This week definitely flew by! With class and the internship, every day just breezes by. Nothing super out of the ordinary in the beginning of the week. I am finally starting to get into a routine which is fabulous because I love routines and schedules. Speaking of routine, I joined a gym here this week! Even though we do a lot of walking pretty much everywhere, I felt like I needed to find a place to get my cardio in a handful of times a week. I do CrossFit back home, and there is one in Cáceres, but it is too much of a trek for me to make it out there between my classes and internship. The gym I go to is like your typical YMCA or Gold's gym, but smaller and you pay for a time slot. Since I am pretty much booked all day, I chose the time slot from 8-10pm, right after I get done with work. The only downside to the gym is that it's on a sketchy-looking street, but the people at the gym are nice and welcoming so I guess that's a plus. But, working out is a great mood-booster for me, and the membership is relatively cheap, so it is a nice stress-relieving addition to my week!
Anyways, we went on our first excursion on Friday! We got the pleasure of visiting the beautifully quaint town of Mérida. Mérida used to be a very important city for the Roman Empire back in the good ole days of about 25 b.c. I, being the history nerd that I am, loved the city so much. We were mainly in Old Mérida where all the ruins are as opposed to being across the river in New Mérida where all the businesses are. Many of you have probably heard of Mérida from the classic film, Gladiator. Russell Crowe's muscly Maximus is from Merida (you can actually see it in his full name, Maximus Decimus Meridus) where his father is the governor of the province. When he gets into the actual gladiator part of the movie, they nickname him "Spaniard." Oh yeah, gotta love the Romans, am I right? We saw the small coliseum where he starts fighting in the movie. We also saw the old theater where they would host plays back in the day. They still do host plays there. In fact, they open up the theater and host plays in the spring and summer seasons every year. We also go to go to a museum where there we saw everything from intricate flooring and tiny ancient spoons to an ancient crypt. Ah man, just thinking about it gives me goose bumps.
Seeing all of the Roman architecture and paintings and everything was mind-blowing. I had similar feelings as when I was actually in Rome two years ago. It's crazy how they were so advanced for the time they were in. How they designed and constructed the aqueducts, how they segmented some of the pillars for buildings and then stacked them like Legos, everything move they made architecturally was carefully calculated to build things to last. They only thing they couldn't figure out however, was how to keep the heads on their statues (almost all of the ones we saw were headless).
The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. Kyra, my fabulous roommate, and I walked around Cáceres a little on Saturday to hit up some rebajas (meaning "sales", the third best Spanish word next to café and queso). And, as usual, Sunday was our rest and relax morning followed by some quality library time before dinner.
I figure this is when home sickness should be setting in, but I'm not really feeling homesick. Do I miss my family? Oh yes, but I'm learning so much here and honestly, living out one of my biggest dreams of living in another country, so I am trying to soak up everything I can while I'm here. As I was watching a sermon from my home church online this morning, I was reminded of how sweet it is to worship with other like-minded believers. I think that is the thing I miss most this week. But, I still have yet to go to a traditional Catholic mass, which is something that I definitely want to experience here. But there is still time! This week we are all going to Sevilla, not school related, to check out more of Spain! If you are wondering where all my pictures are from Mérida, I am slowly but surely making another short little video about what we saw, and all pics will be on there.
Love you guys!
Adventure Awaits,
Maddie
