Start of a new semester

(+) 2 tapas: El Escorial and hike to los Caídos
The Sunday before the semester started again I joined my roommate and two of his friends on an excursion an hour outside of Madrid. Our original destination was the Valle de los Cuelgamuros, also known as Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen – aka the fallen soldiers fighting on Franco’s side during the Spanish civil war). Well when we were on the bus we missed our stop and went to the end instead, which dropped us off in the middle of El Escorial, which actually worked out for the better since I haven’t been there yet. Basically it’s the old residence of the king of Spain, but then functioned as the hunting grounds for the royal family, according to my Spanish friends.

Backside of El Escorial, from the gardens

After our walk around El Escorial we eventually caught the same bus in the opposite direction and got off at the base of the mountain of los Caídos. The four of us started walking up the road, and at the pay-booth the guy gave us all youth discounts, probably because he felt sorry we were walking the 6Km uphill instead of driving like normal people; I was with three 26 y.o. men. So anyway, we slowly made our ascent along the road and finally made it to the monument, an enormous cross on the top of the mountain, standing over the burial ground of Franco. It’s a pretty controversial place because a) Franco constructed it to commemorate the Fascists basically, and b) it was built by prisoners of war. Anyway, it’s pretty creepy and macabre, but kind of cool and the valley is really beautiful. We ended up taking a taxi down the mountain, which literally took 2 minutes as opposed to the 2 hours it took us to walk uphill. I had a great time and can’t wait to go on more excursions!

Monument on top of basilica-church where Francisco Franco is buried.

Looking out at the Valley of the Fallen.

(-) 1 tapa: new semester

I hate picking classes. I also hate the fact that I can’t find a single communication class to transfer back for my major. So now I will only be able to transfer 3 classes from the whole year back for my major, all economics classes luckily. At least I can understand my professors better this semester.

(+) 1 tapa: My internship
I’ve now gone back to the Magdala a couple times and am really starting to like it. Right now I’m working on a project about Honduras, basically doing research to decide if it’s a good place to launch a micro-lending bank. This is the website for the foundation: http://www.fundacionmagdala.org/

(+) 2 tapas: the weather
… is AMAZING. It’s so warm and beautiful right now, I’m afraid it’s suddenly going to go away soon though. But at least I can enjoy it while it’s here, and at least it’s not raining like it is back in Marin, har har har.