Onto our final excursion we went. I must say it’s been pretty cold in Segovia these last few days. It only got worse visiting La Granja which is even at higher elevation and closer to the mountains.

La Granja was really interesting and full of history as well. It’s so neat to learn that an actual king lived there. The king built the palace here as an imitation of the palace in versailles because he was from france and missed home so much.

The palace in La Granja

Another picture of the palace and it’s gardens and fountains.

Finally a week where there’s nothing major going on. Just another typical week in Segovia. Classes monday through thursday and going out with the group at night. I’ve spent this week going to class and hanging out with friends. What I enjoy about living in Spain is that every day is relaxing and there is always something to do. It’s really neat to be able to go for walks to the plaza mayor, the cathedral, the castle or just anywhere in Segovia. Segovia is such a great city to live in, it feels so comfortable to walk anywhere and just roam the streets.

I’m accustomed to everything around me and the live style. I’ve gotten used to the food and living here. I eat a three course meal everyday for lunch. For breakfast I always have the same thing as well. The milk and yogurt taste different here. It’s so interesting how people here buy milk in bulk and it’s not even refrigerated until it’s opened.

My breakfast everyday

The cathedral of Segovia

The Alcazar of Segovia

The Aqueduct, I walked through this every day.

This is the building my school was in.

After being back from a 10 day trip we just can’t stop traveling. This weekend we had our long excursion to Andalucia the south of Spain to Cordoba and Granada. We left Segovia on Friday morning, it was going to be a long bus drive but thank goodness we had our own private bus.

I was really excited for this excursion because it was going to be our longest one and it was going to be in the south of spain where I still hadn’t traveled too. The south was beautiful. Spain just keeps getting better and better. I noticed the people here speak faster spanish, i still understand them but I can notice the difference. Spending the weekend here was packed with places to visit and places to learn all the history. It blows my mind to hear our director go on and on about all the history we find in Spain. We visited two of the major, well lots of attractions in the south in Cordoba we visited the famous Mosque that has a cathedral inside. In granada we visited the Alhambra.

The mosque-cathedral in Cordoba

Inside the Alhambra

View of Granada, Spain

I really enjoyed this excursion because as a whole group we bonded and all learned new things. I’m ready for this upcoming week to be able to relax and slow down on the traveling. One more excursion to La Granja and soon our program will be coming to an end.

This week we had out thanksgiving dinner AHA does for us. It was potluck style but we did have a turkey which was really good.Like any celebration people celebrate in Spain we had our lunch at a restaurant near our school. We all dressed up went to class then headed to the restaurant to eat.

The turkey!

How we felt when we were done.

Overall this week went well. Classes went well and outings with the group are always fun. I finally feel like Segovia is my second home. I’m accustomed to the culture and the living, it’s going to be different when I go home.

After our last week of great excursions it was time to get back to study mode and focus because midterms were up next. Unlike back home we didn’t get a study guide to know what was going to be on the test but we did have review days which were really helpful because our professors let us know what was going to be on our tests. I was a bit nervous for these tests because they were going to be in a whole different language and although I know the language it was still nerve racking because maybe I’d forget what to say and how to write it in spanish. But just like back at WOU our tests were split up into two days, half the classes Wednesday and the other half on Thursday.

Monday and Tuesday consisted of review and lots of studying. On mondays i also have my internship at Caritas. I really enjoy volunteering there, the people are all so nice and after a few weeks we’ve had a good group of 10 people that come on a daily basis and really want to learn. We have a diverse group of people in our class we have people that have never learned any english and then we have others that know a few things and are a little better at English but they’re all learning. Pronunciation is the key thing everyone needs help with.

Caritas, The organization where I volunteered at.

Since we all had midterms coming up we all headed to a cafe to study all together. I’ve developed a slight addiction to Cafe con Leche (Coffee with milk) it’s really good. I’ve noticed the coffee here is a lot more strong and the amount you get is way smaller. A lot of people get what looks like a shot of coffee, i dont know how they can handle that, i bet it’s really strong. After talking to one of my proffs he mentioned a lot of people here like the strong stuff and even dark chocolate is preferd more than milk chocolate. Talking about chocolate, I miss hershey’s chocolate, they dont have that here but tehy do have Kinder and Milka which I believe is chocolate from germany. Chocolate from Spain is Valor.

Cafe con leche and a piece of bread

I feel midterms went well and once they were over it was time for fall break! Italy for 10 days! I’m really excited! Rome-Milan-Florence and Venice. It’s going to be quiet the trip with just my friend alison and I but i’m excited. First off is Rome we left Thursday night and arrived Friday morning. And so the Italy adventure began!