Week 26: Studying for midterms… and a visit from a friend!

It’s been really fun trying to study and focus on midterms this week… haha. Not. However, I have had quite a week - yes, it was just another week in Toledo, but I did get a visit from Walker over the weekend to break things up, so that was fun!

On Monday, I woke up a little later than usual, probably because I was exhausted from all my travel over the past weekend. As I mentioned in the previous post, this week is the Semana Blanca, and so I had Monday free, because the high school where I teach for my internship doesn’t have classes. It was nice and relaxing; I caught up on some homework and some blogging in the morning, uploaded pictures from Poland to Dropbox (one of the only times I’ve been so punctual with photo uploading), and finished helping Fatima select which pictures to post on Facebook from her fabulous Lisbon collection. Once I finished with blogging and photos and such, I headed to school to buy a book from the library for my Spanish Golden Age Theater class, and then went up to the beautiful tower in the school to try to get some homework done. After a while, I gave up on trying to focus, as the beautiful views had been very distracting, so I left to go meet up with a Spanish conversation group. As we had the cena rompehielos in the first few weeks, we got to meet a few different Spaniards, and I got in on a group exchange with a Spanish guy, Rodrigo, and my American friends Allison and Cole. We all met up in a café to grab a coffee, and we ended up spending a few hours just chatting about ourselves, what we were doing in Spain, and what our plans are for the future. Rodrigo then graciously offered to drive us around the valley to see the beautiful view of the city, which we couldn’t turn down, and so we drove halfway around the valley to the mirador (observation point), and took in the beautiful city at nightfall. Rodrigo then dropped us all off at our houses, and after another wonderful dinner from my host mom, I tried to write a paper I had been working on, but that was also a bit unsuccessful, and so I headed to sleep.

I got up early on Tuesday to finish the paper, and then I had my whole morning full of classes. And when I say morning, I mean Spanish morning, starting at 8:40 and ending at 12:45 (sometimes 2:10!). Right after class, I met up with my French conversation partner for the first time, an English teacher named Noelia who’s learning French for teaching purposes. It was absolutely lovely to meet her, and it was fantastic getting to speak in French again! After that lovely coffee and chat, I went home to welcome home my host family who had all been at the beach for the semana blanca long weekend, and we all sat down for lunch not too long after. I then started another paper, took a siesta (yes I really am integrating myself into Spanish culture!), and continued on with homework. The event I was most excited for of the day was Zumba - they actually offer it at my school here in Spain, for free!! I was so excited, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed! What a great way to get rid of stress and have fun all at once.

The rest of the week went by pretty fast - I had theology class and my internship for a couple hours on Wednesday as usual, and in the evening that day I met with another English conversation partner, Sara, who I would be tutoring in English to help her prepare for her exams. On Thursday it was difficult to concentrate in my four classes, but I did my best. History is sometimes a little hard, not because I don’t understand the material but just to pay attention to everything. Friday was much the same, and I treated it as my “vacation day,” not even trying to get much of anything done. It was nice to take a day off from stressing and worrying (but now it’s back to it). Saturday brought another free day, and so I started studying for my theater class midterm, recopying notes and such, and then Allison came over and studied for theater class with me. I got around to writing a little more of a paper I was working on, and then I made sure Walker got to Madrid safe on his night flight from Brussels Charleroi.

Sunday was the day Walker actually arrived in Toledo! I went to pick him up at the bus station, as it wasn’t too far from my house, and we got right on our way to exploring the beautiful city. I showed him the Casco (the medieval city center): we passed by the beautiful cathedral, on our way there we met some English teachers who were on vacation in Toledo and originating from Jaén, a big city in the southern Andalusia region of Spain. I also showed Walker where I go to school, and it was fun for me to practice giving my tour again for when mom, dad and Sammy come in May. We then wandered around the city again, and Walker mentioned that the top activity on TripAdvisor for Toledo is just to get lost in the streets. I would definitely agree with this choice, as the city isn’t too big so even if you get really lost and have never been in the city before, you can usually find your way within an hour or two at most. We toured a church and climbed the tower, took some absolutely gorgeous views of the city while having a nice chat, and then descended upon the city again. We ended up finding our way to a nice little park that had beautiful views of a side of the valley, and we sat and chatted for a while. It was very interesting revisiting and reminiscing the events of last semester, and we got to discuss each other’s perspectives on relationships, friendships, and just what happened in general. After that fantastic discussion, we got lunch at a Spanish restaurant (I will never understand how anybody can actually like the taste of cuttlefish), and then we went on a nice walk around the valley, where we also climbed the Piedra del Rey Moro, the giant boulder with an amazing view of the entire city. I told Walker all the legends my host mom had recounted to me while she had took me around the valley those first couple weeks, and he sarcastically remarked how happy they were, as they included the legend about the Rey Moro, the Moorish King, and how he had stood upon this rock and gazed upon his city for the last time, weeping, as he and the Moors had been conquered; and also, the story of the Arroyo de la Degollada, the story of a Moorish princess who met a Christian prince, and when they were discovered the girl’s father slit her throat. Fun times. To me it’s just interesting to find out about these kinds of stories, so I was more than happy to listen to them from my host mom and then in turn tell them to Walker. After such a great day (and all the walking we did), we went and found Walker’s hotel, and then turned in for an early night, as I actually did have my internship the next day.

Just after crossing the bridge out of the Casco.

The golden city... 

Walker admiring the beautiful view of the city.

The spectacular view of the city from the valley. 

This week has been kicking it up a notch in terms of homework, but I’m slowly making my way through everything. I have midterms to look forward to next week, so that will be great… but in the meantime, I’m working to keep my stress levels down with Zumba and studying and whatnot - let’s just hope it works. It was also wonderful to have Walker visit! I never realized how cool it can be to show friends around “your” city, as I didn’t really have any friends come visit me in Lille or Paris last semester. I still have Monday next week to look forward to showing Walker around a bit more, and then off he goes to Madrid for a few days and then back to Lille. But for now, I have to start looking at work I have to do this coming week, and then I’ll figure it all out from there. That’s all for now, folks - ¡Hasta pronto!