Segovia

On Saturday I was able to go on my first excursion outside of the city. We went to Segovia, famous for El Acueducto, El Alcazar, y El Catedral de Segovia. The city was absolutely amazing and one of my favorite days so far since being here. Even the bus rides to and from the city were fun as we looked for la mujer muerte, a famous part of the mountain range, and watched a beautiful sunset on our way back home.  Here are some pictures from my trip!

Here are some pictures of El Acueducto. This enormous structure was created by the Romans to bring water into the city of Segovia. Although there it is not known exactly when it was created, the story of why it was built is extremely interesting. If you'd like to here it later, let me know, but as most people know, I'm bad at telling stories, so I won't be writing it on here. :)

Here is a picture of the cathedral of Segovia. This cathedral was absolutely amazing! The architecture is in the gothic style and extremely different than the Christian style that is common in the other churches in the city. It was absolutely incredible and so tall!!!!! This church is one of the best things (if not the best) I have seen so far and I am so lucky to have been able to visit it!

Finally, this is a picture of El Alcazar, the beautiful castle that is also in the city of Segovia. I didn't take this picture, but I wanted to show how beautiful it is from the front. This is the first castle I have ever seen (with the exception of the one in Disney World) and it truly seemed unreal. While inside, we were able to see the throne room, the courtyard, the Catholic altar, and so much more. It was truly unbelievable! and fyi, I called dibbs on the room in the front tower for my future bedroom :)

As I said before, the city was just incredible and I can't believe that such beautiful places exist! I can't wait to keep exploring and see what else this beautiful country has to offer.  

This past week has been amazing! From fun discussions with the Spaniards, to traveling to new cities, I couldn't imagine a better way to spend the week! Here's a little bit more about what I've been up to lately.

As I said in my last post, I am living with a host family while here in Spain. This week was full of fun conversations talking with my host mom and sister about topics ranging from travel, to food, to movies. It has been really fun learning about their perspectives on life and how they differ from ours in the United States. It has also been fun to see how many similarities there are and to see how dominant the United States is in the world, especially with respect to the entertainment industry. When walking around, the music that is playing in the stores is almost exactly the same as what you would here in the mall at home, and when turning on the TV, although they may be speaking Spanish, the majority of the shows are the exact same. Because of this, I have been able to have some really fun conversations with my host family which include talking about Mary-Kate and Ashley movies (because yes, we watched one the other night!) and talking about movies like Pretty Woman and While You Were Sleeping (one of my host mom's favorite movies).

In addition to getting to talk to my host mom and sister when at home, this week we had our first "Intercambio" where I was able to talk with other Spaniards from this beautiful city. During the intercambios, the students who are learning Spanish and the students who are learning English get together and spend time practicing their language skills. We spent 4 minutes talking in Spanish and then switched to 4 minutes in English where I was able to see just how far my Spanish has come! It was really fun getting to meet new people and here their perspectives about this beautiful country.

This week has been really fun! After learning a lot while at school in the mornings, my roommate and I come home everyday to eat lunch (la comida en España) and then enjoy the siesta (echar la siesta). This week, we have been able to enjoy getting to know our host mother and sister.

Our host mom is a nurse at a medical center close by and, normally, she wakes up and leaves around 7:30, comes home for la siesta, and then returns to work for the later afternoon. This week was a little different. This week, she had vacation so she spent her time cooking our meals (normally our host dad does this) and talking with us as well as cleaning the entire apartment in the mornings and going to see a few movies at night. It has been fun talking to her during the mealtimes when we otherwise would not normally see her. This week, we taught her that the temperature here (lower 40s) is not very cold. At home, it get's much colder. We tried to explain how cold it was (after having to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius) but she said it couldn't possibly be -7 degrees in Fahrenheit and that we must just be converting wrong. When she finally understood how cold it was, she said she doesn't understand how anyone could live in Wisconsin.

This week, we have also gotten to know our host sister. She is about 30 and will be leaving to go to Australia to live with her boyfriend in little under a month. It is fun talking with her because she understands the difficulties of learning a second language as well as what we are trying to explain when her parents do not understand. She has been learning English for a few years now, so tomorrow, she asked if we could spend some time speaking English because she needs to practice before moving to Australia. We bonded tonight about the difficulties in pronouncing words in a different language. It was interesting to hear her say that the Scottish accent is the most clear for her and that an Irish accent is the most difficult to understand. She also gave us some lessons on how and when to properly use the theta when talking in Spanish. The best parts of the conversations were when she told us some of the mistakes she made when talking in English with other people. Because there are only 5 vowel sounds in the Spanish language, as opposed to the 16 in English, she has a hard time distinguishing between different sounds. Because of this, when she talks, she doesn't notice any differences in some words she says which has lead to some interesting conversations.

It was really interesting hearing from someone who is going through the same process that we are, just switching the languages. Hopefully, we'll be able to help her notice a difference in some words. Tonight we worked on the difference between pitch and peach because they sounded the same to her, but now she can notice a difference. I think we'll have fun in the small amount of time we'll get to see her.

Estoy es todo por ahora. Hasta Luego

Now that we've gotten a little used to the city, it's time to start branching out. This past week, we've all started making plans for where to travel on weekends and what to do for Carnival.

This upcoming weekend, we will be going to Segovia with our professors. This should be a fun trip because Segovia is where el acueducto is (one of the first, or the first aqueducts built in the world, the exact date of when it was built is unknown, but it was built before 1072 when there was an attack on the city) Also in Segovia is El Alcázar. This is a beautiful castle which is still well preserved today. I will post pictures after the weekend!

In addition to this trip, all of the students have begun to plan where to go for Carnival. This is a celebration just like Marti Gras. This celebration is biggest in Brasil, Southern Spain, Portugal, and Venice. Because it is such a big celebration, we get two days off of school so most of us are using it to visit other countries! Planning these trips has kind of been our main focus after school lately.

That's all for today, nothing very interesting, but just preparing for the great trips to come!

Vale, mis clases han empezados! Cuando yo estoy estudiando aqui, mis clases a la Universidad de Valladolid incluyen cultura, gramática, historia, geografía, y literatura española. Los profesores son fantásticos y estoy emocionada por cada clase!

Well, my classes have started. While I am studying here, my classes at the University of Valladolid include Spanish culture, grammar, history, geography, and literature. The professors are fantastic and I'm excited to go to class every day!

In my classes, the majority of the people are from Eau Claire (there are 47 of us here). The next biggest group is from Stevens Point (about 15 I think), but we also have people from California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tai Wan, Korea, Japan, China etc. in the program. It was funny today though because we were talking about stereotypes Americans have of Spaniards and someone said that it was cold in Spain. Then the professor looked around and asked who was from Wisconsin and all but 4 people (2 from Tai Wan and 2 from California) raised our hands. Yeah, we don't think it's cold here.
It's been about 5-7 degrees Celsius here which, I think, is about 40-50
Fahrenheit so it's been perfect! It's basically Spring!

Since being here, I have been able to explore a lot of the city. I have seen most of the well known places, including where Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand were married as well as the biggest and oldest churches in the city and so much more! The city itself is fairly condensed, but the school is on the opposite side of the city from where I live so I have about an hour walk to school every morning and an hour back afterward. But that's alright because then I can explore more parts of the city. This morning when I wrote this originally, I was able to say that I hadn't gotten lost yet, but tonight I kinda did so I can't say that any more! Oops, oh well. Que lástima (what a shame). Everyday I walk about 9-10 miles to get from place to place so I've been able to see the vast majority of the city (I think). The only thing I know I haven't seen yet is the beach, but apparently it's really small, and I'll wait to go there til it gets a little warmer.

So far, it has been fun getting to know about the culture here in Spain and how different it is from Wisconsin. Everyone here walks pretty much everywhere! Pretty much the whole city of Valladolid practices La Siesta (all stores close and everyone goes home to eat lunch with their families and then take a nap. It usually goes from about 2-5), the majority of people stay out extremely late, and everyone enjoys eating/drinking tapas or café con leche when they go out.

P.S. the tapas are fantastic! here are a few pictures from the café that I went to the other night. Hope you enjoy!
Hasta luego!

 Café con leche a un café de la ciudad 







12 de enero

Un poco más de ayer. Anoche tuvimos la cena a una restaurante con todos de los alumnus del programo (Hay muchos) y los profesores. Ademas, una banda mariachi nos canto a nosotros. Aqui hay unas photografias de la cena.

A little more about yesterday. Last night we had dinner at a restaurant with all the students in the program (there are a lot) and the professors. Also, a mariachi band came and sang to us. Here are some pictures from the dinner last night.

Aqui hay unas de las chicas de mi programa de Eau Claire. Me siento suerte que ellas están aquí conmigo.

Here are some of the girls in my program from Eau Claire. I feel so lucky to have them here with me.

Aquí es la ultima parte de la cena que yo tuve. No estoy seguro exactamente lo que es, pero al lado de la carne, tuve papas fritas. Los dos fueron ricos.

Here is the last part of last night's dinner. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but with the meat, we also had French fries which I wasn't expecting. They were both delicious.

 

Y finalmente, aquí es el postre que tuve. Es flan, una postre muy común en España.

And finally, here is the dessert that I had. It is flan, a dessert that is very common in Spain.

 

El primer día fue un exito! Today was amazing, we explored the city and learned a little bit more about our host family and the history of the city we will be living in for the next 5 months. After sleeping in to a normal time in Spain, (a little later than I'm used to) we had a normal breakfast of toast and colacao (pretty sure that's the right spelling) which is basically just like hot chocolate. Following this, we had orientation. On our walk to the building where we had our first meeting, my host dad pointed out some of the famous buildings in Valladolid which include el teatro (the theatre) where they are playing Sister Act right now ( in Spanish of course). After this, my roommate and I were reunited with the other 45 students from Eau Claire who are here with us. Then we had orientation with some of our professors who told us what we will be doing for the next 5 months and talked a little bit about the city we are living in and about the excursions to other cities we will be taking. After this, we began our tour of the city. We started in the building we were in and saw a model of the city and learned about when it was occupied by the moors and how there is a Moorish cemetery somewhere in the city that was discovered. After this we started our tour. Although I don't quite remember the names of all of the places we visited, I'll name a few. The first stop was the place where Ferdinand and Isobel (the old king and queen of Spain that sent Christopher Columbus to the United States) were married. If you don't know the story, it's kind of like Romeo and Juliet. Their families were the royal families of two different parts of Spain and they were constantly in conflict. Then these two married and unified the two kingdoms. After this, we saw a few cathedrals which are old monasteries which are still in use today as well as many cathedrals. We also saw the statue and house of Miguel de Cervantes (the writer of Don Quixote) and the statue of Zorilla (the writer of Don Juan Tenorio). After these, we saw both the oldest cathedral in Valladolid as well as the biggest. One of the Cathedrals had a cross on top of it that was taken from a Mosque when the Christians recaptured Spain over the Moors. We also visited the oldest building of the University and walked through el Plaza Mayor. All in all, it was a very productive day.
Hasta mañana

Pues, estoy aqui! The last two days have been filled with travel, but I am thrilled to say that I have finally arrived. Although some people have said that the turbulence on our plane was horrific, I'm proud to say that I completely slept through it and arrived safely to this beautiful country this morning. After landing in Madrid, my fellow cohorts took a bus to Valladolid, our home for the next few months. So far, we have met our host families and started exploring the city. After being introduced to my host family, my roommate and I were able to try Paella for the first time, and it was delicious! However, I will have to get used to seeing a face on the seafood I eat. After eating, we got situated in our room and the later, I went to my first Catholic mass where I'm proud to say I knew about 5 things they said! Following this, we went on a walk to la Plaza Mayor and learned a little bit about how to get around in this beautiful city. I'm excited to see if the city will look as beautiful during the day as it does at night with all of its Christmas lights still up. Well, that's all I have for tonight, tomorrow will be a different adventure. Hasta luego!

Here goes nothing! I'm so excited to be able to take this trip and visit and learn more about places that, until tomorrow, I've only read about. As most people know, I'm not very technologically inclined, but I'll try to keep people updated on my adventures abroad. I can't believe in under 24 hours I will be landing in Madrid! Here we go!!!