Halfway Done

It's hard to believe that I've already been here for over 2 weeks! However, it's starting to slow down now that I've realized that. I had a good week that was more normal than not! Some differences here compared to the US that I have noticed:

-Portion sizes at restaurants are reasonable enough that no one ever takes boxes home. It'd probably be strange to ask since I've never seen it.
-Ice is rare in drinks
-Spongebob Squarepants=Bob Esponja Pantalones
-It takes 5 escalators to get from the Metro train up to the street level at my apartment's stop
-There are never paper towels in the bathrooms, only air dryers
-There are not clothes dryers in many places, everyone hangs their clothes out of the window

Tuesday (7/13) was pretty normal, went to class and did homework. Fun Fact: Tuesday the 13th is Spain's unlucky day, just like Friday the 13th is unlucky in the US. Made some dinner with groceries. Wednesday (7/14) was good. I had my conversation class midterm today which was really nervewrecking, I'm really intimidated by the teacher of that class. It was an interview where she asked me to describe or explain things that we have discussed in class.

We went to Palacio Real de Madrid that had stuff from Carlos III and Felipe II. We toured the palace rooms that were all ornate with different colors and decor styles: blue dining room, Oriental Smoking Room, wood room, porcelin room, etc. The gardens were sculpted all around the palace. A few rooms had pieces of silverware and crystal that was used back then. There was an armory display that held the armor and weapons of Carlos and Felipe. They had stuff for the horses and small armor for kids so they could practice and take pride in their abilities to walk in such heavy pieces. Kristin has been here since session one and we both love art and history, so we took more time looking around than the other people in the group. We definitely enjoyed ourselves and soaked it all in. There was a giant courtyard in the middle of the palace that had gold lamps and a cathedral is next door, we'll visit there another day.

Later that night, Alex, Vanessa, and some of Alex's friends in another program met up in Sol for cheap tapas and beer. 1 euro for beers and little sandwiches, great deal!

Thursday 7/15 was a normal class day. I gave a presentation in my conversation class about Pamplona which was also nervewrecking. That night I went to an apartment of some girls from session one and went out with all of them. It was good to talk with some of the people who I have only seen in class! We went to a nice club called Pacha and I ended up not sleeping. Good night though, no regrets with staying out!

Friday 7/16 Made it to class to find that we had Movie Day in my 2hr grammar class. I could not have loved my professor more at that moment. We watched a musical/comedy called "The Other Side of the Bed." Needless to say, I slept all afternoon. We went out and got some Sushi with a group, then came back and watched "Jamon Jamon," a strange Spanish film that was Penelope Cruz's start as an actress. The tagline: A film where women eat men and men eat ham.

Today 7/17: We had our field trip to Segovia. This morning we woke up to find that we had no water, so I couldn't take a shower, brush my teeth, or wash my face. So I ended up taking my bathroom stuff to school where we would meet the bus by 8:50am, only to find that the university buildings didn't open until 9:00am. So I bought a bottle of water from the busdriver and washed my face right outside the bus and dried off with a t-shirt I brought. It could have been worse, at least it wasn't a school day.

The bus ride was about an hour and a half. There was a lot of history with the city and the castle that we visited. I got tons of pictures! You've probably seen shorter beds from older sites. The people in the Renaissance were superstitious and believed that if they were to sleep completely laying down, they would be too similar to the dead and were afraid that they wouldn't wake up in the morning if they did so. Therefore, they would sleep almost sitting with a bunch of pillows to avoid being completely flat, so the beds didn't need to be very long. We went up the tower to the very top of the castle, 152 steps in a narrow spiral stone staircase.

After the castle, we walked around their Plaza Mayor and looked in the shops, went down the streets. I got a pastry since I didn't eat breakfast in the madness of the lack of water fiasco. We ate at a nice restaurant where we had roast suckling pig (part of Segovia's culture) and trout. The pig comes out flat on a big serving dish with the head still intact. The waiter had one of our people go up and repeat a saying after him. She then cut and pounded the pig with the edge of the plate, then finished by dropping the plate on the floor. It was really tasty. Dessert was Torta de Poche, a great cake/custard dessert. We were definitely in a food coma. I got tons of pictures of the food there too! We finished the trip by visiting their famous Roman aqueduct. We visited the memorial part of it where it is the tallest. She told us a great story about a Virgin Mary statue in the middle of it. Very cool culture.

The streets and images in Segovia were more of the type of thing I expected to find in Spain. Madrid is more of a big city, so it was good to see a smaller province with old buildings that were different, more charming and simple. Cobblestone streets, orange stones and brick.

We're taking it easy this evening after being out all day in the sun. We have another Spanish movie to watch, hopefully we have more success with it! Hasta luego!