Segovia Seco-villa

We took another quick day trip to Segovia, the home of the famous Aqueducts and cochinillo.

The Aqueducts are HUGE and over 2000 years old. That blew my mind. The Romans built them without cement and they have survived an earth quake, bombings from the Civil War, tornados, etc. 16 kilometers long, made of 168 arches, each stone weighs 2000 kilograms, and there are 20,400 stones in total. It is all completely intact too. all that has changed is a few inscriptions have been lost. One of the coolest things I've seen since being here, and I had seen pictures and thought it would be eh. I didn't know I would like it so much.

We then went to see the cathedral of Segovia which looks nothing like a cathedral, it looks like some Muslim Complex.
The inside was really cool.

I feel like every trip we go on, the weather is rainy and cloudy, but it makes for pretty cool pictures cause everything has this glow to it and the light isn't too powerful.

Inside they had impressive organs and very high ceilings. Everything I learned about cathedrals in Humanities 101 was coming back to me; the crucifix floor layout, the windows from the high walls so light can come down like it's coming from heaven, etc. The picture below is a picture of a semi new cathedral in Madrid (built in the 1900's). It shows the light coming in and reflecting off some of the coolest organ pipes I have seen:
We later went and saw the Castle in Segovia. This is the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty so all the Americans know it as the Disney Castle.










This chapel is really cool, but you have to take a little hike in order to see it. La Iglesia de Vera Cruz. Apparently it's the SAME exact church as the one in Jerusalem. It's main shape has 12 sides for the 12 tribes of Israel. It was closed once we got there, but it was cool to at least see it!


Then we went to this little chapel in town. John Rosenburg wrote a talk about it, if you haven't read it, look it up under BYU talks. This picture is of what he talks about: how the artist wrote in Latin, "this painting cannot be finished." (you can't see the writing in this picture) The artist stopped the painting and Rosenburg relates it to how Christ is something personal and how the Atonement is what makes us whole. It was JUST our group in this chapel and some guy came and had to open it for us. Super cool experience. It was a hidden little place.

This is Cochinillo:

It is baby pig roast. Segovia is famous for their Cochinillo. It is popular because it is super tender. They say you can cut it with a plate. Why do you cut it with a plate? Why is cutting it with a plate a good way to measure if something is soft? I have no clue, but that's freaking soft.

We had some cochinillo in Madrid our first Sunday here, I had no idea what it was I just ate it. Grandpa got the tail, I got one of the feet.

Segovia was a very cool place to see.

Oh man, I am so behind

I'll catch up soon I promise.

Madrid en sí

Monday was a holiday so we didn't have school so we headed out to see some of Madrid. We didn't have anywhere we REALLY wanted to be, so we just walked and walked and used a map maybe one or two times. You can get lost and find some really cool things.

["Juan Pablo Segundo, te quiere todo el mundo"]

There was some sort of Military parade which we saw for a little bit. That was kinda cool.

Our main goal was to find La Plaza Mayor, which is the main area that is a must see in Madrid. It is a giant plaza completely surrounded by buildings and the only way in are through this arches in the buildings.


There are little restaurants with outdoor seating all over the plaza. Here in Spain, they charge you an extra Euro for eating outside...smart. SO we decided to pay an extra Euro and eat outside since Rick Steves highly suggested it. We each got a pasta and me and Carson, one of the girls, got a coke. LESSON LEARNED: ask how much things are. THE COKE COSTS 3.50 Euros. My exchange rate calculations aren't the best, but that is EASILY over 4 dollars for a can of soda...


We, then, wanted to see if there were any bull fights going on. So we took the metro to the Plaza de los Toros. The next show was at 6...and we had to be back in time for Family Home Evening..wooo..so we saved it for another day. But we got some very cool pictures of the
building:
Another thing we read about was El Parque de Retiro, basically translates to the Relaxing Park. Jumped on the Metro and found the GIGANTIC park. We saw some missionaries there on their P-day. They were still in the MTC but were aloud to go out and do whatever on P-day.

Inside the park is a giant pond where you can rent paddle boats and row around for 4 euros.


Another activity we saved for another day, we wanted to explore. We found El Palacio Cristal, which was like a giant green house with nothing inside it, also made for cool scenery.



Spainish people have a very strange way of posing for pictures. I saw it a lot with the Mexicans, they wouldn't smile and sometime would put their thumbs on their belt buckle and look tough. It probably would make a great picture if they still had huge mustaches and sombreros and were next to a horse...but now a days you just don't see that setting, but the pose stays the same. We saw a man with one leg on a flower pot (kinda in the dog-peeing pose) while his wife took a picture. It was funny so me and my roommate were voted to reenact it. I couldn't get myself to do it while he was still standing RIGHT BY US so I tried to be creative and work with my surroundings.

We hung out in the park and sat in the grass. Then we rushed off to FHE and then went home for the day. It was a good day hanging out in Madrid and now we have our bearings and can go more often and know where we are.

HOLY TOLEDO

ONE OF THE COOLEST CITIES EVER. I reeaaalllly enjoyed this place. As you can see from the above view, this town is full of little alleys and tight streets. This also is the home of La Iglesia de Los Jesuitas and a lot of synagogues (man that word was hard to spell) that had been utilized by Muslims and Christians.

I felt like I could not take enough pictures to do it justice because where ever you looked was a colorful wall or a picturesque alleyway. I was having a hay day. I really loved walking through the town. This was also the town I did my presentation on for the prep course for the Study Abroad.

Toledo is know for their marzipan, which we tried and loved. It taste like sweet bread dough that is almost cooked all the way through. Not quite the same as Mexican marzipan.

We saw La Iglesia de Los Jesuitas (which I was looking forward to):
It cost 2 euros to enter and climb the tower. We almost didn't go because it wasn't free, but after we got to the top we did not regret spending a single euro...totally worth it.
(this picture is taken from behind the fencing, you could walk out on the platform where there wasn't fencing, which I did, I just liked this picture the best)

We were sad to leave because we felt like we barely saw the city, but it was getting late and we needed to get back. We only had gone for the day but it was SO cool to be able to go and get to see what we did. Increíble

El Comienzo

SO I am very far behind with updating my blog and recording everything that has happened thus far in Spain. I will try to be better and keep a good record here of things that I have done in Spain.

On the way to Spain, our plane was delayed because of the freak storms in Dallas so we landed in some tiny town called Abilene, TX where we waited for an hour. They were so small they almost didn't have stairs high enough to reach the plane. I watched the time tick away as I wondered if I would catch my next flight out of Dallas.
We landed, I called to see how delayed my next flight would be, it was supposed to take off in 5 minutes...I COULD SEE THE PLANE as we taxied to the terminal. I was sure I would watch it fly off without me from the plane I was landing in. Luckily it waited long enough for me to run and catch it...but not long enough for my luggage to make it.

I got to Spain later than I expected and I was sure the shuttle to Alcala de Henares (where I would be staying) had already left...which it hadn't I later found out. I went to see if my luggage made it..nope. I went to call the school to see what I should do. After a series of events which included me spending 30 euros (more than 35 dollars) on a calling card, a 50 dollar taxi ride, and a whole lot of confusion, I made it to the Plaza where we were supposed to meet up. No one was there! I called the school again, which was close by, and someone came and took me to my house. I met up with my family, happy to be "home."


Quick review of activities from the first few days:
Through one girls attempt to practice Spanish with an attractive Spaniard, a small group of girls in our group were invited to watch from the balconies as bands of minstrels came by to serenade them from below. It is a annual festival in Alcala where bands from the Universities will come and play classic Spanish music to girls on balconies to woo them. ALL the other girls on balconies (maybe 4 balconies more) were part of the show, our girls were the only ones who were not haha.

These traveling groups come from mostly Spain, one came from Peru, and they travel all over playing this music while simultaneously studying. REALLY cool to be able to watch from the alleyway below while eating tapas. The men are also incredibly forward and will whistle to the girls and compliment them in more ways than you'd think possible. I think the girls from our group were just eating it up


The picture at the top: One of the many palaces in Madrid, one of the first places we traveled to as a group. We then went to El Prado, the famous museum that has work from Velazquez, Goya, el Greco, and more. It is incredible to me how talented they all were. It was also crazy how dark Goya got (for an ex: Google the painting Saturn by Goya). It's been a fun start to this trip!

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de regreso

ohhmaaagoodness it's been a long time since I wrote a blog.

BYU has kept me incredibly busy yet has somehow been so much fun. I think the more you go to class and the more you study and work, the more you accomplish, and at the end of the class you feel like you've done something- and that makes it all worth it. I still have yet to experience the moment where you can sigh and say, "All done!" but I'm enjoying the semester and exploring my career options. (photography, genetics, Spanish, microbiology, Neuroscience, working for National Geographic, and learning how to cook...some how.)

One of my classes is a prep course for the Spain study abroad. It gets me SO pumped to go, I'm really excited to be able to leave the country and see Spain and get to just speak Spanish. It's shocking how much I miss speaking in Spanish. I try to at any opportunity and sometimes I even still pray in Spanish. But having my gmail and computer in Spanish can only do so much. The only downside of the study abroad is leaving home AGAIN. I would love to just have some time in Arizona (for more than 4 days), but I know the chance of studying abroad only peaks its head up at a very precise time in my life and this is it. So I'm getting ready and getting excited.

I think this blog will replace my journal while I am gone so it will have some of my adventuras en España by the end of next month.

In other news: I cannot explain how much I love music haha, being home from the mission is great because of the variety of music. I know it sounds so insignificant but holy SMOKES it's nice. It makes me miss the days of being in a band, I think that would be such a fun life.


Going home for the weekend was great, it's good to know none of us have grown up regardless of how long we've been separated.







-MC