Trip Time!

Finally! I am finished with my month long intensive language course. I took the test on Tuesday and found out on Wednesday that I passed both classes (I'm pretty sure I got an A!). Meg and I weren't feeling too great though, both of our stomachs had started hurting after dinner one night. On Thursday we left with the Arcadia group to go to Toledo, Segovia and Madrid.
In Toledo, we stayed for one night at the Fundación, which is where the Toledo students live and have classes. It was nice, but Toledo was very small and the only sites we saw were some churches, which didn't interest me a lot. We had dinner with the Toledo students (we had really gross paté for an appetizer), but I got seated by two that were SO quiet. I asked them a ton of questions about their program and how they liked Toledo and I could barely get any responses. Their enthusiasm was so low, I was thankful we were only staying one night.
The next day we took the bus to Madrid and took a couple tours around the city. It is a beautiful city with a lot of fun things to do, but definitely a little too big for me. Plus, everything there is a lot more expensive than it is in Granada. We got to see the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which is now used only for diplomatic meetings with other countries. It was extremely impressive, each room was more ornate than the last. One room, the king's dressing room in fact, had hand embroidered flowers all over the walls. It took 5 years for the people to sew it. The palace was definitely my favorite place. After the palace, we went to this huge rally in the main plaza where everyone was dancing and they had huge screens up waiting for the announcements for which city won the bid for the 2016 Olympics. We waited for about an hour before they declared that Rio had won, so everyone was really disappointed, but we did get free shirts! We were so exhausted from walking around all day so we had a pretty relaxing night. We went to an outdoor market and walked around for a bit, but went to bed relatively early.
On Saturday, we had to be down in the lobby of the hotel pretty early for breakfast and to leave for Segovia. Segovia was absolutely beautiful, a little town on top of a hill. It has the second oldest aqueduct system, which was also very impressive. We saw another church there, as well as a smaller royal residence. We were only in Segovia for the day and returned to Madrid at night.
I started not feeling well on Saturday morning. Besides my stomach, my throat started hurting a lot as well and I ended up losing my voice. My friend, Gwen, from Denison is studying in Madrid and we were all supposed to go out with her on Saturday to this really big discoteca. However, it just didn't make sense for me to push myself when I wasn't feeling well, so Gwen came and hung out in our hotel room for a while before going out with everyone else. Monica, who also wasn't feeling well, and I stayed in and watched the Italian Job in Spanish.
On Sunday we went to the Prado Museum, the biggest museum in Spain, and saw a lot of works by Velasquez and other well known artists. My favorite was a painting by a pretty unknown author called "The Garden of Earthly Delights". After the museum, we had a little bit of free time, so a group of us went to another, more modern, museum called Reina Sofia. This museum had a lot of work by Dali and Picasso. I spent more time looking at the Picasso exhibit because I have already gone to the Dali museum in Barcelona and know his works pretty well.
I also made the decision that I wasn't feeling well enough to stay with my highschool friend, Courtney, for another two days. So I had lunch with her before I left with the Arcadia group Sunday evening. I am going back to Madrid for a night in November to stay with her before Meg and I go to Florence the next day, so I'll be able to see her again. Plus, she started school today and tomorrow, so we wouldn't have been going out that much anyway. I was able to cancel my bus ticket for Tuesday and I saved a lot of money by not staying in Madrid longer.
I came home with the group on our nice private bus and today I woke up and went to the doctor with Cristina. They say I have a virus and gave me three different kinds of medication to take. It was hard explaining all my symptoms in Spanish, but Cristina was a big help. I am already feeling better! Cristina told my senora that I can't have friend or oily foods, which is good b/c most of the stuff I don't like here is fried, now I have an excuse to have pasta and rice most of the time.
Classes start on Wednesday, so tomorrow is our last day of freedom. Megan stayed in Madrid to hang out with Gwen a little longer, but she will be returning tomorrow night. I think I might go to the beach with some of the girls tomorrow and have a nice relaxing day. Gwen is coming to Granada this weekend, so I will have a lot more time to hang out with her. Besides being sick, it was a fantastic trip and I got to see a lot more of Spain. Plus, I know I definitely made the right decision in choosing Granada!

Love you all,
Em