No Hamburgers in the Museum.

Yesterday I went to Toledo with the school. It was enjoyable and we started the day with a tour for a few hours down the cobblestone streets with legit stones protruding out of the ground...we saw an extremely large and intricately decorated cathedral. Unreal. Beautiful. We weren't allowed to tour it but they had a fenced off section for sinners to just gaze at the beautiful high cielings with statues built into them and gold and paintings and the most beautiful things you can imagine.
We toured an ancient Jewish synagogue named Santa Maria Blanca that was built in the 12th century and is now used as a museum that currently has a famous painter's work inside from the fifteenth century. Toledo is distinct becuase the city encompasses Christian, Muslim, and Jewish culture. Inside the synagogue for instance contained decorations from Jewish artists-they only use geometric designs, never humans or animals, on the archways, pillars, and ceilings. And then in the three main places of worship at the front of the synagogue there were statues incorporated into the ceilings of angels and the trinity and Mary created by Christian artists. European buildings are so detailed down to features smaller than my fingernails.
We went inside this one building that doubled as a museum for the painting named, "El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz"de El Greco or "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz." Beautiful, but wow that thing was on lock-down there were a ridiculous amount of cameras and we were not allowed to take pictures or bring in hamburgers--there was a sign with a hamburger crossed out... luckily I had left mine at home that day. Greco, a famous painter from the sixteenth century, was buried inside the church museum right below his painting depicting images of heaven, hell, Mary, and a man dying down on earth but trying to ascend into the afterlife on good terms. in a nutshell.
Of course there was an American girl who took a picture. Of course. And people were being extra loud in the echoing room right outside of mass. My metro incident was casual, this was a serious offence I even was offended by. No wonder some europeans stereotype Americans. Unfortunate.
Met up with a few people for lunch and listened to some very unepic stories of a gal in denial who thought she was interesting, to put it nicely. However most people at SLU have incredible lives. I also ate lunch with a gal who had lived all over the world in three year spans, including Germany, COLORADO, Spain, and others...she had been born in Madrid and her dad is in the military. And this dude that had lived and studied in Ireland for free due to some Irish man setting up a fund at his school in Arizona once he had made crazy money setting up an imigration station in Ireland.
Bought salmon colored heels that zip up my leg in a cage-like fashion. Excellent.
Sat next to a dude from Morocco and listened to typical "Moroccan music" that consisted of all American artists including Janis Joplin. Dr. Dre is apparently "a classic" in his words in Morocco. People can say they don't like Americans around the world, but they are sadly mistaken when it comes to our music, our fashion, and our food becuase that is prominent EVERYWHERE. People that don't speak English walk around the streets of Madrid in a shirt with an American phrase...comical.
Of course our bus broke down on the way back. Actually it was the bus behind us but we were in the same group and someone thought it wise to utilize the "buddy system" with a bus. Won't write about that, not my favorite two hours in front of a gas station...
Had a delicious spanish dinner with the senora.
Stressed about classes all day today... my schedule is a terrifying mess of unknowns with a deadline on when that needs to be situated.
I did have salsa today though and since we have a lack of boys in our class, only ones that sweat profusely, I got to grind with my teacher. Like legit she put my hands on her hips and was doing some serious hip/butt combo motions. Can you imagine an American professor doing that? Es comico...
At the gym I have a fan club-also terrifying, but is making me more aware of how much I sweat.
It is now 2am and little children are still not in bed and are playing soccer outside below in our plaza... some drunk man is screaming "wooo" and there are car alarms going off.
But I am in Spain. It is beautiful. It is a serious eye-opening life-changing experience, and I am so thankful and happy to be exactly in this moment.