This week started with us finally getting the information for our school organized trips on Monday morning. Burgos, Lisbon, Barcelona, el Escorial, all in the mix along with many opportunities for classes such as cooking, dancing, etc and school tours around the town of salamanca. I am sure I do not need to tell you that I spent most of the morning day dreaming - and also sleepwalking after staying out til 230, only to watch Spain in the final of the confederations cup lose to Brazil!!- I read the magazine cover to cover at least five times between 10 am and 3 pm. I took notes of everything and did my mathematical operations to find out exactly how much money I would spend. The office opened at 4 pm to sign up for trips, so I had to patiently wait til then.
Thankfully, we had a shortened class day due to the inauguration of summer courses. They took us to the university building and into a room called Paraninfo. It felt like we were walking into Hogwarts!! We kept joking that it was the sorting hat ceremony, and we each talked about which house we wanted :) While I was not super pleased about sitting in a very uncomfortable chair, I was happy to be there. The speeches were extremely inspiring and refreshing, after having had such a horrible experience with the conference a few days before!! What else did I love? The fact that after the inauguration, there was more free food! Wine, hornazo, tapas, cheese... Beer, water, soda.... Seriously. These people know how to throw a party!!!
At 4 pm, I was the eager kid standing outside of the international studies office. I don't want to cuss too much on this blog post, but let me tell you one word - ASSHOLES. I don't understand why this tends to be the norm in universities, but I was treated like crap (a few days later had to go back and was treated like crap yet again). I left the office after about 45 minutes, having been able to buy my tickets to Zamora, El Escorial, Lisbon and Segovia.
Long story short, all my trips for this weekend got cancelled. I threw a fit and was able to switch my Segovia ticket from the 21st to today and after much planning with some classmates, we chose to take a train to Avila on Sunday (July 7).
Classes this week have been rough. The temperatures are rising, and while I know it is also hot in Colorado, there are barely any places to find solace from the heat - air conditioning is very expensive. The nights are not even cool anymore, and sleeping with the windows open only means I lay down to hear the conversations of the entire downtown area until my eyes decide to shut. On average, I am sleeping about 4 hours, but I am really trying to go the extra mile to find solutions on how to sleep more comfortably. I have been taking showers the past two nights and it has been marginally better. Dramamine stopped working.
We started our history rotation on Thursday after finishing film class on Wednesday. I was happily surprised to find a very good looking professor.... It is at least a distraction that curved my sleep for the first 2 hours of history class!!
During the week, I took a Spanish food cooking class. We had an extremely good looking basque man teach us how to make paella, tortilla espanola, pisto Manchego, torrijas and gazpacho. We had a blast, and the group was small, manageable and everyone got to chop, stir, fry and eat!! I look forward to taking more cooking classes in my future.
I also took a jewelry class last night, with my friend Aleena. We worked from 5pm til 830 and made a necklace, a bracelet and earrings. It was incredibly fun and I may end up buying the tools to continue with that adventure when I return to Colorado!!!
Today, after sleeping about 3.5 hours, I got out of bed, took a shower and then walked half hour to the residence hall where we were to meet the bus that would take us to Segovia. It was an incredible day and I learned so very much. We went to the aqueduct, from the first century!, we visited the cathedral of Segovia, very similar to the cathedral of salamanca, and the Alcazar - the home of the catholic kings, and the place where Columbus asked if he could go find an alternate route to the indies!! It was an amazing morning followed by a horrible lunch experience.
We were told we had til 315 to get lunch, and we were done with our tour at around 220. We were starving so we walked down one of the main roads of Segovia, but tried to get closer to our meeting point. At 215, we saw a promising place that served cochinillo (a traditional dish) on a tapas and racion version, which meant we would save about thirty dollars and get away with trying it. We walked in, and some other kids from our tour were there, so we felt comfortable and sat down near them. The first feat was achieving that the waiter talk to us, but he did and then only remembered my drink, so everyone else waited about five more minutes to get water and coke... A hard order to remember. As he put down our drinks, I said we were ready to order, but he said he would be right back... Ten minutes passed. He took the order of our classmates, but somehow managed to walk in and out of the restaurant and forget about us. Eventually, he came back and we placed our orders. About three minutes later, he came back. He had forgotten what we wanted, so those three minutes were wasted into oblivion. At this point it is about 245, we had half hour to eat.
My plate comes out. I ordered salmorejo for lunch, since for the most part it is a hearty dish with a good size. My salmorejo was about seven spoonfuls. I hadn't had breakfast, it was 3 pm, we had been walking for four hours under the hot sun and after thirty minutes all I had in front of me was seven spoonfuls of soup. Fuck my life.
Have I mentioned the ONLY person in the group who got her "meal" was me? At 305 when we were supposed to be walking toward the meeting point, I found myself standing out of the table and trying to ask the bartender how much I owed, since the great bill did NOT have anything itemized. He told me couldn't tell me, he didnt know the price of my drink and to top it off he also could not take my money. All this with a very rude tone.
For another five minutes we waited... No server. I was ready to leave ten euro, more than my share, and walk out of the restaurant since NOONE ate, but lo and behold, we see the food sitting on the counter. Xiara started yelling at the bartender to bring the food, and once he finally got us the food it was already 315... He had to pack it to go, and we had to run back to meet everyone in 100 degrees. The greatest thing was that our tour guide was ALSO victim to that restaurant, so he proceeded to complain. I was so hangry. I wanted to kill everyone.
In all, Segovia is a beautiful place, but I learned a valuable lesson... Next time we do an excursion, I am eating at Burger King!!!
We took another bus ride, about thirty minutes, to travel to La Granja de San Ildefonso, another one of the homes of the catholic kings. It is a beautiful building inspired by Versailles. It felt like you were in a different country!! After getting used to fortresses, this building blew the rest out of the water. I only have pictures of the exterior, for we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Once we were done with the tour, we walked outside to the gardens. Holy cow. The fountains. The flowers. The trees. The statues. The entire garden is perfection, and it is easily the second most beautiful garden I have ever seen, second only to the generalife in the Alhambra.
At 515, we met the group, boarded the bus and then proceeded to nap in the bus almost all the way back to salamanca. Upon arrival, I could have eaten dog. I was seeing green dots everywhere. I speed walked to Burger King, and in three minutes I had a whole meal to go. Thanks, America!! I walked back to my apartment and ate. It was the most glorious moment of my day. Food. And let me tell you.... Burger King here is damn good!
Xoxo,
bee
You know you're hungry when Burger King is good! That cracked me up.
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