Segovia

I can’t believe I’ve only been here about 5 days. It seems much longer.  I’m finally somewhat settled in though, as I now have a PHONE so I can actually CALL HOME.  It was quite a fiasco trying to acquire it, involving passports and getting a bit lost trying to walk home from the store that was 2 blocks away.  It’s been a stressful week, for sure!  Hopefully next week will go more smoothly.

Yesterday our host mom made us paella for comida! It was SO GOOD.  She made it with chicken, sausage, and I think at least four different types of seafood, including shrimp… the kind that still have the eyes and antennae on.  I made myself get past the creepiness and tried to eat it like Carmen showed us how, but I made a big mess and got saffron stains all over my fingers.  The clams in it were good, as was the rice and peppers and, well, everything.

Last night I explored Puerta del Sol with Abby (Loyola friend/roommate) and Rachel (Madrid housemate). 

We went in a few shops, bought some things (I bought a scarf, a necklace, and a converter), and found a place to get some dinner after much wandering down many different streets.  We settled on a cervecería and I ordered Fanta de limón (Lemon Fanta. Delish.) and a fried calamari sandwich.  When we ordered our drinks they gave us little plates of food.  One was of chuletas, which is basically the fatty reject parts of the ham that have been fried and covered in salt. It was… interesting.  But now I can say I’ve tried it.  The other was French fries covered in this sauce that looked like ketchup but was actually extremely spicy and not ketchupy at all.  The calamari sandwich was pretty good, but after I ate it I felt a bit blah.  After dinner we decided to go to the Plaza Mayor, which took lots of touristy looking at the map and thinking we were lost. In fact, the Plaza Mayor is right next to the Puerta del Sol, as long as you choose the right street!  It was so cold outside, so after we found the Plaza, we decided to call it a night, especially as we had to get up early the next morning for the IES trip to Segovia.

I began the day by waking in a panic at 7:50 AM because my phone’s alarm, which was set and turned on, didn’t go off.  We scarfed a piece of toast each and booked it to the metro, luckily arriving at the IES center on time.  The buses left about 15 minutes later for Segovia.  The ride there was about an hour long, and during this time I enjoyed the scenery through the bus window.  There were fields and mountains and shrubs everywhere, and cows around every turn.  We drove up into the mountains and were soon surrounded by fog and frost.  We saw a massive cross atop one mountain and Abby pointed out that it was the tomb of Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain during and after the Spanish Civil War. I recognized it from the documentary I watched last year in my Spanish Lit class. He had ordered the construction of his own tomb years before he died. Below the cross was a marble edifice carved into the mountain, inside of which Franco was buried.

Franco's tomb

The first thing we saw of Segovia was the famous aqueduct.  It was huge, I’m not sure how many feet tall, and 2000 years old.  The Romans really did know how to build things to last.

Did I mention it was COLD? I mean freezing.  I was in my peacoat and scarf and I was shaking.  Everyone was.  I had been all prepared to brag about how warm it was in Madrid, feeling like spring and all, to everyone in the arctic wasteland that is Chicago, but I couldn’t really do that today.  We went on a little walking tour and then had about 15 minutes of free time during which Abby and I looked at some shops.  One thing I’ve noticed since I got to Spain: EVERYTHING is on sale. Rebajas por todas partes.  I didn’t buy anything (nor did I all day, in fact!) and after that we headed up to the Alcázar.  Which is this big castle built hundreds and hundreds of years ago which Walt Disney based Cinderella Castle on.  Ferdinand and Isabel, “Los Reyes Catolicos,” lived there, and the inside has a really cool mix of Christian and Moorish art, as well as multiple suits of armor, weapons, and a creepy painting of a child with black holes for eyes.  O_O

House with cool facade

Alcazar de Segovia

Once we finished our tour we headed down a VERY steep hill on a dirt path.  Bit scary, really.  We headed next to a very old Roman church in a field next to the hill where the Alcázar is located.  Aside from being super old and architecturally significant, it wasn’t super exciting, but cool to see.

What WAS exciting was lunch.  We took buses to another town where this restaurant, El Rancho, was located.  Here we were served a 4-course meal over the span of two and a half hours.  We ate roasted red peppers, tortilla de patata (kind of like a potato omelette but not really…), pan tomaca (which appears to be the Spanish version of bruschetta), croquetas, and this AMAZING roasted chicken that had this great crispy skin and just fell off the bone and smelled and tasted heavenly.  Because this apparently wasn’t enough food to hold us for a week, they served us a sort of pastry for dessert.  We also had coffee that came in tiny cups.

Pollo asado

Dessert

Mostly everyone slept on the bus back.  It dropped us off at the main metro station, I took it back to my house, and plopped myself down on the bed where I’ve been pretty much since then.  I’ve decided not to go out tonight and instead use this time to talk to people in America and catch up on sleep.

Buenas noches!

Primer dia/First day (posted a day later)

Phew. End of the first day(s?).  I’m exhausted and I’m not sure how long I’ve been awake (apart from the sweet nap I took earlier).  I made the mistake of getting a good night’s sleep at home the night before I left; as a result, I couldn’t sleep on the plane, not that I’m any good at doing that anyway.  I’m going to bed soon and I’m SUPER EXCITED for sleep.

My flight left O’Hare at 2, and when I was checking my bags, the girl at the kiosk next to me overheard me talking to the skycap and asked which program I was doing.  I told her and it turned out we were in the same program.  I was glad to have someone else to navigate the many airports with me!  She told me her name was Katherine and she was also from the area.  We got to our gate with plenty of time, got on the two-hour flight to Philadelphia, and arrived there early.  Luckily the terminal we had to transfer to was nearby.  I knew I’d be hungry so I got a slice of pizza from a restaurant near our gate in the international terminal.  Behind me in line was a woman with two young girls, and when they spoke, they had English accents! I love the international terminal.

After I scarfed the pizza like it was my last meal on Earth, it was time to board.  It finally started to hit me that I was actually going to Madrid, and my heart beat faster from a combination of nerves and excitement.  I looked at my ticket. 15E.  I was hoping I’d have an aisle but this turned out to be right in the middle of a woman and her very young son, probably not much older than a year and a half, and an older man who looked to be in his late 50s/early 60s.  In my head I pleaded the little boy to sleep a lot on the plane.  There was an extra seat in our row, so I moved over one so the mother and son could have more space. She had been holding him, and after I moved over I glanced at them and saw that she was breastfeeding him.  On the plane, right next to me.  Hm.  Alrighty then.  It was a bit strange to me, but I know that most other cultures aren’t as weird about that as Americans.  And you know what?  I think that contributed to the child’s outstanding quietness on the flight.  He made a little noise and squirmed a bit, but overall was probably one of the best-behaved children I have ever seen on a plane, especially one that’s in the air for seven hours.

I tried to sleep on the flight. Really tried.  But I just couldn’t, even after I figured out (after what seemed like an eternity) how to lean my seat back.  I think I dozed off a bit, but it couldn’t have been for more than 20 minutes.  Once they turned the cabin lights back on I gave up and started watching The Social Network from the little screen on the back of the seat in front of me.  I thought it was really good, but I got cut off maybe about halfway through, maybe less, because we were landing.

We arrived at the dark, extremely foggy Barajas airport at about 7:30 in the morning, Madrid time, meaning 12:30 a.m. Chicago time.  I didn’t really feel tired, and the adrenaline of finally being in Madrid was keeping me awake.  It turned out there were about 47,000 study abroad students on our flight. Ok, maybe not THAT many, but there were a lot, some doing the Madrid program, others Granada, Salamanca, and Seville.  Customs was a breeze and our luggage came quickly; I think it was because no one else was at the airport, or at least it seemed like it.  We gathered in groups by people holding IES signs and they helped us get cabs to the hotel where we’re spending the night tonight.  A girl in my program named Laura and I shared a cab, and in between holding on for dear life as the car swerved through the city, we talked about where we were from, school, the fact that Ke$ha and Katy Perry were on the radio in the taxi, etc.  We arrived at the hotel intact (amazingly), and quickly checked in and went up to a room.  Which is actually quite spacious and nice, despite the unnerving lack of clocks and shower that drains really slowly.  Oh, and the bathroom has a bidet in it. :D  Not that I even know how to use one. It just amuses me.  By then it was about 9:30 a.m., and Laura and I decided to take a really awesome, 2-hour nap.  While my phone doesn’t even know what day it is anymore, my iPod luckily is equipped with clocks for multiple time zones as well as an alarm.  That nap, and the shower I took afterwards, may be the reason I am still awake and (barely) coherent. 

At 1pm we headed downstairs to the lobby where the IES students were gathered.  Abby (for those unfamiliar with her, my roommate freshman year and first semester junior year and future senior year roommate.  We’re lucky enough to live well together) and I found each other.  Her flight arrived later than mine did and she hadn’t had a chance to nap.  It really is nice to have someone familiar here, as everything else is so new and different.  We headed to the welcome lunch, which consisted of multiple courses of bread, vegetables, a huge piece of meat, and dessert, and talked to other students.  Then the IES directors talked to us about the program, safety, classes, and other things that I can’t remember.  We had a break after that for a couple hours where Abby and I figured out where on the map of Madrid we were living and where the IES center was and how to get there on the Metro.  At 5:30 we went back downstairs where we met Spanish students who were to take us on walks through the city.  Pablo (I think that was his name) took us down streets, past shops and bars and restaurants, past the Palacio Real and into the Plaza Mayor.  This was one of my main memories of visiting Madrid when I was in high school and it was really cool to be there again.  I plan to find Ocean (certain people will get this) and also the bar we had churros y chocolate in during my high school trip.  The weather was really nice, if just a bit chilly.  Warm really, compared to when I left Chicago.  It was funny to see all the Spanish people bundled up in coats and scarves, while I was just wearing a sweater.  Much was seen on this walk but I’m not going to go into too much detail as I’ll do that when I have pictures to accompany my descriptions.

After the walk Abby and I took advantage of the free Wi-Fi at a nearby Starbucks, and then when we were past the point of tired, we returned to the hotel, where I am sitting now, on the bed, clearly far too sleep-deprived than is healthy as I’m slightly hallucinating that the bed is moving up and down like waves on the ocean.  So I’m going to sleep now.  And I’ll post this tomorrow as I don’t want to pay for an hour of internet that I won’t use.

Pre-departure blog!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. I'll actually be keeping another one for Loyola, which will probably be about the same as this one.  Once I actually create it I'll link it.  And I think I might make some sort of photo account (Flickr, maybe? Tumblr?) because I'll be posting LOADS.

I leave for Madrid in 2 days.  I think I'm just about ready to leave... I at least know what clothes I'm taking and I think it's just enough, but not too much!  Most importantly, I think everything is going to fit in my suitcase.  I'll be relieved once I actually get there.  Preparing to go is stressing me out a bit, as I've spent the past few weeks running around buying things I'll need and spending time with friends and family, as well as worrying what Spain will be like, how the family I'm staying with will receive me, and if my Spanish is up to par.  But I know it's useless to worry about this since I'll only just find out when I get there, and I know it'll be fine.  I would like to know a bit more about my roommate though! She's not on Facebook so I know literally nothing about her other than that her name is Rachel.

Well, I fly out Sunday and probably won't have a chance to post again until afterwards.  So, the next time you hear from me, I'll be in Madrid!

Now, to figure out why this South Park episode keeps pausing...