Jeeze, I'm really starting to suck at this, lo siento chicos. Basically a lot has happened since I last updated, so I feel like this is gonna be a doozy. Let's begin with about where we left off, last weekend. I'm sure something happened in school, but I know you all don't want to learn about what I'm learning. Oh, besides the class thing, we went to El Castillo, which has the most amazing churros con chocolate on the face of the earth (or at least that I've tried so far) where we were invited to some Celtic music thing later that night at a cafe. It ended up not being exactly what we expected, but a good time nevertheless. Plus it was away from Calle Santiago where the Grim lives (because he showed up again Thursday night after we went out to the bars). And then the next day we went to Segovia.
I'm not going to gush every detail of the day here because it would probably bore you all to pieces, so I will just give a preview and (hopefully) soon there will be a fully commentated slew of fotos on facebook. If you don't have my facebook, you're probably a creep and should stop reading about my life. Just kidding, but seriously. Anyway, Segovia; it's pretty spectacular. It's even smaller than Valladolid, but unlike this precious city in which I'm currently living, Segovia has a giant freaking aqueduct at the entrance to the city. This aqueduct was the product of the Romans in the 1st century. It's still standing quite solidly without any use of cement. It was a little terrifying but awe-inspiring at the same time. We proceeded to be lead through the city by one of our 3 male professors because apparently the women know nothing about Segovia. That's probably not true, but the male teachers are the ones with subjects that deal with visiting cities. We learned a lot about how the city was built/decorated before they let us loose for a small break. We checked out the Catedral (Cathedral) there which was the last gothic cathedral constructed in all of Spain. Besides costing 3 euros, I'd said it was pretty neat, but it wasn't any warmer and I'm not particularly religious so I could've done without in all honesty. Following the Catedral, a small group ventured over to the contemporary art museum. It was much better and cheaper. One of the exhibits was cinematography about a woman who painted her lover's shadow and is now the only art left after an attack. There was also some strange hand puppetry about Zeus and one of his lovers. It got awkward. Then the last was a room with different photos of people standing in front of famous art which appeared like they were in the art itself. The last thing we checked out were some Esteban Vicente pieces. They were very he-got-paid-for-this-how?, but I did enjoy it. The only problem was that my mind liked to make me think that the colors were bleeding into one another when they definitely weren't. Also, one of the employees followed us around the entire time like we were going to pocket one of the paintings the size of an ancient computer and run off with it. And then it was time for Alcazar! So this is the castle is Segovia. We got a very awesome tour of it, led once again by one of our professors. Lots of history, humor, and horror. The fotos will explain much better about some of these themes. Then we got the chance to walk up to the top of the tower, which I did, of course. 152 steps later (yes, that is bigger than the Hill in Eau Claire), I got to see one of the most gorgeous sights of my life. We once again had some free time in which we looked at touristy shops and bought some delicious concoction from a sweet shoppe. Seems like it went by fast, and it did, but dang I was sore by the end and slept the whole way home.
That night we returned to Valladolid and our houses like little freezie pops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I KNOW it's freaking cold in Wisconsin, but you also have ski jackets. I have a fleece and the interior coat from my winter jacket. Not sufficient, especially when walking about 30-45 min home at night. Our host mom wanted us to go take a shower (not together) to warm up... which is extremely weird because I can't even leave the hot water running when taking a shower, so she must have been really concerned. Which reminds me of this great story I haven't yet shared.
So, I'm on our balcony hanging up my laundry when Belen lets someone in the house. She calls Katie out and I hear a man's voice. I'm mildly curious, but don't leave my chores at that moment. Of course this didn't last long and I went to see who was here. It was a police officer in full uniform. Belen asks if he needs to talk to me, too, and he says yes! It was the casual exchange of niceties before he drops the bomb. "Documentation" I'm sure you can figure out what that means. At the same time, Katie is coming out of our room with her passport in hand. We have NO idea what's going when Belen bursts out laughing! Turns out it was a huge joke and the police officer was her friend that she invited up since it was so chilly.
Back to the frigid night, we decided to go out, but not far because 1) we didn't think we could make it and 2) we didn't want to walk on Calle Santiago. We ended up finding a little cafe not far from home. We got hot chocolate and it was a good time.
Sunday was a relaxing day. Got some more churros con chocolate with Andrea, Kelsey, and Esteban before seeing wizards on our way home. Yes, there are wizards in Spain. Okay, probably not, but they were wearing cloaks and looked like wizards, no joke. So I've decided I need to try to get into the Ministry of Magic here, somehow. The rest of the day was sleepy, lazy, and homework filled which is never fun, so I will not bore you with those facts.
So these past three days... I'm just going to sum up. School is going well still. I don't think it's ever going to be too bad except facing my oh-so-favorite professor. I talked to the family of the little girl I'm going to be teaching. So I have made my first official Spanish phone call. It was frightening and an experience I wish not to repeat. Tuesday led to the discovery of Blanco, a clothing shop that is freakishly like ModCloth... I might have some problems over here. It was also the day of the first meal I didn't like! It was mushrooms, so you can't really blame me, right? And then the big event of today was my getting a library card and checking out the first 3 Harry Potter books in Spanish. It is my goal to read them while I'm here, and I'm very excited. One last exciting thing before I go, Superbowl Sunday. I'm gonna watch it at a bar here at 2 am in the freaking morning! Pumped!
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