Language Week at Gredos San Diego - El Escorial

This week is language week at my school. The other natives and I were supposed to dress as famous anglo-saxons from the 20th or 21st century. So I was Elvis, Kristin was Amelia Earhart, Jo was Marilyn Monroe. Take a lot at the pictures one of the teachers took for us while we were presenting!  We are doing this all week, for the entire school! I've even got fake sideburns painted on my face! (Thanks Jo!)

Hope you enjoyed! 

Concert and Salamanca Visit

Thought I would update everyone on my most recent travels and activities. I went to a concert in Madrid this past weekend. LMFAO was here. It was crazy and a lot of fun. Plenty of people there and good music to party to!  Check these photos out of the concert. We got cheap general admission tickets, but that didn't stop us from having fun. It was just me, Bill and Riccardo (the roommates).

 These next pictures are all of Salamanca. Its 200 kilometers west of Madrid near Portugal and home of the University of Salamanca. This is the 3rd oldest university in the world and the oldest University in Spain. We never made it to the actual university, but we did plenty of around town things including seeing the "New" church from the 16th century and the "Older" church from the 12th century. Pretty crazy how they consider the newer one actually new. Anyway, check out the pictures below.

Found this statue interesting because it had two arrows going through it.

Heading towards the Plaza Mayor in Salamanaca

Just hanging out in the public library courtyard!

This is outside of the public library and is called the "wall of seashells" as it is made of little statues of seashells.

Me standing in front of the "New" church. Haha!

Check out the meticulous design that went into creating this entrance to the church.

This was part of the "caves" of Salamanca where scientists used to go underground to conduct experiments that were forbidden at the time.

More of the caves.

Some very detailed graffiti you can normally see on public property.

Some more graffiti, no idea what language this one is in... possibly Portuguese?

Just hanging out with some statue that was looking at a wall... I didn't see what he was looking at

Bill, Me and Riccardo at the top of this tower above the "caves" of Salamanca.

This is what happens when you don't ask someone to take your picture and you try to use Auto Timer.

View of Salamanca from a tall hill.

We walked down by the river and the clouds here were crazy! There usually aren't any clouds in Madrid, forgot how cool they can look!

Another cool view by the river with the clouds in the background!

Well I hope you enjoyed my pictures! I had fun on this trip. I have my Greece trip coming up soon, which I am looking forward to! I have Athens, Santorini, and Mykonos on the agenda! Can't wait! I'll keep you updated! Thanks for reading!

Valle de los caídos

This weekend, we took a trip to El Escorial to see the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los caídos). It was built during Franco's dictatorship here, and apparently a lot of Spainards don't like it or care for going here because of the bad connotation it brings of the dictatorship. Its a pretty cool area, and has a lot of history in it. Franco is buried here as well as his right hand man Jose Antonio. Its a short bus ride from Madrid and definitely worth going to see, amazing views!

Here are some of the pictures I have from El Escorial:

Cross on top of the mountain. The church is right under this cross (literally built in the moutain).

This is the old Spanish flag symbol, representing the Republic of Spain.

Apparently there are nine levels of remains from the Spanish Civil War behind this door. We couldn't go in.

This is Francisco Francos tomb. It was at the top of the church.

Dome in the church

You can see the gates around the dark angel above the church entrance. Apparently something fell off of it and hurt/killed a tourist, so now they have a gate with a net around it.

View from the church where towards Madrid.

View of the monastery where we were having coffee in El Escorial.

Hope you enjoyed!

Parque Retiro y Santiago Bernadaeu

I have some pictures from when I went to Parque Retiro (Retiro Park) This is the park that we normally go to every Sunday before we start our work week. Its usually, Riccardo, Bill, Didya, Tom and I that go. We usually picnic for lunch/throw the football. Basically try to look American as possible. Here are some pictures of the peacocks that roam around the park.

Its similar to grand central park in New York.

Here are the pictures:

Tom battling a peacock with his guitar in Parque Retiro! haha!

Mike, thought if you were her you would talk to this guy/ try to communicate. I could interpret for you!? Haha!

Me in front of the Real Madrid Stadium (Santiago Bernabeu)


Hope you enjoyed the blog!