My 21st birthday and trip to London!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted, the last week and a half have been absolutely insane!
Last weekend rather than relaxing an ended up being on the go pretty much the whole weekend. My friends and I decided Friday to visit El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen on Saturday. The first is a late Renaissance palace and the second the Catholic Cathedral Franco (the previous dictator) built in the side of a small mountain. They are only about an hour outside of Madrid, with a bus running between them so it works out well to see them both in one day. That Sunday I finally had a chance to meet the missionary family my uncle knows here, the Humes. I spent most of the day with them Sunday, it was nice to be with an American family and have a homecooked meal for the first time in weeks!
Tuesday was my 21st birthday, it worked out well because another one of my friends from my program's birthday was Monday so we celebrated together Monday night. The woman she lives with made us a homecooked Spanish dinner, it was delicious! It was nice to have our closest friends from the program all together and celebrating.
This past weekend was also a busy one, one of my best friends from home, Lizzie, was in London for the week. I decided that I couldn't miss the chance to see her when she was so close, so I skipped class on Friday to go spend the weekend with her. She is a theater major, so we went to a show Friday night and then just spent the weekend wandering around London seeing the sights. It was so refreshing to see an old friend.
This week hopefully will be slower than last, I am ready for a breather!

weekend in Toulouse

I can't believe that it is Thursday already! I'm amazed by how quickly time has been going since my classes started. I'm hoping to spend this weekend relaxing and getting some much needed studying done.
I was in Toulouse, France this weekend and it was probably my favorite weekend so far. On top of having me visiting, Heidi and her roommates also had 2 girlfriends from the UK staying for the weekend and we had a great time together. I can't tell you how much I had been craving crepes, I was happy when that ended up being our first meal Saturday night. During high school I had done a project on Toulouse so it was fun to see the things I had spent so much time reading about. We took a boat tour of the city which was beautiful! I also had a chance to wander around the city by myself for awhile.
The only bad thing about the weekend was Monday night when I was on my way home, my plane ended up being about 2 hours late. When sitting in the airport though, I ended up starting a conversation with two Spanish people waiting for the flight as well. We ended up taking while we waited and the whole way home. It was a nice way to transition out of French and back into Spanish!
Other than that though my week has been fairly uneventful. I applied to get my residency card, which will be nice to have! My classes are going well, there are lots of work, but I think it will be worth it.
I hope you all have a great weekend!

classes have started!

I have officially finished my first week of classes and it has been an interesting one. My friends and I have been joking about how we feel like we are back in high school again. All of our classes are in the same building as our program office and the cafeteria we eat at. We never have a reason to go outside! While I'm sure as it starts to get colder I will appreciate staying inside, I'm kind of missing the walking between classes I have at Madison. So far I think that my classes through my program are going to be very similar to the ones I have taken through the university so far. They are designed to make us feel more at home. My class through the university here though is going to be challenging. Yesterday I was handed a 9 page reading list, needless to say its not the one book requirement I am used to having. While I won't have to read all the books on the list, its going to be a chore to just figure out which readings will be the most beneficial to me. My teacher seems to be pretty good though, she speaks without a heavy accent and knows what she is talking about (half the books on the list were ones she has written- maybe its not so different from classes back home!)
My week got interesting though on Tuesday night, I came home to realize the power had gone out and I was the only one there. Luckily my roommate got home soon after and knew who to call, but we were still without power for the rest of the evening. Went I came home from class on Wednesday the power was back on, but since I hadn't know if it would be I hadn't gone to the grocery store to replace my food supply. I threw out most of the food I had, but thought some of it was still going to be okay to eat. That was my big mistake, because I got to spend all day yesterday in bed sick. I think I have learned my lesson!
The week is done now though and I can relax, I am leaving tomorrow to spend my long weekend in France. My Bible study leader from France, is actually on staff in Toulouse so I'll be going to visit her before she comes home to get married! I am so excited and cannot wait to see her!