The rest of Madrid

So. These pictures are the leftovers. I'm trying to finish up Madrid so I can show you San Sebastian--which was fabulous and will probably have to be like 3 posts because I took so many pictures.

These turtles are in the train station in Madrid. Dr. Hiltpold took us to see them :)

Most of these pictures are from La Escorial. I realize that I don't get to show you pictures of the inside of  any of the churches (because we weren't supposed to take pictures), which was one of my favorite parts. They were so beautiful--big, but solemn and restful. It kind of made me wish we still built churches like that, but at the same time, I see how the focus could be taken off God and put on all the stuff. Like the things that they carry the communion bread in--probably worth thousands of dollars. 

Anyway, here's some La Escorial outdoor pictures.

This is one of the courtyards in La Escorial

Um. The Palace with all of the kings (David, Solomon and a few other Israelite kings)

I think the most beautiful part was the gardens. Although the pictures don't do it justice.

Part of the gardens.

The gardens at La Escorial--you can't see it really well here, but the view was fabulous!

There is a road going through here. I just thought it was an odd view of this car going through a palace. . .

Left to right: Me with my head of lettuce, Mary, Sammy, Gabby, Daniella, Sam, Savannah, and Amy

Thursday night before we went out we had a picnic in one of our hotel rooms with all the girls in the group. It was really nice and I would have been happy just to keep hanging out in the room. And. . .then we left on Friday. And that's Madrid :)

On the subject of churches, a couple of the guys in the group and I went to an international baptist church last week. It was really cool--although an hour's walk away. It's a pretty small church, but several people came up and welcomed us, including one of the college guys who will hopefully give us rides to church :D and two girls from Brasil!

On a completely unrelated note, I tried morcilla (blood sausage) the other day and really liked it.

And I played the piano in my room ^_^ which made me happy.

I really want to write about San Sebastian, but I have a paper on Moorish influence in Valladolid to write. So. . .

If you want to know you can pray for me it would be that I would know how to balance my time--school is getting easier to manage, but I'm still not making the time I want to read my Bible and pray, which is keeping my focus from being on how I can serve God with each day.

So. Yes. Time management: to go write my essay. (Mary did just buy candy so I'll have some chocolate to help me with my essay :)