Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!!

So it's absolutely crazy to think that I have already been here for almost a month! I don't know where the time has gone, but I feel like I should be able to speak better Spanish by now. I can definitely understand quite a but more but I don't feel like I can speak it too well. This last week we went to the Madrid temple. We went on Tuesday just to find out where it is, and to go and ask about making an appointment to do baptisms. After that we went into Madrid and we saw some flamenco dancing on the street and we found a Ben and Jerry's place and got ice cream and made friends with the two ladies working there!! They loved us, and loved that we were from the states trying to learn Spanish! In fact, they loved us so much, they gave us free Ben and Jerry's bags!! We went to the temple again on Thursday afternoon for baptisms. It was a great experience and we will definitely be going back more frequently! Most of the people working there were from the states, but a few were from other places. One couple, the husband served his mission in Brazil, then they served 2 missions in French-Canada, 2 more in South Africa, and now in Madrid. He could speak 4 languages fluently... so awesome!! We also met this girl who grew up in the states, studied Spanish for 8 years, served a mission speaking Portuguese and married a French man, and now they live in France! Alright, so here is a funny story for all of you! Sammy able to come with us to the temple, and we only have one set of house keys between the two of us, so she kept the key so that she could go somewhere if she wanted. I got home from the temple and didn't have a cell phone or a key to the house, and in Spain all of the town homes have a locked gate on the outside with a microphone pager thing so that you can beep it to get the attention of the people in the house. However, when I got home, someone hadn't put the pager phone on the hook all the way in the house, so I could hear everything that was going on inside but I couldn't press the beeper because the phone wasn't on the hook. So I started yelling Sami's name and was banging on the gate and she couldn't hear me. I could barely see over the gate, but I finally saw someone in the kitchen, I continued banging on the gate. I would have just hopped it, but I was in my dress and heals. Finally I can tell that whoever was in the kitchen can see me out there, but I didn't recognize this person. She goes over to the phone and asks who I am and I said "Bryanne". She hung up without opening the gate. Luckily she hung it up all the way, so now I can beep it! She again asked "quien es? (whose this?)" and I said Bryanne, then louder and slower she says "como se llama (what is your name!" and again I said Bryanne, then I said I live here with Maria and then she was like OOOH OKOK!! So I made it through the gate, Sami still upstairs in our room having not a clue in the world what I was dealing with. I got to the front door, and here, we need the key to open the front door from both the inside and the outside. This older woman who I later find out is Maria's mom is attempting to shuffle through the house to find the key to the front door, and asking me why I don't have a key. After about 5 whole minutes she has tried about 10 keys, none of which work. She said a few things in Spanish that I didn't understand then we went over to the window and she was using her cane to try and unlock it so that I could open it from the outside, that whole process took another 10 minutes, the whole time I am asking if Samantha is here and she just kept on saying a whole lot of things I didn't understand. I was seriously about to climb through the window, except I was kind of worried about the scalding I would get from grandma. She finally said something about there being an other girl there, and I said YES YES!! and she asked what her name was and I said Samantha so she shuffled over to the stairs and yelled for her, and finally Sami came down with her key and opened the door for me! It was quite the adventure, and then we found out that Maria's mom was in the hospital and not doing so well so now she too has moved in. We now have me and Sami, Peter, and now abuela! At this rate of acquiring one new person a week Maria will have about 10 more new people move in before we leave to go home!

Friday morning we left for our weekend trip to a town called Toledo!! We stopped and saw a palace and we went to a cathedral there as well. The city was super pretty! It's known for its swords. Toledo is where the swords for Kings and knights everything else were made from way back when. They had sword and armor shops all over the place! They were so cool! We ate at this delicious place that has these sandwich like things called Kebops. They are basically hot sandwiches on this really good bread with veggies and this delicious sauce! On the way to Toledo I started getting a stuffy nose and then Saturday morning I woke up feeling awful. I now have a wonderful head cold/cough, and I am NOT happy about it. Today was our first fast Sunday here, and it went really well for me! I understood a lot more than I thought I would, and even at lunch today I felt like I knew a lot of what they were talking about and when they asked me questions, I was able to respond with more than just a "si!" :) It's coming along...slowly but surly!

A group of us at a palace near Toledo

A cool train thing by the palace! Its called the chiquitren

This is Toledo!!!

Toledo!!!!!!!!!

It was sooooo nice and sunny in Alcala so we went on a 2 hour long walk exploring!!!