thursday 7/1: we went to classes as usual, but during our second class, we went to one of the other university buildings to listen to the director of the cervantes institute (as in miguel de cervantes, as in the author of don quixote). it was boring, and she talked so fast that i couldn't understand much of what she was saying. after lunch, there was a big storm that seemed to come out of nowhere! good thing i was inside when it happened! we pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the day, did homework, listened to music.
friday 7/2: classes as usual. nothing too exciting. virginia, my grammar teacher, keeps telling me and my three friends that we're going to move up levels, but we still weren't going to change yet! it was so frustrating sitting in class not being challenged at all. after class, we went back to RUF for lunch and a siesta. after our wonderful siesta, haley, elyssa, rachel, pamela, and i decided to do a little souvenir shopping for our people back home. we at dinner at cafe toledo in la plaza zocodover, where we had pizza. i know what you're thinking. pizza in spain, what? i thought the same thing, too, but it was delicious! and after our delicioso dinner, we got helado (ice cream) from a cute little shop and took pictures around zocodover. so much fun!
saturday 7/3: this morning, we walked to meet the rest of our excursion group at the hotel cardenal. after waiting for 30 minutes for the buses in the cold rain, we boarded and were on our way to segovia! it takes about 2 hours to get to segovia from toledo, so most of us took an early little siesta. when we got to segovia, it was still raining, but that didn't stop us from having a good time. the first thing we did was go to the alcazar, which is spanish for castle fortress. MY FIRST CASTLE!!! and walt disney used this castle as a model for sleeping beauty's castle! my favorite! :D it was a little gloomy outside, but the alcazar was unlike anything i had ever seen. we took a tour of the alcazar, and it was very informative. "I-CAN'T-BELIEVE-I'M-IN-A-REAL-CASTLE" was what was going through my head the entire time. a real.life.castle. i almost peed. ANYWAYS... after the castle tour, we climbed what felt like 3456754678 tiny, narrow, spiral staircase stairs to get to the top of the turret. the view was breathtaking. there was a garden maze that you could see from the top, along with the famous royal gardens of segovia, right next to the river. it didn't rain the whole time we were in the castle, but as soon as we came out, it started up again. ugh. but it's ok, because that only lasted for a little while longer, and then it cleared up! we had lunch at a fancy restaurant next, and for dessert, i had my first spanish flan! i've had mexican before, and it's pretty much the same thing. elyssa and i got seated at the same table with these two guys from the university of nebraska-lincoln named ben and spencer. we kept them pretty entertained with our lovely southern accents. they were a lot of fun too. they hung out with us, well spencer went off with some friends of his, but ben stayed with us while we visited la catedral de segovia. after our free time, everyone regrouped and marched off to see the roman aqueducts. they were beautiful. they go as far as the eye can see. crazy to think that this was built BEFORE machines were invented, huh? i mean, manual labor, what's that? quite impressive. by this time, the sun was shining and it got pretty warm outside, but it was time to make the trip back to toledo. as soon as we got back, we went to RUF and changed into our futbol game attire. i didn't have a red or espana shirt, but they were selling them at the game, so i just planned on buying one there. we booked it back up to la plaza de toros. there were sooo many people there. and they were mostly drunk. we watched spain beat portugal 1:0, sending all the spaniards into a frenzy. you think football games are crazy? try being with hundreds of spaniards whose team has never made it this far in the world cup. talk about party. we walked home and all you could see was red, and all you could hear was the roar of the continuous cheers, "ESPANA! ESPANA! ESPANA!" what a rush. we stopped to eat dinner at a little outdoor cafe, where we ate pulgas de tortilla espanola. SO GOOD. definitely my new favorite here. we were still pretty hyped up from our exciting day, and some of our nebraska friends were telling us about the discotecas, so we decided to check it out. none of us had ever been to a club before, let alone one in a foreign country. so we hiked home and changed into something that resembles what girls wear, and took a cab to the disco. after we were dropped off, we finally found the discotecas, and we went in. they are all outside, which i think is cool, because everyone's not crammed into some building. we found out that at discotecas here, no one really dances, unless they're drunk, and then they dance very stupidly. most of them stand on the dance floor and talk. but we wanted to dance, so we jump out there and start doing our little white girl moves. it was fun, i guess. i'm glad i have that experience, but i don't think i'll go back. we got home at about 3:30 AM, and crashed.
sunday 7/4: we all slept in today, since saturday was a forever-long day for us. we slept till about 1:30 pm. !!! we had lost half a day! elyssa, pamela, and i decided to shower and go find some brunch. we ended up at el cafe de las monjas (cafe of the nuns) and had blueberry crepes. mmm. blueberries are my favorite. we went to haley's host home for make a 4th of july dinner for her spanish family. when we got there, we read scripture with each other and prayed, and had a pretty intense conversation about what each of us believes and pretty much our testimonies. then we cooked dinner and ate with haley's family. we ended up staying too late, and the buses weren't running anymore, so we walked home. it took us about 25 minutes to walk all the way home, but it wasn't too bad. by now, we're kind of used to walking everywhere.
saturday 7/3: this morning, we walked to meet the rest of our excursion group at the hotel cardenal. after waiting for 30 minutes for the buses in the cold rain, we boarded and were on our way to segovia! it takes about 2 hours to get to segovia from toledo, so most of us took an early little siesta. when we got to segovia, it was still raining, but that didn't stop us from having a good time. the first thing we did was go to the alcazar, which is spanish for castle fortress. MY FIRST CASTLE!!! and walt disney used this castle as a model for sleeping beauty's castle! my favorite! :D it was a little gloomy outside, but the alcazar was unlike anything i had ever seen. we took a tour of the alcazar, and it was very informative. "I-CAN'T-BELIEVE-I'M-IN-A-REAL-CASTLE" was what was going through my head the entire time. a real.life.castle. i almost peed. ANYWAYS... after the castle tour, we climbed what felt like 3456754678 tiny, narrow, spiral staircase stairs to get to the top of the turret. the view was breathtaking. there was a garden maze that you could see from the top, along with the famous royal gardens of segovia, right next to the river. it didn't rain the whole time we were in the castle, but as soon as we came out, it started up again. ugh. but it's ok, because that only lasted for a little while longer, and then it cleared up! we had lunch at a fancy restaurant next, and for dessert, i had my first spanish flan! i've had mexican before, and it's pretty much the same thing. elyssa and i got seated at the same table with these two guys from the university of nebraska-lincoln named ben and spencer. we kept them pretty entertained with our lovely southern accents. they were a lot of fun too. they hung out with us, well spencer went off with some friends of his, but ben stayed with us while we visited la catedral de segovia. after our free time, everyone regrouped and marched off to see the roman aqueducts. they were beautiful. they go as far as the eye can see. crazy to think that this was built BEFORE machines were invented, huh? i mean, manual labor, what's that? quite impressive. by this time, the sun was shining and it got pretty warm outside, but it was time to make the trip back to toledo. as soon as we got back, we went to RUF and changed into our futbol game attire. i didn't have a red or espana shirt, but they were selling them at the game, so i just planned on buying one there. we booked it back up to la plaza de toros. there were sooo many people there. and they were mostly drunk. we watched spain beat portugal 1:0, sending all the spaniards into a frenzy. you think football games are crazy? try being with hundreds of spaniards whose team has never made it this far in the world cup. talk about party. we walked home and all you could see was red, and all you could hear was the roar of the continuous cheers, "ESPANA! ESPANA! ESPANA!" what a rush. we stopped to eat dinner at a little outdoor cafe, where we ate pulgas de tortilla espanola. SO GOOD. definitely my new favorite here. we were still pretty hyped up from our exciting day, and some of our nebraska friends were telling us about the discotecas, so we decided to check it out. none of us had ever been to a club before, let alone one in a foreign country. so we hiked home and changed into something that resembles what girls wear, and took a cab to the disco. after we were dropped off, we finally found the discotecas, and we went in. they are all outside, which i think is cool, because everyone's not crammed into some building. we found out that at discotecas here, no one really dances, unless they're drunk, and then they dance very stupidly. most of them stand on the dance floor and talk. but we wanted to dance, so we jump out there and start doing our little white girl moves. it was fun, i guess. i'm glad i have that experience, but i don't think i'll go back. we got home at about 3:30 AM, and crashed.
sunday 7/4: we all slept in today, since saturday was a forever-long day for us. we slept till about 1:30 pm. !!! we had lost half a day! elyssa, pamela, and i decided to shower and go find some brunch. we ended up at el cafe de las monjas (cafe of the nuns) and had blueberry crepes. mmm. blueberries are my favorite. we went to haley's host home for make a 4th of july dinner for her spanish family. when we got there, we read scripture with each other and prayed, and had a pretty intense conversation about what each of us believes and pretty much our testimonies. then we cooked dinner and ate with haley's family. we ended up staying too late, and the buses weren't running anymore, so we walked home. it took us about 25 minutes to walk all the way home, but it wasn't too bad. by now, we're kind of used to walking everywhere.
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