Class Trip to Leon

Some pictures from this weekend's trip to Leon (with my Spanish Culture and Civilization Class):

Ok, I know this is a pretty "touristy" picture, but once in a while, you have to just be a tourist, as long as you're not too obvious. I guess I'm sort of being obvious here, oops.


Here is the Leon Cathedral. Beautiful!
Last night we ate at an outdoor cafe in the Plaza Mayor in Leon with people from our class. Ok, it was a little chilly, but definitely worth the view.
This is Las Medulas, where the Romans mined during their rule in Spain (around the 3rd century?) They used tons of canals of water to create intense pressure inside the rock, which caused huge parts of the mountains to crumble off. Then, the small pieces of rock could be mined for gold. The Romans didn't find much gold, actually. It looks a little like the Southwest of the U.S. to me! It's weird... there are these big red rocks, and then everything around them is green...

We had a good time, especially since a lot of us in the class didn't know each other that well, so it was good to actually spend time with people, which I think will definitely make class more fun. We have one more trip this semester, which is in late October, to Basque Country in the north of Spain. Our professor is from Bilbao, so it'll be fun to hear him speak in Basque ("Vasco"), which is nothing like Spanish or any other romance language, from what I hear.

This weekend, my astronomy class is going to the Canary Islands to observe the sky from one of the world's best telescopes. I can't wait! After that, things settle down and I don't really have other trips coming up for a bit...

Life in Madrid is starting to feel a little more like life. It still is different and amazing, but with school and church and some of the normal stuff of life in the mix, I at least feel some normalcy in it all. Studying here is a little tough... there is so much else to do, but I know without the classes (especially my Spanish classes), being here wouldn't mean all that much, so I guess I'll have to just spend some time in the library :-)

I signed up for Institute, which is right next to the temple. The temple here is very pretty, and I am impressed with how organized and built-up the Institute is here... it feels like a BYU institute class, with homework, tests, etc. But it's been fun, and a good chance to practice Spanish and meet some of the LDS kids here. Most of them are from other countries... I have met two from Bolivia, one from Sweden, one from Bulgaria... but I'm sure I'll meet Spaniards too... it was only the first week.

Well, I'm pretty tired... we just got back a while ago from Leon, so I'm gonna take a siesta before dinner. Hasta luego!