Segovia Sneak Peak

No time to write a blog, watch for today's adventures tomorrow!

TGIF

So today's post photo is brought to you by the Crayon Guy, who literally just hangs out around town with a box of Crayolas and draws these murals:

All crayon. And they're everywhere in the pedestrian part of town.

Also, we had a meeting about my upcoming excursion to Morocco with ISA, where I learned that if someone asks you if you want chocolate in Morocco, you say no. Because that means drugs. Just say no to chocolate (but only in Morocco!!).

After the meeting, I went to this coffeeshop/café we've discovered and really like with Sam & Britt, two girls from ISA. They have really good smoothies and milkshakes, but today I ordered café mandala which was condensed milk, coffee, and whipped cream. With chocolate sprinkles. Probably the sugariest coffee drink I will ever drink ever, but it was pretty delicious. Also, here's an artsy photo I stole from my friend Hannah's Facebook page, of some of the decor in Mandala.

Thank you to Hanna Mae for being artsy

After I got home from coffee, I ended up practicing English & Spanish with David for about an hour. Spent half an hour talking about motorcycles in English, and then another half hour in Spanish talking about guns (he works with the police) and the Spanish education system. Good times.

María made us tortilla española for dinner, om nom nom. That's the sound of my stomach being a very happy camper. Tomorrow we have to get up super early to get on a bus and visit Segovia, which, according to María, is really only good for the Roman aqueduct there, but apparently ISA knows of something that'll take up 10 hours, so hopefully I'll have some good photos to share tomorrow!

Bleh Class Bleh

Good news: One of my professors likes giving readings in English. Win! Except I don't know why he would give readings this difficult to students who don't speak fluently. Even I am having trouble getting through it… I mean, here's a quote from the article I'm reading right now: "it tends to preserve Zeitgeist thinking after all, because it privileges the notion of an ‘essential’ relatedness across diverse domains and decades." Now, does anyone know what class I'm reading this for? No, you don't. Music in the 18th Century, for the record. But seriously, it's crazy. If a professor at home gave readings in another language (for a non-language class, obviously), the students would probably riot.

Other good news: My other musicology professor told me I speak Spanish well. Which makes me very happy because I feel like every time I open my mouth in her class, I sound dumber and dumber. She's also far less terrifying face-to-face than when she's doing lecture during class. 

Bad news: having a cold here sucks. For starters, the kleenex I have are in those little travel packs (10 packs of 10 for 0,73 euros!) so I can basically count how many tissues I've gone through in the last 24 hours. (It's roughly 30, in case you wanted to know that.) But at least I have a day off class, and María is making sure I drink lots and lots of water.

Random discovery: These chips, which are (don't be surprised) ham and cheese flavored. Of course. Also, someone should look at a pack of potato chips and tell me how many ingredients there are, because the unflavored ones here have literally three: Potatoes, vegetable oil, and salt. I feel like there's no way a manufacturer just left it at that in the USA.

Chinese Food & English Practice

Last night, we decided to go out for Chinese food. So this is what it looks like when six American girls order Chinese food in Spain

They also set Orange Duck on fire when you order it... my friend's face looked like a little kid on Christmas, it was priceless

And we cleaned up pretty decently. Very good food, and the best part was it comes in slightly smaller portions. We all ordered two plates and just shared among the table. Deliciousness abound. A very good find, especially since if we just want to do one plate each, it's just 3-4 euros per plate. Last night we were all kinda starving for some reason...

Today was back to the grind of school. Bright side: Even though I have to do a partners project, I did not get stuck with some super awkward quiet kid, my partner seems really nice. And like she has a cold, but that's kinda irrelevant for now.

Also, when I got home, I ended up helping David practice his English for a little while. We talked about jobs, and I found out that his first job was a pizza deliveryman. However, if you put in just the word for "deliveryman" on Google translate (without adding the "pizza" beforehand) it spits out "dealer." So I then explained to David that he was definitely a deliveryman because if he told people he was a dealer and left off the pizza part, people might assume some not so good things. Definitely one of the better conversations we've had, just saying.

Sunday Afternoon

Things that were said while Megan and I were out exploring:

"Well, you missed a guy playing the harmonica with his nose."
"What? I was only gone for like two seconds!"

"They were doing something over there with bubbles earlier I think."
"That doesn't sound like bubbles."
"What does that even mean??"

We went down to the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) to take some photos of the city from afar. Unfortunately I only had my iPod, not my camera, so I didn't great photos, but it was a pretty great view.

Street performers–with bubbles

Exploring

Here's some photos of the walk I took around town today. I found a couple of cute little parks, one with some really pretty trees, the other was basically a scenic viewpoint.

New boots!

People!

I just realized I have very few photos of the people I actually hang out with when we go out at night, so here's some awesome photos. Also, you should read my friend Quinn's blog post about being a tall man in Spain, he's a DU student studying journalism and I found this hilarious because it's so true. Even I feel too tall sometimes, and the poor guy is a foot taller than I am!

Anyway, photos of my friends:

Brenda, Katie, Sal, Camilla, Me!, Lucia (from Germany) and Megan (my roommate) at Irish Rover for karaoke night

Cora, a Spanish girl we've made friends with, myself, and Kristi

Me, Kristi (Pennsylvania) and Gerardo (Mexico)

Morgan (Belgium), me, Kristi, and Sophie (Belgium) on the "Spanish side" of town (instead of the "international side")

Blurry photo of Britt (Denver), Mila (Boulder), Camila (Chicago) and me during the festivals

Mila, Gerardo, Camila, Me, Samantha (Michigan), Britt, Kristi, and Quinn (Denver, who's blog I  mentioned above) during the festivals again. About half of our ISA group, about an eighth of all of the ISA groups in Salamanca this fall.