Day 11- Thursday, April 28, 2011

I have been so bad about updating the blog this weekend! ¡Lo siento! We had a very busy and tiring, but also fabulous weekend!

Today we visited the Jewish sector of town, la Judería de Segovia. We went to the Jewish cemetery as well. They use to bury them in caves and dig out graves in the rocks. They have only unexcavated a tiny bit of the area, but I did get some photos of the exposed caves and rocks where bodies were buried.

Then it was home to study for our big test on Friday!

A puppet festival is coming to Segovia in a couple of weeks as it does every year. They put up this carousel along with a bunch of stands for art shops in preparation of the festival. The carousel is soooo crazy! Totally different than the kind we have in the states! Enjoy the photos!

The cemetery is up on this big hill that is covered in pine trees!

This is an example of a grave...

The view of Segovia from the cemetery

There were a TON of caves in the Jewish cemetery. They have only excavated a small portion of the hill, so it is unknown how many graves and hills there may actually be!

Great view of The Alcazar from the cemetery!

The AMAZING carousel, check out the creatures/things that the children ride on! It's not just horses, in fact there aren't any horses at all!

Day 10- Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Today was a beautiful day in Segovia! It was warm and sunny!

We had a free afternoon. So of course, as usual Megan and I went to "our" café, I have included a photo of the outside of the café today! We tried the hot chocolate today! It is literally pure melted chocolate, it is so thick and rich it is UNBELIEVABLE! I have also attached photos of the hot chocolate. We sat next to a lovely English couple at the café and chatted with them for awhile, they were in Spain visiting an adult child who lives here.

After out café we went to the pastry store and indulged in these strawberry/whipped cream/chocolate mini tarts, one for each of us (they were bite size!) and then shared and apple pastry and another pastry with a lemon flavor. I forgot to take pictures of these and by the time I remembered there was hardly anything left to attempt to take a picture of, but I did get Megan mid bite! We treated ourselves to quite a bit of treats today because the next 4 days we have excursions and will likely not have time to visit our favorite spots.

We ended our afternoon with a glass of wine. Dr. Shaw walked by and ended up joining us for a bit. It was so fabulous to sit in the sun and chat while soaking up the beautiful weather. Sadly, it looks like the weather will be getting a bit colder and rainy again as the weekend nears... I hope the weather reports are wrong!

We have a test on Friday so there was also a good bit of studying tonight... I definitely think the pastries and wine helped :)

Day 9- Tuesday, April 26, 2011

In class today we learned about the Inquisition and Catholic Kings. We have a test on Friday which I am VERY nervous for because there is sooo much to know!

We had a free afternoon today so Megan, Caitlin, and I spent a good deal of it at our favorite café at la colonial plaza. We also sampled some tasty treats at a bakery right by the plaza mayor. We split a strawberry tart and chocolate croissant, both of which were delicious! I have attached some photos of the café we visit nearly everyday as well as a picture of us there today!

Megan and I also had a post office adventure today! We each mailed 16 post cards! It all went very smoothly though. We stopped by the bookstore to get an envelope for some paperwork I needed to mail in for a job back home, that also went very well. It is so strange, you can buy a single envelope at the copy store here! Later in the day we had to go and buy index cards with Caitlin, at the same copy store I had went to earlier, now that was more of an adventure! FYI the word for index card is "ficha." :)

Day 8- Monday April 24, 2011

Today we learned about Arab-Muslim art in class. We discussed the different types of materials they used and what their architecture looked like.

For our excursion though, we went and looked at Iglesia Románicas, Romanesque churches. So although todays coursework did not match up with our excursion- we will be covering la arte Románica in the next day or so. Romanesque churches have "arcos medios puntos" which are rounded arches which you can see in the photos below. They also have alters that face the east, so it is like parishioners are coming from the darkness (the west) towards the light of God (the east). In the first church we saw, la iglesia de San Millan, there were only windows on the south side of the building, not the north. This is apparently because the north is the side of death and the south the side of life. The churches are made out of stone and have wood ceilings. The walls are extremely thick because people did not know how else to build sturdy walls to hold up such heavy ceilings at the time. Their are also pillars and columns that creates "naves" which are like aisles. Fresco painting also covered much of the Romanesque church's walls. A lot of it has been destroyed or lost by now, but you can see some of it in photos from both of the churches we went to. Both churches also had towers and atriums. This is about all I can remember about la iglesias Románicas from out tour, like I said we have not taken notes on them yet in class. But we will be going to see one or two more of these types of churches a different day, so if I forgot anything I will add it then!

La iglesia de San Millan

Columns at San Millan

The altar at San Millan

The AMAZING organ at San Millan

Some fresco artwork at San Millan

The type of carving is typical of Romanesque churches about the doorways

The altar

Fresco paintings covered the entire ceilings and all of the walls of the altar in San Justo's

This figure is typically carried during San Justo's church's procession, but it was not this year due to the rain.

La iglesia de San Justo

Day 7- Sunday, April 24, 2011

Well it has been one week since we all met at JFK to begin this trip! Time is flying!

The lifestyle over here in Spain is so different than the U.S. For me this is a whole new experience, it is my first time anywhere in Europe. The architecture and buildings are different, the daily schedule is different, the clothing is different, and just the general lifestyle is different, much more slow paced and calm. Overall it has been an adjustment, especially with the 6 hour time difference, but very cool at the same time.

Today was a pretty calm day. We all had breakfast at Ricardo's house. He is our teacher here and Spain. His wife cooked us an "American" breakfast, which is funny because she is not American, she is Spanish! The meal was complete with eggs, french toast, bacon, fruit salad, some pastries, and American style coffee. It was delicious! We then hung out at his house for awhile and chatted. His home is beautiful!

Today for lunch my family had rice with seafood and meat, I think it was paella because it had a yellow sauce/color to it, but there were no veggies in it. It was very good!

After lunch Megan, Caitlin and I went to our favorite café at la colonial plaza to study, although we ended up chatting a lot more than studying. We had té and café con leche. And then we shared a croissant, a crepe con leche dulce y un crepe con chocolate! It was all very yummy! After a couple of hours at the café we all came back to my house for a little and hung out. This evening for dinner my family had a lasagna, which we had once before and I like it. I am very tired tonight!

Off to bed soon... ¡Hasta mañana!

Day 6- Saturday, April 23, 2011

The final procession of Holy week passed by my house around 11pm last night. I have attached some photos. The processions are really neat, but a little scary. They do dress sort of like the KKK, which makes the whole thing strange to Americans, but it is nothing like that in reality. The drums and everything make it seem a little creepy at well because it is loud and everyone marches in unison. At night it is every creepier because they carry lanterns and it is all dark! However, it was really cool to get to experience that part of their Easter week traditions. If you look closely the cross carriers are bare foot! And let me tell you it was chilly in Segovia yesterday!




Today we visited Segovia's museum. Segovia is actually a very historic city and there is a lot to learn about the town. The visit to the museum was interesting. We got to see a lot of artwork, jewelry, etc. Our teacher here is Segovia, Ricardo, brought his two sons to the museum, the younger of which, Acu who is 4, was my photographer at the museum. He was hysterical! Now, sometimes the artwork was too big to fit all in on photo, so he would do "half and half!" I have attached some of his pictures from the museum.




After the museum we all got coffee together, Dr. Shaw treated.

In the afternoon I went to a small town about 45 kilometers away with Megan and her host mom and host sister. The town is called Pedraza. It is a very tiny village and all of the houses are built form piedras (stones) hence the name Pedraza. There is a very cute plaza with lots of restaurants and café's that is typically very busy. However, it rained the whole time we were there so it was not quite as busy as usual. Regardless, it was a lovely visit! We visited several shops, got coffee and enjoyed some cookie like desserts! Then Megan's mom drove us around the outside of Segovia and showed us a bunch of different places and explained some of the history of Segovia. I did not get any pictures in Pedraza because of all the rain :(

I ate dinner at Megan's house. We had omelets with asparagus and mushrooms. We also had some cheese and chorizo, which is like pepperoni. After dinner Megan and I went out with her host sister Andrea and my host brother. They are best friends. We also met up with two of their friends, Pati and Paloma. It was fun! It is very busy here at night! Megan and I only stayed out until about 1 and them came home because we were meeting out group for breakfast, but it is very common for people to stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning here! Everything is much later in general.

Day 5- Friday, April 22, 2011

Today for lunch I had the traditional Segovian meal, a whole suckling pig! The dad cut it with a plate to show how tender it was, this is tradition. Then you are supposed to throw the plate to the ceiling and break it, but we skipped that part. It was not my favorite food I've had here so far. Presentation aside, the taste was just not so pleasing to me. But my family LOVES this meal! The pig itself was pretty funny, my host sister stuck a pretzel in it's mouth and kept facing it towards me! The head still had the teeth even!

My host family (to the left of me is Jorge, to the right of me is a freind of Luis's form the U.S., next to the friend is Luis, and then my host father, also named Luis, and then my host mother, Ana. My host sister, who is also named Ana is taking the photo.)

Ana with the pig head!

The pig we had for lunch. It still had its teeth! And its spine!

This morning we had class again. We talked more about the Arab/Muslim influence in Spain and then also a bit about the art and architecture from this time period.

It got cold here! Brrr! It was rainy and yucky today! Despite the weather there were a bunch of processionals today! I even got some photos! My host mother and brother were in a procession, but unfortunately I did not see that one!

A procession we saw by the Aquaduct this morning.

We went on a tour of Aquaduct today and saw where is first comes above the ground. We got to peek into the purifier and took a picture of all of us with out feet in the Aquaduct!

Me and Megan under one of the Aquaduct's arches.

It's huge!

The Aquaduct curves a little at this spot.

This is where the Aquaduct and water comes above ground.

The Aquaduct purifier.

The is posted by where the Aquaduct starts above ground.

This is the very beginning of the Aquaduct where it comes above ground.

A view down the Aquaduct through that little peep hole above ^

Another view of the Aquaduct

Day 4- Thursday, April 21, 2011

The view on our walking yesterday on our Paseo por la Alameda
The wall that surround Segovia

Madrid won the soccer game last night! This made my host father and one host brother, Jorje very happy, but my host mother, other host brother, Luis, and host sister, Ana were not happy, they had been rooting for Barcelona. It was crazy after the game. People were going crazy in the streets of Segovia honking and running around like crazy! And the TV showed even more celebrating going on in the streets of Madrid!

We had class this morning, which I was very tired for because my family has a party last night, for Luis's birthday and the game, that did not end until 1:30 AM! In class we talked about los visigodos y los arabes-mulsumanes and their influence and roles in Spain during the Middle Ages. We did not have an excursion this afternoon, we had a free afternoon!

This week is Semana Santa in Spain, which is Holy Week. Spain celebrates Easter week a lot differently than the United States. There are huge processions from all churches into the town centers. The people in the processions dress up in cloaks and face coverings and march into town caring statues and figures. The processions started today and I saw a couple of people returning home after participation but no actual processions. Tomorrow there will probably be more and maybe I will be able to get a couple of pictures. In fact, my host mother and one brother are participating in a procession tomorrow.

I'm posting a few more photos from yesterday since we did not really see anything new today. Megan and I just met for coffee at a cafe we are becoming regulars at! And then did some shopping, mostly window shopping, but we did make a couple of small purchases! I plan to stay this evening and head to bed soon after dinner, I'm exhausted from staying up so late last night and having class today! No one had work today and all of the schools are on break because of the holiday which is why the party went so late on a Wednesday night! Enjoy the photos...

Another view of El Alcazar

Me and Megan standing by the Aquaduct, it's huge!