Portugal!

Alright so here we go! It was really exciting as we embarked on our Portugal trip because it was our first European “Out of Spain” experience so far on the trip. Katie and I left Segovia at 6:50 and took a train to Madrid. We were all packed up and ready to go with our bocadillo (bag lunches) that our Moms made us for dinner. In Madrid, we hung out at the train station for an hour or so and then we got on the night train that would take us to Lisbon. A few of the other guys in our group had also decided to go to Portugal that week so they were also on the train with us. The ride was slightly awful though because it got SO warm inside! It was stuffy as it was with all of the people there, but then they had the heat on full blast! I thought my shoes or purse was going to melt! The people that were sitting by us were very friendly, and talked with us for a while. One of the guys there was from Germany and was taking a couple weeks off of work to travel. He had some interesting travel stories! After a while, I finally got some sleep, and then we arrived in Lisbon at 7:45 AM. Katie and I went to go find a tourist station to get a map of the city so we could find out where we were going and where our hostel was etc. then we realized that we had forgotten the address and the name of the place we were going to stay at! So, we got a couple suggestions of good places and we were on our way with no idea of where exactly we were going or where we were going to stay that night, but it so totally didn’t matter at all. We were in no hurry and there were a million hostels in Lisbon. So we started to walk around on a road beside the shore, and then I randomly suggested that we should go in a street, and then we ran into the place we were going to stay at- It was so lucky! So we went to see if they still had room and they did and they let us check in early and put our luggage in the lockers so we could walk around the city without worrying about all of our stuff!
So Katie and I set out into the great world of Lisbon. The city itself is very unique. Part of it appears to be very old and has buildings that remind me of the little ones by the ocean in Greece and a trolley system-like San Francisco! There is also a more modern section to the city as well, and there are gardens and palm trees everywhere! The city is VERY hilly, so the entire time we were walking we were either going uphill or downhill. Lisbon is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean so it has a port, board walks and beaches.
Oh and another exciting thing-they speak Portuguese-which is not nearly as Spanishly influenced as I had thought or had hoped 
These are the highlights of the things we saw

-The castle of St. George
-The Lisbon Plaza
-The Botanical Gardens
-The Se Cathedral
-The Basilica De las Estrellas
-Belem and the tower of Belem
-The port and boardwalks
-It is the weekend of Carnival and it is like a glorified 5 day Halloween, so as we were walking around we saw a bunch of little kids in their costumes. It was so cute!
*And lots of other amazing places that as I am looking at my map, I can’t remember the name in English and I can’t read Portuguese :)


My favorite part of the day was when Katie and just sat on the shore of the ocean and just took in the beauty and sunny weather. Beside us were some Men fishing with some huge fishing poles. It reminded me of something Grandpa Weber would be interested in doing!

Katie and I returned to the Hostel at around 7 (we had walked around straight for like 11 hours!!) and we made some pasta in the kitchen at our hostel.
Hostels are also super fun, because everyone is really friendly so we got to meet some other people our age from all over the world who were traveling too! So we just pretty much took it easy and prepared for our next excursion the next day!

Grammar Test

Duh duh DUUUUUUH
Ok, so it wasn’t super bad, but it was definitely one of the more challenging academic events of the semester thus far :)….Thought you might want to know

If you talk to an old Spanish man, remember to bring a snack!

Ok, maybe not so much, but Katie and I went to watch the sun set behind the Alcazar and this little old man decided that it was his duty to come and teach me how to take a picture of the sun correctly because he was a photographer, so then he decides to pull out his photo album and show us all of his pictures he had taken. Then he told us all about his life, and his dog, and his job of helping the world through being a post carrier. Anyways we were talking to him for a little bit, because he was so proud of his pictures that he had taken, well…5 minutes turned into 10, then before we knew it (well not so much because time was dragging a bit) after 45 minutes he was still talking! Anyways, for all of you. If you decide to visit Segovia, avoid the cute little 80 year old man with the pocket photo album if you are in a hurry! :)

Well....we were trying to study

After mass on Sunday, Katie and I decided to get together to study for our grammar test together outside, because the weather was absolutely amazing! It was in the 60s and so sunny! We were studying in a plaza by the aqueduct, and there was a group of guys playing soccer on the other side, but as we continued to study they began to encroach! Before we knew it we had a whole posse of Spanish guys talking to us. They were friendly, but there was one of them that was slightly more persistent- Even though I had informed him of the boyfriend I have in the United States, he wanted me to go on a walk with me…and I was like umm nope I have to study grammar. He kept trying for at least 10 minutes. Then he said that if I didn’t go on a walk with him, he was going to go for a walk to the top of the aqueduct and throw himself off, because he would be that sad. Ooh the drama! It was quite silly. Anyways I didn’t go on a walk with him, and he didn’t throw himself off the aqueduct…Ok Pause!! How many people in the world do you think have said that exact sentence before? I could probably count all of them on my fingers, or at least on my fingers and toes. I don’t know about all of you, but I am certainly entertained by the Segovian-touch of uniqueness in this story :)

Sunday Mass

Katie and I went to mass in Nueva Segovia (about a 45 minute walk from my house) in the morning on Sunday and the weather was absolutely amazing! It was a very nice walk, because all of the families were out walking around, and it was clear, so the mountains were so amazing. The service was a bit more modern than any of the other masses we have been to yet! They actually had some music at the service and little music books so we could sing along, which we appreciated a lot. I love singing at church! It is like my favorite-who knew that would be cause for such excitement! Anyways the priest was a bit younger than the dying 90 year olds that did the other services I attended and I understood his homily as well. It was pretty social-justice centered, lets love everyone kind of homily which I love listening about. So inspirational! Also something that was pretty exciting was that they sang the “sanctus” –(the “holy holy” refrain in English) to the tune of Help! By the beetles! It said that beside the title and everything! It was so entertaining. It makes me want to write an entire beetles mass-with all of the songs, responsorial, and psalms to beetles songs-maybe that makes me slightly sacrilegious-but hey …you may say that I’m a dreamer….but I’m not the only one! ;)

Valentine's Day

Ahhh how exciting! I absolutely LOVE Valentines day! It was really fun here in Segovia, because I made home-made Valentine’s for all 23 people in my group along with small goody bags that had some cookies in them-I know how teacher-y of me! But I love love, and I absolutely am enamored with Valentines day! That morning, I woke up and my host mom gave me flowers, a card, and a bad of candy! It was so special. I was so excited. I had hand-made a card for my host mom, host dad, and host sister too! We went to Salamanca for Valentine’s day, but when we came back-it was soo beautiful. We walked through the plaza by the aqueduct and EVERYONE in the city was out and about with their families and children, or significant other! It was such a lovely moment to be alive and experiencing Spain. It was one of those moments where you just listen to the murmur of voices of the crowd, and everyone sounds happy. Guys were buying their girls (and moms) flowers at the flower stands. Parents were buying their children candy at stands, and everyone was out talking together under the stars. I know that this will be one of my most nostalgic memories of being here in Spain. It was so wonderful. When I returned home, my other host sister was here with her husband. They were getting to go out, and this is a special Valentine’s day for them because it is the last Valentine’s day before they become parents. (Monica is due in May) I know how sad- I am going to miss it all! Katie and I decided that we were going to have a classy valentine’s day together. We dressed up in dresses and went out to the café for skype dates with our boyfriends! Then after several frustrating attempts to get Skype to work-we finally got it fairly functional. It was also funny, because the café had a CD that they were playing that was filled with a bunch of cheesy American love songs-that we all knew. It was kind of fun! Afterwards we went out together for some Sangria, and to toast to love, our boys who weren’t there, and Spain! It was the most lovely night-which is suitable because it was the most lovely and day!

Salamanca

This weekend we ventured off to Salamanca for a day trip. We headed out of here in the morning and took a bus as a group. On the way there, we stopped in the town of Avila, which was beautiful. They have a wall around the city that dates back to the 12th century. Also this is where St. Teresa of Avila came from, so that was also really neat! On the trip, my professor’s little daughter Lucia came on the trip too, and she basically clung to me the entire time we were there! Salamanca was so beautiful. When we got off the bus, there was a lovely river and it was all sunny and warm! Salamanca has the most famous college in all of Spain and this is where anyone who was anyone in the academic world of Spain went to school! I know that Cervantes studied there, and I heard more people but I can’t remember their names-my teacher would be so disappointed! The first place we stopped at was the Cathedral and it was absolutely gorgeous! The architecture and art was stunning. It followed more of a gothic style of architecture, hence there was more light in the space-which I liked better than some of the others I have seen. After we walked around a bit, we got to climb the tower of the cathedral and see the view from the top-and our advisor, Gladys, taught us all about the toxicity of pigeon poop and how it has been so bad for the preservation of these monuments and buildings-who knew that pigeons could cause even more serious problems than just being annoying? Oh the things you learn! When we got to the top of the cathedral, the view was lovely! All of the buildings were cream with red roofs, and instead of it being all city, there were green rolling hills in the background. It was very European. After wards, we went outside to view the Façade that was on the exterior of the church. During one of the renovations during the last century, they updated two small statues which adorn the cathedral with all of the angels and saints. One is an astronaut-the other is a dragon eating an ice cream! How quirky! Then we went to the Plaza Mayor to sit in the sun and eat our bagged lunches-packed by our host moms! :) The weather was so nice and there were a ton of people that were sitting out there enjoying the weather as well. We had a bit of free time then to explore the city and see the shops etc. Our last stop was the University-which I had mentioned earlier! They also have a façade on the outside, and there is a small frog located somewhere amongst the figures, and if you find it-it is said that you will have good luck for the rest of the year….well I couldn’t find it without the help of my professor-so maybe I will be partially lucky-we’ll see! After our adventures in Salamanca we headed home and enjoyed the sights and sunset of a peaceful evening!