Toledo

Last Friday we went to Toledo! Since it was part of our program we focused on the historical parts of the city that relate to what we're learning in class. Toledo used to be the capital of Spain, so it definitely has a lot of history. The coolest part about it is that for a few centuries Christians, Jews, and Muslims all lived there without killing each other! Whichever religion was governing at the time definitely had priority in every sort of way, and eventually the Christians expelled/killed everyone else, but for a while there things were kind of nice.


In honor of all this religious tolerance, we visited:

A monastery, el Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes

A synagogue

Another synagogue that was also a museum

The cathedral

and a mosque

As usual I refer you to Facebook for more pictures! I'm leaving for Barcelona soon so get ready for a great post about that later!

3 Euros

Yeah you heard me.

Segovia

As the title so aptly suggests, I went to Segovia this weekend with our group. For those of you unfamiliar with the intricacies of Spanish geography (don't worry I'm totally with you), Segovia is a town north of Spain famous for its Roman aqueduct and generally being quite old and historical. We went by very slow train and returned by very fast train (compare 2 hours to 20 minutes: a notable difference). I guess since I already spoiled it for you, I'll start with the main attraction:

Yay Roman ingenuity! Seriously though, this is one of the oldest and most impressive landmarks that the Romans left in Spain when they ruled it oh-so-long ago. The stones are not held together by any sort of cement or anything; it is pure engineering at work here. Next we have a shot of the town next to the aqueduct. The aqueduct is really right in the center of everything, which is useful for water distribution I'm sure.

Like other Spanish towns, this one was incredibly picturesque, with blue skies and a nice mountainous backdrop for your viewing pleasure. After marveling at the aqueduct and having a bite to eat, we ventured further into town and came upon the cathedral. We had to pay to get in, which I thought was ridiculous until we actually got in there and it turned out to have some pretty incredible stuff. I didn't get many good pictures inside, but here is one of the courtyard: 

Aside from the cathedral itself with the usual pretty altar and such, they had rooms showcasing paintings, tapestries, and silver. The best part in my opinion, however, was the old hymnal that they had on display near the organ. I'd never seen one so old before, and for some reason this thing was gigantic, like it was made for people twice our size (some sort of prize to whoever can tell me why that is...).  After the cathedral we walked around some more and came upon a castle, which we decided not to go in, but it was still cool to see from the outside. And that's about all we did in Segovia! On Sunday I actually went to the park again and saw more peacocks, a whole army of them really, but I'll spare you the details...let's just say that Facebook will have the evidence soon enough.

The "Study" Part of Study Abroad

I just finished up my first week of school, which was a bit of a shock to the system since I still feel like I'm on vacation. Last week we had orientation where we took a Spanish placement exam, did a tour around the campus, and listened to professors talk about their classes. The university we go to is an hour away from the apartment in a neighborhood outside the city, so to get there I walk to the metro, which I take to the train station, which I take to the neighborhood, and finally I walk to campus. The campus itself is much smaller than I'm used to, but there are multiple campuses around the city. Here's a picture of the central quad area, with the main cafeteria at the end:

My classes:

• Spanish-pretty standard except we actually learn how not to sound like foolish Americans instead of being taught by foolish Americans
• Culture and Civilization-class for only our program, taught by our program director
• Politics and Society-taught by a Spanish professor specifically for American students (there are actually a lot of us here)
• History of Philosophy-getting credit for the good ol' PNP major (if you don't know/have forgotten what that is, I'm sure you're not the only one but it's really too much to explain)
• Spanish Linguistics-more PNP credit, I predict this will be my favorite class because it seems easy, I like linguistics, and the professor is off her rocker enough to be entertaining

All of my classes are in Spanish and the last two are mostly Spanish students, which is cool. Because of the commute I have to wake up way earlier than I would ever have to in the U.S. so I may or may not become a coffee addict while I'm here. Despite the fatigue I am excited for weekend #2 in Madrid!!!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Chings

Chocolate con Churros: delicious fried dough covered in a thick layer of melted chocolate

Yum.

Chata: cute little dog living with us for a few days

Stole my sock but otherwise loveable.

A Protest in the Plaza and a Peacock in the Parque

Two randomly awesome things happened to me this week in Spain; as the title reveals they involved a protest and a peacock. First the protest.

My roommate Ariel and I were hanging out in the apartment when we heard a commotion outside. When we looked to see what it was we saw this:

An actual political protest! There were hundreds of people passing by chanting and waving signs. Why they chose our street I don't know, there aren't exactly any government buildings around or anything. Then we thought, well why don't we just go downstairs and get a closer look? So we did:

We were following it along the opposite side of the street when we stumbled upon some random signs, kind of like this kid:

We decided to pick up the signs as awesome souvenirs and soon found ourselves following the crowd into the main protest! So we protested! Someone handed us a flyer explaining the cause: apparently the Spanish government is planning on amending the Constitution to restrict spending and these people did not like that idea. It was a really unique experience because I feel like political demonstrations of that scale do not happen very often in the U.S. Speaking of unique experiences that don't happen in the U.S.....(semi-awkward segue)......

The peacock. Ariel and I went to el Parque de Retiro, the equivalent of Central Park in Madrid. 

We were just walking around casually exploring the park when we happened upon a rouge peacock! I kid you not, this thing was just chilling in the flowers doing whatever it is peacocks do. This pretty much sums it up:

I was SO excited, I don't think I'd ever seen one before, at least not that close. I took an incredible amount of pictures and eventually scared the poor thing away and up into a tree (can peacocks fly? If not they sure can jump...). The strange thing to me was that all the locals around us acted like it was no big deal while I was running around snapping pictures every second like a fool. I don't regret it though, that peacock was awesome.

Well I hope this post was somewhat entertaining in its randomness. I tried to put in a lot of pictures since the last one was pretty wordy :)