Hello again ! I have so many thoughts in my head at the moment so excuse the fact that my writing may appear convoluted and jumps around a little bit. But that aside, I am glad to report that I am fully settled here in Toledo. In fact, I just returned from a wonderful trip to a friend Klara's piso. I've agreed to teach one of her roommates English. Its nice to see things outside of the buildings on my way to school or the inside of my own piso. Due to the cold weather, I haven't been doing too much touring. But i'm hoping that will change soon. Klara's home was beautiful, the flat that she lived in had a staircase reminiscent of old Spanish castles. But what struck me most was the conversation that we all had about the differences and similarities in the economic situation in each of our respective countries. Klara hails from the Czech Republic, her roommate a Spanish native and of course myself from the US. (( Not so random sidenote: I woke up yesterday to run a couple of errands in the city only to find myself caught amidst multiple moving protests throughout the city (which made it impossible to get around in a timely fashion I might add) however these protesters intrigued me. There were protesters of all ages; from college students to senior citizens. I was kind of afraid to stop and ask the reason behind the protest so I rushed home and asked one of roommates, a 24 yr old teacher teacher from Wisconsin whose lived here for two years, what all the fuss is about. She wasn't exactly sure herself but she did tell me that for the past few years, the Spanish economy and education system has been headed toward turmoil so the protest could be about multiple issues. )) Now back to the story at hand, as Klara, her roommate and I discussed the economic issues of our home countries, I eventually learned what yesterday's protest was about. The Spanish economy is actually quite similar to that of the United States; there are budget cuts occurring in virtually every industry to relieve a national deficit established by the socialist government that preceded the current democracy. It seems that just like at home, to solve one problem, we incur another; essentially trying to more with less. People are working more hours for less pay, getting displaced or layed off entirely and on top of that, a number of crooked politicians have been revealed to be within the political party that was just elected to govern. Prior to yesterday, I was under the impression that Spain had very few political and social problems though in retrospect, I'm not sure what gave me that impression lol But even though the topic of conversation was negative, I was very glad to gain such insight on a issue that I was so ignorant of and see first hand how it is affecting the people of Spain. I hope that I have many more similar experiences to this one so that I will come back a more worldly person and can share my knowledge with many others like myself who have been so sheltered from the happenings of the rest of the world. So with this entry, I challenge you all to stop for a moment and take the time to learn about something outside of the world that we know. The knowledge you'll gain has proven to foster quite a rewarding feeling.

So I haven't written in a few days lol my apologies, most days things have been pretty busy and then the other days I just haven't felt I had too much to say. But I guess to catch you all up, I'm in my flat and all settled now. I have 5 roommates and they all seem pretty nice. We each have our own room so there isn't a whole lot of interaction but i'm enjoying it thus far. Classes have begun so i've spent the last couple days trying to get used to that. I'm only taking four courses while i'm here, and they are with regular university students so all of my classes are taught in Spanish. The first couple days were slightly overwhelming but I've been fortunate enough in that all of my professors seems more than willing to help clarify things that I may not initially understand. Things are going quite well. Last weekend, me and a friend traveled to Madrid. Its about 40 miles outside the city by train and it was absolutely wonderful. The trip went soo smoothly which is what made me most excited simply because it was our first traveling excursion since we've been here. I even did a little shopping. Nothing major though. I'm definitely beginning to feel more adjusted to the city and the culture but I miss home. My friends have been really great in making time to keep in touch with me considering the major time difference. My credit and debit card still haven't made it here yet but my Mom has been wonderful in making sure that I have the money that I need. But I'm still waiting for when they do becausee I'm going to personally reward my patience with a trip to the local mall (ironic considering thats where my wallet was stolen in the first place) but I'm definitely going to make an effort to be more careful this time. I think that's about it for now. Not too much is happening so until next time... Adios !

Spain thus far...