So, last night I was all set to go to bed at a reasonable time and be all refreshed for the next day. How'd it go? Not so good. There's no white noise here, and plenty of random noises, plus it's fairly hot (though thank goodness for the lack of humidity) and I simply could not fall asleep until after 1:30am. Ay mí. So then I could've sworn when I hit the snooze button that I would only sleep for another five minutes this morning, but I don't remember it going off again and next thing I know it's 8:20. Le sigh. I still made it to class on time and everything, but my breakfast once again was little.
Today was the first day of grammar class, since yesterday was the test. We spent a good chuck of the class just introducing ourselves and conversing a little in Spanish. Then we went through the syllabus and began going over our tests from yesterday. I didn't do so well, but got more than half!! :p There were a few places where I knew as soon as I looked that it was wrong, and I think I would've done better yesterday with more sleep. No matter, it doesn't count anyway. There were a bunch more where I didn't understand a few key words, but now I know that se debe means due to! I think I'm going to like this class once it gets going, despite the 3-6 page final paper due at the end!
After class, I stopped at a cafe for a little more breakfast and something to drink...I've gotta figure out a better way to stay hydrated, because it's starting to be a drain on my wallet! After that I went back to school to address my postcards, then went on an adventure to find the post office. I asked Marian beforehand where it was, and I managed to follow her directions without issue! The post office was a little odd, because they had you take a number in order to be helped at the counter, a la the BMV. There was only one person in front of me though, so it didn't take much time. Afterward, I went back to school to check my email and send one to the study abroad adviser to make sure taking 3 classes would be okay. She once again emphasized that it will be a lot of work and that she counsels against it, but I'm totally going to ignore that because several students are taking 3 classes and some are doing internships. I think I'll be fine.
For UE, we discussed briefly the first half of the European history of trying to unite the continent by way of comics. I also discovered that in Spain, they only consider the world to have 6 continents and the Americas are all one. It's kind of odd, because I was under the impression that part of our classification of the Americas as separate were based on geological reasons, but maybe elementary school lied to me again >:( Then we went on a brief excursion through Segovia. On our way to the aquaduct, we went through a street that used to go next to a seminary there. Now, it's all offices because they didn't have students to use the seminary for. Que triste :( It was really pretty though, so I took several photos. Then we reached the aquaduct and looked over it from the top. She told us a really neat legend about how the aquaduct was constructed, but I think I must've missed something. As I understood it, there was a girl who did the laundry every morning and had to get up really early to go down to the river to get water. One night a man proposed to her and she was to be married the next day. However, her mom said no because she had to get up early and couldn't get married. So, the girl talked to the devil and sold her soul so that water could be delivered to her house and she could get married the next day. So, the devil went to work constructing the aquaduct. But then, the girl had second thoughts. So she prayed and prayed and prayed, and God (or somebody upstairs, I'm assuming him but I don't actually remember if she said specifically who, or maybe I just missed that part) decided to help her out a little. The contract was that it be completed before the first rays of sun touched the land, so God made the night the shortest of the year (the solstice) and just before the devil finished placing the last stone of the aquaduct, the first ray of sun appeared. However, the water still came to her house and so she got to get married and kept her soul too. *shrug*
After that we went and saw a statue for another legend, the origins of the Roman Empire. According to legend, cities were attacking each other and the victors killing every single person in the losing city. Well in one such case, a mother of the losing city put her twin babies in the woods so that they wouldn't be killed. A mother wolf who had lost her cubs found them and took them as her own. Then, when they were still young, a hunter from the city killed the mother wolf and raised the twin boys, teaching them. They were super big and strong though from being raised by a wolf, so the hunter then used the boys to conquer a bunch of other cities in Italy. Then, the two boys fought over what to name the empire: Roma for Romulus or Remolo for Remo. During the fight, Romulus killed Remo and thus it was named Roma. The statue is of a wolf nursing two baby boys.
After class, I went home for lunch and we had some sort of delicious stew-like dish with potatoes and hamish meat and carrots. It was super good. Then I went back and siesta'd for like 3 1/2 hours, getting up with only a little time to spare before going off to my final class of the day, art history.
Art history was probably boring to most people, but I thought it was interesting because I've never studied art before. We talked about the types of materials used, how paints were made, colors, and the process by which someone became an artist in the 1500-1700's. After class, we all went to out for the Welcome Dinner to El Sitio. There we tried all sorts of interesting dishes. My favorites were la croqueta y la tortilla. The salad was also pretty tasty. I tried calimari and the taste was pretty good, but it was all sorts of slimy and I couldn't eat a whole ring. It's something I would taste again though.
Pictures
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