El Escorial

This weekend was really fun, it was Theresa's bday on Saturday, so Friday we naturally went out and had everyone near us sing to happy birthday to her in Spanish. We tried out our dance moves and found some really good Spanish guy dancers we assumed were gay to dance with. And one had a peg leg?...But I digress. On Saturday, all of the girls on the trip went to a Mexican restaurant on Saturday to celebrate. Delicioso. Chupitos gratis.
Friday after class we went into Madrid with Mercedes to the National Spanish Archeology Museum, where one of the guides chastised us for not partying in Madrid enough. I hate to sound like the stereotypical study abroad American, but the museum was super boring. But after, we walked to a churreria where we got the best chocolate con churros EVER.
Every person I have met here thoroughly encourages young people to party hard on the weekends; and generally giving us the opposite advice an adult would give to a college student in America. Tour guides, teachers, my madre. Going out both nights of the weekend and coming home at wee hours of the morning is not only expected but encouraged.
Sunday, a few of us went to El Escorial, a GIANT palace/monastery/ biblioteca/cathedral outside of Madrid. It was beautiful and interesting, but also huge and freezing. There were a lot of great works of art there, and every king of Spain is buried in the tombs. Its cool because we learned about a lot of the architecture and paintings we found there in our art class, so we knew what to look for. It was a cool thing to do for a day, and the town it is in is so quaint. It really felt like we were on the set of a movie or something with the crazy scenery.
I'm not really in the mood to write a lot right now so I am going to post some photos from Sunday. Hasta Luego.