we went to escuela de hostelera, the culinary school in segovia, and learned how to cook paella! the recipe itself is really easy and i plan on making some when i get back stateside.
later we walked down to the edge of town to the alcázar. it’s the second most visited site in spain (second to the prado museum in madrid which we’ll get to see next week), and served as the model for the princess castle in disneyland.
saturday night we went out to the bars to play pool and to chat up the locals and we didn’t get home until 4:30. needless to say i slept through half of sunday. i got up just in time for la comida at 2:30. i wandered outside afterwards and bumped into leigh. we headed off to the aqueduct to get some internet but we met up with some other students instead. we all decided to go to the movies to catch the new indiana jones flick.
the theater was off the hook. it had 6 screens and each one was of imax quality. all of the seats are oversized and comfortable. best of all, the arm rests were double wide so you didn’t have to worry about who got it or constantly leaning to the left or anything. they also have assigned seats. i think it’s a great idea. you could get tickets in advance and reserve your favorite seats. you could even have an entire row for you and 41 of your closest friends.
the movie itself was pretty entertaining. i won’t spoil anything, i promise. but i will say it wasn’t much like the other indiana jones movies. it wasn’t as gritty/mysterious/awesome as the others. but they did make a lot of jokes about how old harrison ford is and they had copious amounts of shout outs to the previous three and i really enjoyed that. i also enjoyed how i never, not even for a minute, got lost in the dialogue. i even kept up with the innuendo! ¡mi español está mejorando!
my dad and i watched an american idol-inspired competition the other night on tv called eurovisión. 25 countries from europe sent their best singers, groups, bands, and other vocal talents to belgium where they competed against each other.
most of the countries took this event seriously. finland sent a heavy metal band that was awesome. and denmark sent a group that was like a cross between the beatles and jet. iceland sent a drugged out techno duo that sucked and georgia sent an emo-punk chick who had a great song but absolutely know stage presence. she looked like brit from the vma’s. but her dancers were fierce. they did the smooth criminal lean.
but my family (and every other person in spain i’ve talked to about it) thought it was a total tontería. and that’s why spain sent el chiki chiki. no one knows his real name, but he’s living up his 15 minutes of fame. dude is all over the tv, all over the radio, and all over the internet.
i also found out that my dad is an old horndog! he wouldn’t stop talking about the girl from armenia, or from the ukraine, or from greece. he made several comments about their culos and was shocked/proud when he found out i knew what he was talking about. but a word in his defense: the girl from the ukraine looked just like eva longoria, but a little taller, and had mariah carey’s pipes. you know, before shake it off.
today was our day to visit salamanca and ávila. the bus ride over was pretty tight. me and stew posted up in the back and jammed on my ipod for a while. we rocked some journey, will smith, marcy playground, andthe spin doctors; and then we mellowed out with some john mayer, jonny lang, kt tunstall, coldplay, andcorinne bailey rae.
when we got to salamanca it was brisk and sunny — nothing like segovia where it’s been raining for 10 days. our first stop was the cathedral. it was spacious, dark, cold, and spectacular. the interior is magnificently adorned with elaborate hand-carved wood pulpits and towering stone columns. there are alsoestatuas de la virgen y de cristo y de otros escenas de la biblia along the walls. i’ve never seen a more beautiful cathedral.
i really want to go back to salamanca to visit the cathedral at my own pace (our tour was maybe an hour and a half long) and to attend misa. i saw la rana outside of the cathedral, so, if the legend holds true, i’ll find my way back to salamanca soon.
random: mi hermano fran le gusta a maroon 5. i know because i heard him singing “this love” in the shower.
our second stop was la ciudad de ávila. the city is smaller than segovia, and there’s almost nothing to see except for la muralla that surrounds it. the floodgates of heaven had opened up by the time we got off the bus. we sloshed through the city to the wall and walked on top of it. the view from the 11th century wall was gray and misty, but it was still worth the cold, wet misery.
nothing new or particularly interesting has happened lately so i’m going to lump some days together.
i’m just about over the spectacle of the city, you know, i’m settling into that daily routine. and that’s not a bad thing. the routine here is maravilloso. real chill and laid back. the only responsibility i have is finding a few minutes to do my homework and meeting up with the other students when it’s time to hit the town.
last sunday a few of us went to la granja. it’s a quaint little pueblo about 8 km from segovia. in the heart of la granja is an enormous palace that’s surrounded by jardines and fuentes. the gardens are beautiful (they reminded me a lot of the lost woods) but they are upstaged by the fountains. they were cascading steps that were elaborately ornamented with scenes of greek mythology. the amazing part is that the water is pumped entirely by gravity.
we went bowling after the fountains. the lanes were very short and we were the only ones not using the bumpers. the bowling alley here is so 21st century. they don’t have those garbage monitors from 1974 with the lame-ass graphics. no, they have 42” high definition lcd’s with amazing graphics that make fun of you when you suck. they don’t have those crappy bowling zapatos with no support and the impossible knots. no, they have brand new kicks and they smell great. and they don’t have nasty over-priced cafeteria comida. no, they have a full service bar and restaurant. bowling back in the states will never be the same…
random thing: i put my earrings in without a mirror!
tuesday was the eve of danielle’s 21st birthday. we celebrated at el desvan and threw back a chupito de tequila at midnight. you can drink here when you’re 18, so the shot was underrated, but it was the principle that mattered to us.
i spent almost all day wednesday walking through the city. i bought some new zapatos for 12€. i really needed them because it’s been raining so much. the shoes i brought from home are all but destroyed. and stupid me, i brought i two favorite pairs. while i’m on the subject of favorite articles of clothing, someone stole my hat right off of my head the other night. we were all dancing in the club and when i turned around there was no one there! wtf? it’s a real bummer because they took the hat that jeff gave me during godspell. that was my favorite hat…
we went out again for danielle’s birthday but this time is partied hard. our first stop was an all-you-can-eat buffet by the aqueduct. the food was scrumptious. i had a fresh ensalada, piña, arroz y pasta, pescado, y pollo. i also had some peach zuma that was not good at all. it tasted exactly like the syrup from the fruit salad we used to get in middle school. yuck. after dinner we hung out under the aqueduct and just chilled until everyone else showed up (did you know there’s wifi (the spanish say wee-fee) at the aqueduct?!) and then we hit the bars. the first place we hit was a bar called toys. we didn’t know it at the time, but there was a dude doing stand up there so we stuck around for his show. he was the raunchiest comedian i’ve heard in a while (think lisa lampanelli meets richard pryor and you’ve got ‘em), but he was incredible. we were all in stitches! i couldn’t believe how much of his act i was able to follow. we danced for a little bit after the comedy ended, but the place was dead, so we left. that’s the funny thing about toys. it’s either packed like the red room on thursday nights or it’s empty like the gourmet factory during lunch. we headed up towards calle real and stumbled into a whole in the wall with great music, cheap drinks, and friendly patrons. we stayed until they closed at 3, then we went home. danielle had fun (and got drunk) so we were all happy.
another random thing: 70% of the spanish would rather give up sex than give up soccer. ¿quién sabía?
zz, a friend of mine, is having a wonky time with her family. i wasn’t really sure what was going on but it sounded like she wasn’t getting enough food and it was lousy anyways so i asked my mom if she could come over one day for lunch. my mom said she would be happy to have her. the only thing is i forgot to tell my mom that zz is jewish and doesn’t eat pork but i figured it would be that big of a deal. yeah, well, i was mistaken. zz came home with me, i introduced her to my folks, she made some small talk with my mom, and then we sat down to a nice lunch of sopa de orejas y patas del cochino. that’s right: pig’s ear and feet soup! ¿estás bromeándome? poor zz had to spoon around the pork, which, by the way, was unbearably difficult to chew. after swallowing a few hairy pieces of ear i couldn’t stomach anymore. it was gross. i was apologizing the whole way back to zz’s house. i was so embarrassed. but then i laughed because it was just like a sitcom. you know: boy meets girl, girl has problems at home, boy invites her over to his place, his parents embarrass him in front of the girl, yadda yadda yadda.
we had a quiz today on the preterite versus the imperfect and i think i aced it, but there’s a small chance i misspelled the last verb. i double checked my work and everything looked fine, but i’ve still got doubt about número diez.
today was a pretty chill day. i took a 3 hour siesta and got some work done when i woke up. i went out late after dinner hoping to find some of the other students, but i didn’t see anyone. i decided to take a stroll around the city and i bumped into mcconnell. he showed me some cool spots on la calle de los bares and some hidden “local” places too. we ended up at the aqueduct and just chilled. we talked about traveling, working, living abroad, the antiquity of segovia, the ignorance of the states, obama versus clinton, health, being happy, you name it. mcconnell is a real laid-back guy. he’s smart, personable, reliable, and funny. me cae muy bien. i got in tarde again, even though i told my mom i wouldn’t, but we were having good conversation. so meh.
i want to take a moment to talk about the food. shortly after meeting my folks, my mom asked me if there’s anything i’m allergic to or if i’m particular about eating this or that. i told her todo está bien and she smiled. the first meal i had with the family was a chicken-flavored noodle soup, bread, and a chicken and chorizo dish. it was delicioso. quick little tangent: the spanish serve bread with every meal, always; they put salsa de tomate on everything and my family has fruit for desert after every meal except breakfast (i seem to be the only one who eats breakfast, and i don’t really eat it, i drink it). well tonight they served me a superb garlic-rubbed chicken with a side of ceso. ceso de cordero to be exact. for those of you who aren’t hip on the lingo of spanish cuisine, that’s lamb brain. i watched my dad in some crazy curious shocked kind of way as be forked the brain out of the lamb’s skull and portioned a piece off onto my plate right next to my very familiar very safe very this-really-isn’t-that-far-outside-of-my-comfort-zone garlic-rubbed chicken. i looked at it for a second or two. i know that it thought about looking at me. i stabbed it with the fork, split it with the knife, and popped it into my mouth. it instantly dissolved into a mashed-potato-like consistency. it tasted like a pork chop that’s been left out in the sun for 6 days but i swallowed it. and just to make sure that i really did eat ceso, i had one more piece. cuando en segovia, ¿no?
the weather in segovia has been very brisk. the jacket i brought with me gets the job done in the mid afternoon but it’s useless in the morning and late evening so i bought another one in a store called pull and bear. the store specializes in trendy euro-fashion with kick-ass american flare. the jacket that i got is very european and when i’m wearing it and i’m not wearing white socks none of the locals look at me like i’m an american.
i’ve taken tons of great pictures.
if it’s on tv and semi-popular in the states, it’s the bees knees and on tv in spain. my family loves to watch csi: las vegas and house. my mom flipped when i told her that omar is my cousin and she called everyone she knew. spanish tv isn’t very good. the highest-quality tv i’ve seen looks like a home movies straight up out of the 80s. that’s probably why they have so many imports. family guy, the simpsons, and water world were all on today. tcm and amc air nothing but american cinema. and, sadly, reality tv is big here too (especially super modelo 2008). many of the commercials are underscored by american songs and a few of the company tag lines are english phrases (chevrolet. get real.).
we went out tonight to two different bars. the first stop, la luna, was an ok place that kemp’s mom won’t shut up about. it was filled with americans (us) and a small surprise party of 15 and 16 year olds (you can go to bars when you’re like 14 or something and you can legally drink when you’re 18). i asked the hottie behind the bar if she liked bourbon and she told me her drink of choice was rum. i’m not much of a rum drinker so i asked if she would make me her favorite poison and she made me a 4€ rum and coke. lame. the place was dead so we went around the corner to one of mcconnell’s favorite joins, el zircus. the drinks there were a third of the price and there were even some locals. the dj was playing nothing but american hits. after now that’s what i call music 27 but before now that’s what i call music 28 he played a medley from grease. you know the one: you’re the one that i want then greased lighting then summer lovin’. it was a lot of fun. a lot of the girls are lushes. a lot of the guys are too. we stayed out until the horny spanish jugadores were a pain in the ass to deal with and we bounced around 2. we made way too much noise wandering around the quiet sleepy city looking any restaurante that was still open. we didn’t find anything but there was a soft and pleasant mist hanging in the air so we stayed out anyway. i crashed around 3.
