El catedral de Justo

I had a great day today. We met this morning to go to Mejorada del Campo which is a city a little ways outside of Madrid. There we got our permanent meto and bus passes. Mine took especially long because I will not be 21 while we are here so I need a youth pass which is much cheaper but needs a lot more paperwork. Mejorada del Campo is the city in which the AYA director lives. She knows a lot about it so she showed us around a bit. There is a man named Justo who has been building a cathedral in Mejorada del Campo for 40 years, brick by brick, all by himself. He is a monk but got teburculosis while in the monistary. He was sent home but believed it was his mission to build a cathedral. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. There are towers and stained glass windows and grand staircases. It really shows persiverence and devotion. Everything he uses is donated so most of the bricks are rejects from building companies. Justo is now 80 years old and is still working on the cathedral. We saw him building away in his monk outfit. After that we had lunch at a little restaurant in town and caught the bus back to the city. Me and a few others decided to go to el parque del buen retiro. This park is humongous and will probably become my new place for running. There is a lake where you can rent row boats and a memorial to the victoms of the 2004 train bombing. It is a beautiful park and will be even more beautiful once spring arrives. Well now I'm going to go take my siesta- my feet are awfly tired from all the walking!