We had orientation on Saturday of the week we got here and classes started on Monday. We had a chance to meet our professors at orientation and that was really neat because we got to see that all of our professors were excited to have us. There are 6 classes offered this semester and I am taking 4 of them. My first one starts early morning at 840am. It is a 15minute walk to get to school. As Monday came along it was definitely hard to get up in the morning. I was not used to being up so early and then have to take a 15 minute walk to school since I would usually commute to school. Walking is all we do here, everyone walks, and they walk fast! My friend and I are determined to get to school in 10minutes by the end of the semester. It’s harder because our whole way is basically all uphill. But it’s really neat to be able to walk through the Aqueduct every morning.
Walk through the Aqueduct every day
Day one at school went well and by the end of the day I had learned lots of new things. We call our professors by their first name here and instead of going from class to class our professors come to us. I really enjoy my professors they’re all so nice and I have really been learning a lot from them. At first yes, I must admit it was like Spanish overload. We can only speak Spanish at school and everything is taught in Spanish.I understand everything it just took a bit to get used to my whole day of classes being in Spanish.
I’ve been here for a week now and have met many people. I have been asked several times “Eres Mexicana?” are you Mexican?. I’m not surprised to be asked but I am surprised when people say they can tell by my accent? I didn’t know I had an accent. But I enjoy having a bit of an advantage because I do come from a Spanish speaking background and Spanish was my first language. I feel that I comprehend everything better but I feel that although I speak the Spanish I’ve been learning so much. There are new words I’ve learned and I’m grasping the right Spanish not Spanglish. I’ve been told my Spanish is really good and that makes me feel good but I’m here because I want to be able to better my Spanish more not only in conversation but also grammatically. I want to be able to have a complete conversation and feel confident in what I am saying is in correct Spanish.
My host family has been great! My host mom is really nice and her son is too. They’re very welcoming and we always have long conversations about many things during lunch. I’ve had to adjust to the food, people here have a Mediterranean diet so foods always include vegetables and some kind of meat (specifically pork). Unlike having tortillas at every meal back home, people here eat bread at every meal.
On Friday we had our first excursion. We went on “La Ruta de los Castillos” The route of the castles. We visited two castles. First one was the Castle of Coca, we were able to go inside this one, it was really cool. The second one was El Castillo de Cuellar we were able to explore the outside of this castle because it is currently a high school (how cool would it be to go to school in a castle!) After the castles we went to a winery, tasted wine and then headed out to the vineyard. It was a great excursion I must say!
In front of the Castle of Coca
The group at the Castle of Coca
The vineyard, so pretty!
I’m ready to conquer week 2 in Segovia!
I can see that you’ve had a wonderful and positive first week. You will progress rapidly in developing your formal Spanish, especially since you already have strong comprehension and speaking skills. I like your goal of walking to school in 10 minutes instead of 15 by the end of term. Good for you! Please give my best wishes to my dear friend Mariann, who is your lovely site director. Michele
That is why I am so glad to be in England, where I share their language, but I can appreciate the cultural and subtle language differences. I’ve been asked if I am American or Canadian (the second one made me laugh, especially since I don’t say, “eh” at the end of every sentence. Quick question, are you learning Castillian, by chance?
I hope to get to the Continent myself in a couple of weeks and see all the amazing sights down there. Sounds like you are having fun and I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay.
I’ve always wanted to go to England. It’s nice to be somewhere that we understand the language. Yep it is Castillian, it’s like the Spanish I speak but they have their differences and I feel their Spanish is more proper and correct. They use like “vosotros” and add the “ies” at the end of words at times. But I understand them. While I was in Barcelona the people there spoke Catalan and that is completely different, the Spanish is harder to understand.
Spain is beautiful! Definitely a place to visit!
Marian sends you best wishes as well! Like they say here, she said you’re “So Maja!” (So nice!) she is a great director and I love how knowledgeable she is about everything, she’s so helpful!
Sounds like you are having a great experience so far! I studied in Italy this summer and the part that I was in was considered to have more of a Mediterranean life style as opposed to the traditional Italian one. And yet it sounds as though the food we had was totally different. Vegetables were hard to come by in the diet where I lived and the “bread” that they served with each meal people usually didn’t eat. I say bread in quotes because it was so hard haha.
Haha the bread is really good here. Where did you stay in Italy? I will be spending my fall break there! I’d love to hear of places to go, that you liked?
That’s surprising that people thought you had an accent! There were a few times in Mexico where some people asked me if I was Mexican too! I was really surprised because I’m obviously not! I asked them why they thought that and they said that it was because I spoke Spanish really well! Which boosted my confidence and made me feel good! But actually, when I got back and was talking with my Puerto Rican friend in spanish she also said that I picked up the Mexican accent! I think it’s cool that she thinks that but I don’t think I believe it…hah!
-Ayat