I was unsure what my family does on Saturdays, so I made plans with Kami, Elle, Christina, Anny, Grace and Rebecca to go explore some of the monuments in Toledo. Even on our tours they had only shown us the outside of them... It was time to go look inside!
I got up around 10:45am and went to eat breakfast. Here's a funny story for you all: We had been warned before we got here to not say we like something if we really don't. For example, we can't just smile and nod like we do in the U.S. when we don't understand something because it will be taken as a "Yes, I do like it!" Well, we had been talking about chocolate a few days ago and I mentioned how I love chocolate. Let's just say that my mom went out and bought chocolate cereal (just for me) and I get chocolate milk and chocolate ice cream and chocolate Popsicles.... I think you get the point. It's definitely a good thing I really like chocolate!! ☺
We all met at 12pm (which apparently is still considered morning here, so they say "12 in the morning" instead of "12 in the afternoon") at at the Fundación and headed over to the big cathedral. Lucky for us, nothing is that far in Toledo. Unluckily for us, however, everything is hills! It doesn't seem to matter which way you walk, you are always walking up hill. I think Kami had it right when she said, "We are going to have legs and buns of steal when we get home!" It made Elle and me laugh. :) Anyhow, getting back to the story....
We got to the cathedral and paid the 7€ (btw, I had NO IDEA that I could put symbols like that here!! WOAH) to get in, then wandered around. It was beautiful. Everything is so detailed!! I have no idea how they could make things so detailed that long ago. It's amazing. We walked around and took lots of pictures (which are up on Facebook already). From the cathedral, we wandered over to a church (I know that sounds kind of odd, but that's what they are called!). The church was called "Iglesia de Santo Tomé" (Church of Saint Tomé). It was a lot smaller, but also very pretty. We had heard that the bell tower and just reopened after many many many (many many) years of being closed. When we asked about it, we were told that it hadn't been opened to the public yet. :(
From the church we walked a little bit more over to a Synagogue (Sinagoga del Tránsito). I was soooo happy that I finally got to explain things to my friends for once. I don't understand much about what goes on in a church, but I do when it comes to a synagogue! I got to explain what the ark is and what a yad is. It was also fun to realize that I could read some of the Hebrew in the books on display. It didn't (but should have) occur to me that all of the displays would be about Sephardi Jews (for those of you who don't know what that means, Sephardi Jews are Jews from Spain). I had one of those "Aha!" moments while in the gift shop at the end. I laughed, but no one else thought it was funny... I guess that's what I get for being the minority? Oh well.
After the Synagogue we walked through some of the shops on our way back to the Fundación. We found a store filled with SHOES! I really really wanted to get some... but I wasn't sure I would be able to fit them in my duffel bag. So I didn't get them. :( We saw some cute clothes, but nothing that any of us particularly wanted to buy. We finally got back to the Plaza de Zocodover (the big plaza near the Fundación) and Kami peeled off to go home. Elle and I went back to her room and started to plan out our trips for the semester.
We are really lucky that we both want to visit a lot of the same places. Right now, we are thinking about going to Madrid on Friday (to go see the Museo del Prado, Parque de Retiros and the Puerta del Sol), then catching a train down to Granada (to go see the Alhambra), then (finally) catching a train to Córdoba (to see the Mosque). It will be a long weekend, but it will be fun! We are also talking about going to Rome and then (well, at least I am) to Paris. We also want to go to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona. Somehow, we are going to try and squeeze all of these trips in. It will definitely be an adventure!
I headed home around 7:30pm to make it back by 8:30 (I'd said I would be back by then for dinner). A little bit after dinner, I watched the movie Hall Pass in Spanish (in Spanish it's called "Carta Blanca") with my parents. I hadn't seen the movie even in English, so that was a lot of fun. I don't think that any of us realized that there would be nudity (both male and female), so we were all a little shocked. At one point, my mom said that it was a good thing my sister wasn't watching with us! Hahaha... But it was good, but definitely more guy humor oriented (obviously... It's a movie all about sex!). After the movie, I read for a little bit and then headed to bed.
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