog; things have been so busy here! last weekend mom and em came to visit me! i was so excited i got to the airport like an hour before they did, but it was worth the wait! that night we went out for an authentic dinner of tortilla espanola (potato omlette), paella, and churros con chocolate. ¡que rico!

friday we went to toledo for the day. we went inside the giant cathedral and spent over an hour looking at everything there was to see. between mom's theological knowledge, em's historical knowledge, and my spanish, we could figure out everything! it was really neat. we spent the rest of the day trying to keep up with mom and we explored the ancient spanish city. it was the capital for a long time before madrid! we ended the day with a sampling of mazapan, the delicious almond sweet that is something like cookie-dough.

saturday and sunday we hung around madrid, seeing museums and walking in the park. we actually spent the majority of our time in this amazing vegetarian restaurant we found close to the hotel. we ended up eating there 3 times in 48 hours! it was so nice to see mom and em and get a little break from having to keep myself up here. i could just let down with them in the hotel room with our delicious greek yogurt that we kept on our balcony (aka refrigerator).

last night i went back to the same vegetarian restaurant with melissa and catherine. it was a fun girls night filled with yummy food, tasty sangria, and lots of laughs. this morning we got to school at 9am to head to el escorial, king filipe II's summer palace in the mountains. we saw the relatively modest living quarters and the pantheon that contains the tombs of almost all of the Catholic monarchs of spain. there is also a separate mausoleum for the children who were never rulers and the queens that did not produce children that were rulers. it was very interesting.

meanwhile the blizzard was raving outside as we were north of madrid and in the mountains, so it was quite cold. afterwards we went to el valle de los caidos, the memorial to the civil war and the site where franco is buried, but it was closed due to snow. it wasn't a complete loss though. watching the snow dust everything outside was so beautiful! the landscape reminded me of kentucky, specifically of gesthemany - i was actually missing the session retreats... there were even horses! and as we drove away we could faintly see the giant cross against the mountain through the swirling snow and fog.

tonight we're going to go to a tango show and then hopefully go salsa dancing! the weekends here are always so full of exciting adventures! tomorrow is the real madrid futbol game! it's going to be really awesome, if it's not too cold!

te quiero y te extrano!