Salamanca y Avila

Choc Chip Cookies/Galletas de chocochip

Before I tell you about my wonderful weekend in Salamanca and Avila, I must say that my family LOVED the choclate chip cookies!! I was nervous since they don't have vanilla extract over here (I found "vanilla sugar" in the cupboard which I found can be used as a substitute).  The cookies turned out great! My host dad came into my room just raving saying, "Katie, las galletas son TAN BUENISIMOS!!" (The cookies are SO GOOD!!).  Needless to say there aren't many cookies left. Baking cookies for my family was such a fun thing for me to do and I'm so glad that they liked them!





Inside La Catedral de Salamanca

Anyways, back to the actual trip. We left for Salamanca on Saturday morning. It is only two hours away so we got to leave a little later than usual.  It is such a beautiful city.  We saw El Convento de San Esteban, La Catedral Nueva y Vieja and la Universidad Civil Salamanca.  Everything was gorgeous.  The atmosphere of Salamanca was super chill and fun (It's a college town).  It was in the mid-60s and sunny on Saturday so all the college kids were out laying on the grass or in the Plaza Mayor.  The Plaza Mayor was the best! I think my favorite part of Saturday was sitting and eating our bocadillos in the Plaza Mayor, taking it all in and enjoying the sun.  Saturday night we went out and experienced Salamanca night life.  The highlight of the night was hearing the Grease Songs, "Summer Lovin" and "Greased Lightnining" come on at a bar.  Needless to say, all of us were singing at the tops of our lungs!! What a sight :)

Amy and I at the top of La Catedral



Sunday (aka today) we woke up early and visited the Salamanca University.  After that we left Salamanca to head to a town called Avila which is only about an hour away from Segovia.  Here we visited La Catedral de Avila and el Convento de San Jose and Convento de Santa Teresa.  The highlight of Avila was climbing up and exploring the "muralla" (wall) that surrounds the city and was made for protection way back when. 

Now I'm back home and completely pooped from a fun weekend.  Time for sleep and a new week of classes.

Besos, xo

Lovin' the Segovian Life

It has been awhile since the last post so I thought I would give an update.  Last Thursday was the IE (my university) Talent Show! A bunch of us dressed up and went and watched some acts and awards given out.  It was fun to hang out with all my new IE friends and go out dancing with them after!

Amy, Me, Kim & Kalleah at the IE Talent Show!

Friday was a day of relaxing.  For Pilar's (art) class we went and visited Las Iglesia de San Justo y Pastor which was fun.  I love applying everything we are learning in her art class to real life.  Our group always loves when she says "ARCOS DE MEDIO PUNTO" and "Entendeis, chicos?"--her class is the best. 

Katie, Amy, Travis, Me & Alexa after we saw "Enredados" (Tangled)

Anyways, Friday evening a group of us went and saw the movie "Tangled" (Enredados) in Spanish at the movie theater! It was such a blast! Friday night I stayed in and relaxed because Saturday morning our University took a group of 15 of us to Sepulveda (a small town about an hour away from Segovia) to go on a mountain hike! It was pretty rainy for the first half of our hike around El Rio Duraton, but the second half was insanely beautiful!! After getting back from another amazing experience, I took a big nap and then Saturday night was a friend from Austria's birthday, so the majority of our group went to his birthday party at "Hook" (one of the local discotecas).  It was so fun, once again, just hanging out with all my new friends from IE and meeting some more people! 

Me at the top of the mountain!

Sunday was also was fantastic because I got to go shadow a matrona (baby nurse).  My Myths and Legends prof, Juanjo, set me up to shadow his friend, Belen, at the largest hospital in Segovia.  I learned SO much about the healthcare system.  For instance, each pueblo around Segovia has their own clinic that the townspeople go to.  They only come to Segovia if the doctor in their town cannot handle the problem.  The number for our "911" is 112 here.  Along with that, all healthcare is completely free to everyone.  Spain taxes go into providing healthcare for anyone and everyone.  I asked Belen if this results in more people abusing the system and she just said that people are really good about it and very few abuse their privileges. All in all, it was such a great experience! Belen said she would take me to one of the pueblo clinics one of these upcoming weekends! I can't wait.

This school week has been pretty typical.  I had a Linguistics test on Tuesday so we will see how that goes.  I have had some good conversations with my host mom and dad this week about all sorts of things ranging from my great grandma who lived til she was 108 to places to travel after Spain.  I love my family here so much! They are making this experience so great for me. 

Today=Wednesday. Wednesdays are my favorite days!  I had Myths this morning and then after I went on a nice run with Alexa because we are officially (as of today) training for the Segovian Half Marathon on March 27th. Wish me luck and please pray that I won't die.  I did a half marathon this past June, but I trained a lot for that, and this was just kind of a spur of the moment decision. When in Spain, right? Anyways, so after our run, I grabbed a quick boccadillo at the cafeteria and headed off to basketball.  Normally I am the only girl at basketball, but this week Dana came..BENNIES REPRESENT! Haha. Anyways, we always play 5 on 5 which is so much fun.  I have missed playing competitive basketball so much.  After basketball I came back to the school and studied for a little.  Then, every Wednesday night, a group of us girls catch up on GLEE!! So we did that.  Just got home a little bit ago, and now I am off to go play some volleyball :)

Spain never ceases to amaze me! I am absolutely lovin' it here!

Forecast for the next couple of days:

Luke's birthday party (hosted by some of our Spain friends)
Baking American Chocolate Chips cookies for the family
Salamanca and Avila

Muchos besos,

Katie

 

BARCELONA

I got back yesterday from an amazing trip to Barcelona, Spain! It was fantastic. We left Friday morning at 6:30 am and took a 9 hour bus ride from Segovia to Barcelona.  It was A LOT of bus-riding (A LOT being an understatement).  It didn't help that our bus driver got lost a couple of time along the way either..ha. Once we finally got to Barcelona, it was amazing. The temperature was in the mid 60s and sunny all weekend.  We stayed in a hotel on Las Ramblas, one of the most popular streets in Barcelona.  Our hotel was a little outdated (every room was pink and had extreme flower-power floral decor), but it was in such a perfect location AND we had a 24 hour buffet. 



Our lovely bedroom



So once we got all settled in after the bus ride, a couple of the girls and I went to check out the shops! I didn't have any success, but others did.  After that we went to an international market which was great! There was fresh fruit, fish, seafood, chocolate and gelato EVERYWHERE. It was a site to see. My host parents said that this was one of the best places to go in Barcelona and I completely agree! Just walking around was a pleasure in itself, I didn't even have to buy food to make it better (of course I did end up buying a fresh fruit smoothie). We were all pretty tired from the long bus ride so we took a little siesta after and then went out that night.



International Market



Saturday was spent walking La Rambla, going through the Gothic Quarter (Barri Gotic), visiting the Cathedral and Musea d'Historia de la Ciutat and La Iglesia de Santa Maria del Mar (St. Mary's church).  The churches were my favorite part. They were so beautiful and ornate.  After seeing all this, some of the girls and I decided to have a bite to eat at an outdoor restaurant right by the beach.  I had some really nummy pasta and pesto! After that, we took a walk on the beach, dipped our toes in the sand, and got some gelato (the best pistachio gelato EVER!).  We went back to take a siesta after a long day of walking and then we went out again for the night.  This time we went to a discoteca called "Cat Walk" to get our dance on.



Cathedral de Barcelona



Inside La Iglesia de Santa Maria del Mar

Us girls eating gelato before hitting the beach

The beautiful beach!

Sunday aka "Gaudi Day" was spent visitng all of Gaudi's fantastic works of art.  We started off visiting La Sagrada Familia which ended up being my favorite part of the whole trip.  It is SO BEAUTIFUL and detailed and they are still working on finishing it.  After that, we went to Parc Guell (one of Gaudi's parks), and finally, a couple of us went to Gaudi's House at La Pedrera.  Everything was fantastic.  Walking back from the La Pedrera, we heard this drumming and lo and behold, there was a bunch of different drums lines parading down Las Ramblas.  They were so good! We went home, took another siesta, and stayed in and played cards all night because we had to get up for our 9 hour bus ride back home the next morning!

La Sagrada Familia

Inside La Sagrada Familia

Overall, I loved Barcelona a lot.  The weather really made it amazing with all the walking and site-seeing that we did. Now it's back to another week of classes and living the Segovian lifestyle!


I love stained glass

Hasta luego y muchos besos :) 

The Past Couple Days in a Nutshell

I think it's about time I give a little weekly update. This week started off kind of slow as all of us were tired from our long weekend travels.  Classes went well. My favorite is still my Myths and Legends class with Juanjo :).

Wednesday was when the week started to pick up.  Some of the intramural sports started at IE. I will be starting basketball next week, but this week was the start of volleyball (volibol).  Me, Luke, Mark, Alex, and Mike S were the Bennie/Johnnie players.  We walked to the gym and when we first got there, the gym was full of a bunch of older guys playing basketball. It reminded me of the movie "Along Came Polly"--take a look and see why...

So after the men got done playing basketball, we got the court.  There were about fifteen students in all.  I met a lot of new people, not only from Spain, but from Austria and Dubai, too! It was such a neat experience.  I will definitely be returning for volleyball every Wednesday night. 

Thursday was fun, too.  After finishing up with my three classes for the day Anna, Morgan, Michelle and I met up with four guys from the Military Academy in Segovia to practice speaking spanish while they practiced their english.  It turned out to be a really fun time.  In Spanish culture, if you invite someone out for tapas (buy a drink and get some appetizers), you pay for them, so the boys paid for our drinks. We will definitely be making this a weekly event with Gonzo, Eduardo, Javi, and Mateo (and hopefully they let us pay next time). After our little "intercambio" I went home for dinner and had breaded and chicken and french fries (yum!).  Then our group met at the Aqueduct at 11 to go out for the night.  We went to Zircus and danced a little bit and then I called it a night around 2:30 a.m. I am finally starting to get used to the scheduling around here (everything is just a little later in Spain).  

This morning I slept in til around 10:30 and then laid in bed for another hour reading Eat. Pray. Love. All of a sudden I heard a bunch of music in the street.  I opened my window and popped my head out to see a bunch of women dressed in traditional spanish get-up parading down the street. They all had baskets full of bread that they were handing out to people.  This Sunday is El Dia de Santa Aguila (St. Aguila's Day). St. Aguilla is the patron saint for women, so Sunday there is a big party with free food and drinks for all the ladies.  I asked my host mom if she was going to go celebrate it and she said every day is women's day in Spain--haha. Love it! 

This weekend is full of fun stuff.  Later today our group is going to visit La Juderia (the old Jewish quarters in Spain) and then we have the big SUPER BOWL this Sunday! Don't worry, the boys already talked to Jesus from Oso Blanco, and we will be watching the Super Bowl (starting at 12 a.m.) at Oso!!

That is all for now, it's about lunch time so I better be off!

Luego!

San Sebastian, Spain

The group at the top of Mount Igeldo

Boats in the San Sebastian harbor

This weekend was our first free weekend because it was El Dia de Santo Tomas--thank you Saint Thomas! We didn't have any activities to go to this Friday as a class, so a group of 13 of us went to San Sebastian, a gorgeous town in Northern Spain (about 10-15 minutes away from France).  It was the best weekend yet, in Spain.

We departed bright and early Friday morning for the train station to take our 4 1/2 hour train ride to San Sebastian. It was my first train experience and I really liked it! I think a tall person created the seat spacing for trains because I actually had extra leg room (which never happens).  So we got to San Sebastian around 1:30 p.m. and walked about 15 minutes to our hostel: Umore Ona Bi. It was a great place. Great location, clean, and cheap..the way us college kids like it! After getting all unpacked and settled in, the group headed off to do some exploring.  We walked along the boardwalk and admired La Bahia de La Concha (Conch Bay) and La Playa de La Concha (Conch Beach). It was the cleanest water I have ever seen! We then made our way to the San Sebastian Aquarium which was a really good time. Some of the group got to touch an octopus in the hands on tank!

My roomies Friday night!

After the Aquarium we went back to our hostel for a little siesta. After resting up, we got ready and went out for some pixtos (Spanish tapas--appetizers). They were great! I had a cheese ball thingy (don't remember the name), some shrimp, and a vegetable-filled appetizer).  After getting full off of pixtos, we came back to our humble abode and got ready for the night.  Going out in San Sebastian is not as wild and crazy as Segovia or Madrid is (which is fine by me).  I think it is because more old people live there. We tried to find some bars and discotecas, but didn't have any luck. We ended up hanging out at an Irish pub for about an hour and then calling it a night.

"Pixtos"

Saturday we slept in a little big and then me, Alexa, Katie, Kim, Kalleah, and Amy hit the shops! There were a lot of great shops with a lot of awesome deals. Needless to say, it was a successful shopping day! After shopping, we all met to have a nice authentic San Sebastian meal. My stomach had been hurting the past couple days so I didn't get too adventurous. We had three courses: first course was a nice garden salad for me (others had spaghetti or beans), second course was chicken and fries (others had fish, calamari, or lamb), and then for dessert we all had flan (which was way too eggy for my taste--but I have had good flan before).  It felt good to have a nice meal. 

What a piece of chicken, huh?--Dinner fit for a queen

Saturday afternoon, we walked the beach to the other side of San Sebastian and took a funicular (trolly-like thing) up Mount Igueldo to an amusement park! We saw the greatest views and got to do bumper-cars for a euro :).  The park closed at 7 p.m. so we took the funicular back down.  It had started raining and we got caught in it without umbrellas.  So we started walking the beach back and then at  the closest part of the beach to our hostel, we went and JUMPED IN! When in San Sebastian, right? It was 6 degrees celsius and all the Spaniards that were there looked at us like we were crazy--I mean, who wouldn't think that 8 American girls in bikinis running on the beach, in the rain, and jumping into La Bahia de La Concha wouldn't be wierd?  Walking back to our hostel in our towels was even funnier, but completely worth it!

Playa de La Concha (where we jumped in!)

Me on top of Mount Igueldo (where the amusement park was)



View from the top of Mount Igueldo



We stayed in for the rest of the night and got some good sleep.

Sunday, we woke up and had to check out of our hostel by 11 a.m. So we got up, went to La Pasteleria (Pastry Shop) and I got a delicious chocolate covered croissant for breakfast.  Then, a couple of us went to mass at the beautiful Iglesia de Santa Maria (St. Mary's Church). It was absolutely gorgeous. After that, some of the group hiked up Mount Urgull to see "La Estatua del Sagrado Corazon" (A big Jesus statue).  I have never been so excited to see Jesus before after that hike! Again, the views were breath-taking.



La Iglesia de Santa Maria (went to church here)



After the hike, we went for some pizza, and by the time we got done we had to catch our train back to Segovia.

Overall, San Sebastian was a fabulous place to spend my first free weekend in Spain.  We had some great adventures!  Oh, and I came back to snow in Segovia--haha.

Mount Urgell- JESUS statue!

Madrid, you need to learn a thing or two about "Minnesota Nice"

La Plaza Mayor

This past weekend, our group went on our first excursion. Destination: Madrid.  We left around 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning and took the public bus from Segovia to Madrid.  Once we get to Madrid, we went on a "walking tour" on the way to our hotel.  Madrid is huge, and all the buildings are so classy looking.  My favorite place was La Plaza Mayor, although it was a little creepy because there were some odd people walking around (examples: man making monkey noises, guy making huge bubbles, and various mascots walking around in full costume).



Big bubbles-reminded me of my Grandma :)



After walking about a million miles, we finally got to our hotel.  I roomed with Amy and Jenny! The hotel was really nice and we had a spacious room.  We all ate the bocadillos (lunch sandwiches) that our parents made us for the trip and then took a little siesta.  After resting up, we went to El Prado--one of Madrid's most famous museums and spent about two hours admiring all the artwork of Ribera, Velazquez, and Murillo. 

All of us girls!

After the museum some of us girls went out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe for Katee's 21st birthday.  A Cobb Salad never tasted so good :).  After that, all of us girls walked home together. It was around 10:30 p.m. when we left and we didn't get home til around 11-11:15 because our hotel was on the other side of Madrid. 

We all got ready and then we went out to experience Madrid night life. Our first stop was an Irish pub called "Dubliners" which was really fun. After that we went to "O'Connels" to dance a little. By that time it was around 3 a.m. and we had to wake up for breakfast at 9 the next morning, so a group of us headed back, got home around 3:30. 

Sunday, aka the worst day ever.  Sunday we woke up and had a nice breakfast and headed out around 11 a.m. to go to "La Reina Sofia" (another museum full of modern art). It was really cool, but we were all pretty tired from staying out the night before.  However, seeing Dali and Picasso was AMAZING.

After the museum we were all so hungry so we went to McDonald's (naturally).  I had a nice meal, but it was super packed in there, luckily we all found tables.  There were many new experiences while eating McDonalds.  First of all, there was a beggar going from table to table shaking her cup and asking for money, which was sad and I felt pity for her, but if we gave her anything, she would have never left us alone. Then, while we were eating, this Spanish lady walked by us and told us in Spanish to watch our bags because there were some sketchy people in the restaurant.  So all of us girls quick grabbed our bags kinda starting to freak out. We just wanted to get out of there. So we all got  up and went to the table where the rest of our group was, and one of the guys realizes that his backpack is missing..his backpack containing his computer and all copies of passport, credit cards, etc.  That is when we all started freaking out.  I don't think I have ever felt so helpless in my life.  There was nothing we could do about it, the backpack was gone.

This was the biggest culture shock I have had since getting here. I have always been hyper-sensitive about guarding my purse and belongings when I am out and about here, and have been told countless times that Madrid is where all the robbers and pick-pocketers are, but to actually have one of my friends experience it was so scary and sad.  I think all of us were sick to our stomachs.  Where is the Minnesota Nice in Madrid?? It obviously doesn't exist there, which left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a bad last impression.  I am very unlikely to return there again if I can help it. 

So after that experience, we all just wanted to get the heck out of Madrid.  So we took the metro to the bus station and left for Segovia. After getting home and recooperating, I ended up going out to a bar to watch the Packers v. Bears game. It was a really great night and made me feel a lot better.  Nothing like some good friends, a Diet Coke, and some American football to cheer a girl up :).

If anything, Madrid definitely made our group closer and it was a wake up call letting us know to NEVER let our guard down.  I know this type of thing can happen anywhere in the world, but it's a shame it had to happen on our first excursion, because it really ruined an otherwise great city for me.

Sittin in the Library

It is back to the grind on this gloomy Monday.  It is funny because my host parents and the copy lady at the local copy center commented about the crummy weather today, but I really can't complain about 50 degrees and no snow!

This weekend was pretty fun! Saturday I slept in and went shopping once again. The best part of Saturday night was going to "Metropolis" (a local bar) and watching the Packers play (Dad & Uncles--please don't give me crap).  The game started at 2 a.m. in Spain so we didn't get home til 5:30 a.m. Which is fine because that is a typical time to come in on a Friday and Saturday night in Spain. Crazy, I know.

I slept in til around 12:15 on Sunday and then went to my first Catholic mass in Spain at the Church of Saint Eulalia.  It was such a great experience and something I really needed! The church was mostly filled with older people. All the women had on these huge fur coats (that might be my next purchase..haha). The rest of Sunday was filled with napping, homework, trying paella (rice, saffron, and seafood dish), watching "Monster in Law" with my sister and a soccer game with my parents!

Today was a typical Monday. I had my Myths and Legends class with Juanjo, went home for lunch, and came back to school to do a little homework in the library!

Hasta luego!