Franco = a disappointment

Hola mis amores!
I am so so so so so TIRED!!
Yesterday we went to El Escorial, which is a monastery/palace/library/church. whew! Big place and it takes FOREVER to walk up an enormous hill just to get there! My butt is so sore today, haha. Definitely worth it though...there was even a wedding going on when we were there! We hung around there for most of the day, going on an EXTREMELY long tour, which I have to admit, while fascinating (we saw where Carlos V died), was a little bit too long for me. We also saw where the kings and queens of Spain are interred, and the "rotting rooms" where the current king's parents are now rotting.
I cannot tell you how disgusting I think that is.
Anyway, then we went up to El Valle de los Caidos, which is an enormous monument to the victims of the Spanish Civil War, but built by prisoners of the war (mostly political prisoners) and mostly in honor of Franco.

Ok, so this man, this dictator, has this huge monument built, where he is going to be buried, and then he has himself buried in the floor. In the FLOOR, with a tiny little plaque!! I walked right by it...TWICE. LAME, Senor Franco, LAME. I mean, come on, if I were a dictator I would totally have a huge mausoleum built for me when I died. It might not stay up after you die, but I say if you're going to be a big powerful dictator, you might as well TRY to retain that after death. I still can't believe that that's it. I was so disappointed, it was a little pathetic.
It also rained while we were there - I was cold for the first time in Madrid.
I tried to go to a movie last night, but ended up just getting ice cream and coming home. I am not good at this whole staying out till 6am thing. Oh well...
Today I went over to where my friend Molly is living...oh my gosh, they have this beautiful park..I want to live with her!
More classes this week, with a midterm on Thursday...ack!
I'm starting to plan a trip to Lisbon and hopefully one to Rome too. Molly and I are already planning to go together - not only will it be amazing, but she has Gilmore Girls AND Friends on DVD. We are going to have an AWESOME time.
Ok mis amores, I need to do the rest of my homework. I think tonight I'm going to try again with the whole movie thing. I think it would be good for my Spanish.
hope all is well with everyone, muchos besos