The best week of school!

Ok everyone! It has been a while since I’ve updated-sorry I will try to keep up better in the future!

Last week was the best week of school anyone could ask for. We got Wednesday off of school because it was the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas (the patron Saint of college students) my host mom was saying that there is a special day for elementary school- Dia de los maestros “Teacher’s day” and then another day for high school-which she couldn’t remember. Also we didn’t have school on Friday because we went to Barcelona! So we only had 3 days of class!

Here are some highlights from the week!

-Rainy nights in Segovia are usually a drag-but Katie and I made light of it by dancing around the aqueduct and singing. Everyone else went out to drink. Katie and I decided we didn’t want to, but we still wanted to be slightly rebellious so we decided to “kick” (not very hard) the aqueduct—I have no idea how this idea came about-but it was slightly gratifying to be able to say we kicked something that dates back to the 1^st century! It has been an inside joke now whenever we see the police that they are coming for Katie and I :) After all of this Katie declared “I love doing random things rather than constraining ourselves to conventional behavior” –very silly!

-Wednesday we didn’t have school and I decided it was a “I’m not going to set my alarm clock tomorrow” day, which was so nice! I slept in til 11 and then just hung out around in my PJs reading and enjoying some independent “Mari-time”

-This week I officially became part of the Spanish Library system by aquiring my “Carnet”-Library Card. It is so exciting! Now I can take out as many Spanish books as I want! I took out a Jodi Picoult book in Spanish that I am looking forward to reading!

-I have been keeping up with running here in Segovia! The trail I takes is absolutely beautiful! It goes beside a river and the mountains and the Alcazar! I get to run by a real-life castle everyday!!-- It is going to be such a disappointment coming back to the US and running by normal Minnesotan landscape-oh well! It won’t be nearly as hilly!

-Ok this has got to be the highlight of my trip so far! I have joined the choir class here at my school and it meets from 7:30-9:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is the most random assortment of people! I thought it would be mostly students but it is mostly adults! Let me give you a physical image of the choir too- I am the shortest person in our entire study abroad program from CSB/SJU and I have to be like the 3^rd tallest person in the choir! OK..so here how it starts out. We begin to warm-up and all of these little choir ladies are looking all antsy and kind of whispering among themselves..our teacher was like ok- lets take a break and welcome our new students. These ladies seriously descended upon us and gave us all kisses-they were so excited to welcome us! The rest of the choir rehearsal was sooo different than any choir related activity I have ever done! My face hurt because I couldn’t stop smiling. Spaniards put a great emphasis on the importance of physical preparation for singing- and the importance of the way you physically interact while singing- so during warm-ups they stretched every body part imaginable-then the next thing I know the choir teacher pops in this music tapes and everyone was dancing around the room- their arms and legs were everywhere- I had no idea what to do- so awkward. So I just joined in dancing along with them, wondering how this was going to improve our musicality. It is so funny to watch them sing too because they look so focused and their lips are always puckered-and most of them sing too loud and slightly off pitch! It was definitely n experience!

-I am really starting to feel at home here in Segovia! Before I left for Barcelona, I was going to go on a walk with my friend Alyssa, before I left my mom chased me down the stairs, because she couldn’t let me leave the house the next day without hugs and kisses! She is just the cutest!