From Toledo to Johns Birthday!

Hi all, long time no talk. A lot has happened (as usual!) and I am going to try and cover it all. In order to do that, I might be a little brief with my entry but if there are any questions, email me at pattonch@gmail.com or leave a comment, I will try and get back to you a little quicker than I have been (Thanks Mig!) Let's see, where shall I begin:

Toledo:
The weekend of the 15th, I believe it was the second weekend in November, I had a friend come visit from Barcelona, one that had gone to the Portugal with me. He came to visit for the weekend and we took a day trip on Saturday to Toledo. Toledo was the Old Arab capital on the Iberian Peninsula. Originally Madrid was constructed to protect the city of Toledo from the encroaching Christians from the north. Eventually, once the Christians regained control of the entire Iberian Peninsula in 1492 (Yes that is the year Columbus discovered America), One of the kings renamed Madrid the capital of Spain due to its ideal weather and location in the center of the peninsula.

Our day trip was really amazing, the city is filled with some much culture and Arab influence. There is also a very large Cathedral in Toledo which is something that rivals the Cathedral in Sevilla. While we were walking around the city, we ran into a few friends from Madrid and spent the rest of the day with them. Once it got dark we returned to Madrid.


School has been very tough. I have a short essay to write about once a week in my grammar class and write now, I should be writing a 6 page essay for my economics class. Of course I am procrastinating but you will all enjoy what I have written so it will be worth it.

That is it for the learning part of school, but as for teaching, things are slowing down. My student that I teach twice a week is very smart. I feel sometimes as if I am not helping much but I suppose that any sort of practice helps a little. She knows almost every vocab word I through at her but has problems reading and writing. I can't teach her very much about the verb tenses because I didn't learn that about English when I grew up. I only know what sounds correct and maybe I few grammar tricks. Everything I do seems to help but I hope she is not expecting a full "grammar" lesson, because I would have problems with that.


It is getting really cold here! freezing temperatures during the day and below freezing at night and in the early morning. Once the sun goes down, you have no choice but to bundle up! It reminds me very much of New York weather, with out all the snow. As for Thanksgiving, that was probably the coldest night of them all. Good thing we spend most of the night in the restaurant. All three EAP study abroad programs had a Thanksgiving celebration together. Dinner was great, certainly not a traditional homey thanksgiving dinner but at least we had turkey!

As for tonight, tonight is John's birthday party. His birthday is not until the 3rd of December but his host family is having a small gathering at their house. I am excited to finally meet his host family. I had a lot of fun with my host family and Mexico and I miss that atmosphere, and the food! It should be a fun night.

For the future, I have started planning my Christmas vacation plans. I am spending Christmas with Seara's family in Germany in a small town in the Alps, really close to the Austrian border. It should be a lot of fun and really really beautiful. Also, I am meeting some of my old high school friends in Amsterdam for a few days while they are traveling around Europe. They are visiting about 10 of the major cities in Europe and are passing through Amsterdam right after I finish classes in December. I will let you guys know more about my plans once I plan more.

Thats it for now, take care everyone for the holidays and don't be shy to leave any comments. Love to all!

Patton