Yesterday, we traveled to Segovia. It is a more touristic town, so I was finally able to get some magnets and other gifts for my family. I also bought a full size flag, which I’m really excited about! This is the town with the aqua ducts- this cool looking bridge thing that transports water from the mountains to the city. I’ll try to put a pic up on here to show you, but if not, ill have pics of it up on Facebook. We also saw some really nice landscapes and churches. Our house mothers packed us lunches to eat in Segovia. There was a festival going on there though, so it was so crowded we couldn’t find a place to sit. Finally, we just sat on the side of some buildings in the street and ate our lunch like homeless people. Segovia is also home to the Alcazar, one of the castles that Walt Disney used to design his. The castle was so huge and pretty inside. We climbed 152 stairs up through the tower to go on top of the castle. I would love to live there, and I couldn’t believe how big it was. The moat around it was at least 6 stories below the entrance, and then you still have to take 152 stairs to the top. I can only imagine how many floors it must have. It also had a lot of things made out of gold on the inside including tapestries, furniture, and the walls and ceilings. Of course before we left Segovia, we bought ice cream. It is so unbelievable how much better the ice cream is here! I’m going to miss it so much. What I don’t believe, is that it is made by Nestle! I don’t know why Nestle sells all their crappy stuff to America and ships all the good ice cream to Europe. It is so much softer, but doesn’t melt as fast, and has chocolate chips in it, and never has freezer burn.
After Segovia, my Italian roommate Giulia made us pizza. She said that the pizza is just like you have in Italy. We had crust with tomato sauce on it, and then small slices of provolone scattered that didn’t cover the whole pizza. Then she sprinkled it with parmesan cheese and oregano and topped it with cherry tomato slices. It was really good! When I get home, I’m going to try to make some of the stuff she does. Later, we went out to a popular club here, where an older man was having a bachelor party. The guys looked like they were in the mob with pin-striped suits and hats. They were so funny looking because everybody else in the club was young. The man said this was his 5th marriage! If I failed 4 times before, I don’t think I would try again, but I guess divorce is very common here. Me and my friends practiced our Spanish with them and they gave us a few pointers about Valladolid. At first, they seemed like creepers but in the end they were just sweet old grandpas that just wanted a little fun.
Showing posts with label study abroad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label study abroad. Show all posts
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
first day in spain
So today I arrived in Spain. The plane ride from Newark to here was only 6 hours, but I never want to take a flight where youre supposed to sleep again. It´s just to hard to sleep upright.
Anyways, when we got here, if I didn´t know I arrived in Spain, I would´ve thought this was America. In Madrid, they have tall buildings like any other city and you still drive on the right side of the road. Valladolid, where I am staying, has older and shorter buildings with cool architecture but still looks similar to America. The sidewalks are even wider than those in NYC and they have cafes all over them, there´s a shopping center that looks like Crocker Park, and a park that looks like Central Park.
My other roommate is from Italy but she hasnt gotten here yet. She is coming Sunday. My Mama is really nice though, but sometimes we can´t understand eachother. She only speaks Spanish. She is diabetic so everything she makes is healthy which is good. It is different how they eat. Breakfast and dinner are eaten on your own. I can go out to eat or heat something up if I want. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and you have it with family. We had 3 courses. The first course was brocoli and potatoes, the second was chicken, and the last course is always fruit and we had an apple. I would have liked eating the broccoli and potatoes better with the chicken instead of by themselves. Who sits there and eats just vegetables?
After I got settled in I called a girl, Kassie, from my group to meet up and walk around the city. We went to the park and the plaza and had our first shopping experience together. We both wanted ice cold water because at our homes, they drink only warm water. The guys at the bar were very nice and slowed down their talking so we could understand. A bottle of water costs about 2 euros.
In the shopping center there was some stores we knew like sephora and rolex. We went in the sephora and I think the perfumes were cheaper, but I´m not really sure because the prices were in euros. There was also a store called "womens secret" and it sold lingerie and bathing suits kind of like victorias secret. It doesn´t have anything like the Pink brand though. I also went to a grocery store which smelled literally fishy. They also had pigs legs hanging up. The fruit section looked a lot like a farmers market and the beauty section seemed expensive.
I will try to put up pictures later but I´m not on my own computer now.
¡Hasta Luego!
Anyways, when we got here, if I didn´t know I arrived in Spain, I would´ve thought this was America. In Madrid, they have tall buildings like any other city and you still drive on the right side of the road. Valladolid, where I am staying, has older and shorter buildings with cool architecture but still looks similar to America. The sidewalks are even wider than those in NYC and they have cafes all over them, there´s a shopping center that looks like Crocker Park, and a park that looks like Central Park.
My other roommate is from Italy but she hasnt gotten here yet. She is coming Sunday. My Mama is really nice though, but sometimes we can´t understand eachother. She only speaks Spanish. She is diabetic so everything she makes is healthy which is good. It is different how they eat. Breakfast and dinner are eaten on your own. I can go out to eat or heat something up if I want. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and you have it with family. We had 3 courses. The first course was brocoli and potatoes, the second was chicken, and the last course is always fruit and we had an apple. I would have liked eating the broccoli and potatoes better with the chicken instead of by themselves. Who sits there and eats just vegetables?
After I got settled in I called a girl, Kassie, from my group to meet up and walk around the city. We went to the park and the plaza and had our first shopping experience together. We both wanted ice cold water because at our homes, they drink only warm water. The guys at the bar were very nice and slowed down their talking so we could understand. A bottle of water costs about 2 euros.
In the shopping center there was some stores we knew like sephora and rolex. We went in the sephora and I think the perfumes were cheaper, but I´m not really sure because the prices were in euros. There was also a store called "womens secret" and it sold lingerie and bathing suits kind of like victorias secret. It doesn´t have anything like the Pink brand though. I also went to a grocery store which smelled literally fishy. They also had pigs legs hanging up. The fruit section looked a lot like a farmers market and the beauty section seemed expensive.
I will try to put up pictures later but I´m not on my own computer now.
¡Hasta Luego!
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