Valencia, Amsterdam, and, oh yeah! Classes!

The last couple of weeks has been a whirlwind, to say the least. While I don't believe I can give a completely accurate summary of every day since I last posted on this blog, I thought I could at least share some of the more interesting parts with you all.

On my second Friday here, we took a program-wide day trip to Madrid, where we took a brief bus tour around the central part of the city and later took a guided tour of the Royal Palace. Both events revealed a lot about the history of the city, as well as the country of Spain as a whole. Knowing that the country is so much older than the US is one thing, but seeing artifacts and architecture that predate the tenth century is something else entirely.

After our tours, a buffet lunch, and exploring the city on our own a bit, seven new friends of mine and I hopped on a train to the beach city of Valencia. Subsequently, after a bit of travel chaos, we all ended up safe and sound at our Airbnb, which was a huge sailboat docked in the port. Our host was kind enough to leave us two bottles of wine which, as you can imagine, didn't last long between eight college-aged girls. Since we arrived rather late, we only stayed up for a few hours before turning in. The next day, Saturday, we ambled around town for a while in search of brunch, which we eventually found, before heading to the beach.

We were extremely lucky, weather-wise. All of us had been keeping an eye on the forecast, which teetered between rain and clear skies enough times to stress us out. However, our stress was for naught, as our beach day yielded nothing but sun. We spent almost seven hours on the beach soaking up vitamin D, jumping in the waves, and simply relaxing.

The next day, we weren't as lucky with the weather. Most of us were rudely awakened in the early hours of the morning by rain pouring in through our skylights and windows, and the rain continued for most of the day. A bright spot, though, was the glass of cold brew I had at the café we went to that morning. Don't get me wrong, I've been adoring the hot espresso drinks here, but I hadn't realized how badly the barista in me had been craving a well-made glass of cold coffee.

Upon returning to Toledo, I felt like I was coming back home. Unfortunately, though, I had to face Monday morning classes the day after getting back. Granted, "early" in my case means 10 am, which I am certainly not too upset about. I'm taking a community engagement class focusing on learning about and helping immigrants in Spain. In addition, I'm taking a class about recent Spanish cinema, a theology course, and a class centering on Latin America and its politics. So far everything I've learned about had engaged and excited me, and I think I'm more or less keeping up with the Spanish instruction.

Since my school week wraps up on Wednesday, this past Thursday I found myself on an airplane on my way to Amsterdam to visit my boyfriend, who is studying abroad there. The travel itself was rather complex, having taken two buses and a train to get to the airport, but I was incredibly proud of myself for making my flight, especially considering it was my first time traveling completely solo.

Amsterdam took my breath away. The canals and scenery were more beautiful in person than I could have imagined, and all the folks on bikes added a sort of quaintness I adored. The coffee was just as good as the stuff in Spain, and the pastries may have been even better. The food, in general, impressed me more than I expected. Some notable favorites were Italian tapas (sorry, Spain!), artisan pizza, stroopwafel, and a heavenly almond croissant.

We went to the Rijksmuseum to see what it had to offer, and it did not disappoint. It's easy to dismiss old painters as something historical, especially when you only see their works through a screen. But there was something surreal about Rembrandt's paintings, about seeing one of Van Gogh's original self-portraits, that made me get it. We also went to a small cat-themed museum, where they allegedly had four cats running around (we only saw two). I felt like I had experienced a good deal of what the city had to offer, but I'm excited to go back over my fall break.

While it was a bittersweet goodbye, returning to Toledo once again felt like coming home. I've come to really appreciate this city as a sort of home base as I continue exploring Spain and as much of the continent as I can.