Frozen from my nose to my toes

We had our first excursion today.... and it was freeeeeeezing the whole time. Started by going to Aviles, which is an old Spanish town surrounded by medieval stone walls. But the walls do not block out the frigidness as much as you would expect. We went to the coldest churches I've ever been in and learned about romanesque and gothic architecture. I don't know how people attend them without getting frostbite.

To be completely honest, I did not absorb nearly as much information as I should have. I need to work on improving my Spanish attention span.

Después, we thawed in the bus and drove over to San Lorenzo de el Esocorial, where I had my first meal in a Spanish restaurant. The menu was more confusing than I would have expected. Luckily my professor explained to me what "squid in their own ink" and "blood sausage" were, so I steered away from those. I had some kind of soup with egg and bread in it (sounds weird but it was good) and fish fried in eggs. Then for dessert I got arroz con leche (rice with milk). Yummy, yummy!

A street in San Lorenzo de el Escorial

After lunch we toured El Escorial, which is a famous monastery/royal headquarters. It was there that I realized I really did need to start paying more attention to the Spanish tour guide because I was standing in a room full of caskets with rotting royalty and didn't even know it!  My favorite part was the library with painted ceilings, wooden bookshelves, and lots of golden books.

And finally -- I've been promising pictures of my apartment, so here ya go, loveys!

The entrance to my building (there's a doorman inside!)

Mi cuarto

View from my window

I'll post many more pictures to Facebook eventually. And I finally figured out how to get my camera connected to my computer, so I can upload more frequently now.