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Published: June 23rd 2008
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School
This is my school, AHA. Hola from Spain!
I made it to Spain early Friday morning. It was quite a flight-definatly not an easy one. Our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was about 8 hours with the worst landing I´ve ever had. It was just a straight shot down. I really thought I was going to throw up. We literally ran through Schiphol in Amsterdam and made it just in time for our Amsterdam to Madrid. We got all of our luggage and made it here smoothly. We were very fortunate to be so lucky!
We arrived in Spain at the bus station (right in town, only a short walk to my house) to see a bunch of women waiting for us - our future moms! My mom picked me up with two kisses to my cheeks and is a delightful woman. She has a car which isn´t so common here. She took me on a drive before finally going home to see some important sights. Que bonita!
We pulled into her garage and I had to carry all of my bags myself up 2 flights of stairs. Now I am understanding that I could have lived easily with 5 tank tops rather
Casa
My house. Yes...that whole thing is my house. All 3 floors. All doors and windows. than the 17 I packed. She showed me my room and a tour of the house. It is beautiful!! It is exceptionally large for a home in Segovia. Again...I´m lucky! I´ll take pictures soon. The family includes Estrella-mom, Claudia-21 year old sister, Salome-18 year old sister, and Jamie-13 year old brother. I haven´t met Salome yet. She´s been in Salamance for the past week. Everyone else is extremely nice though.
That night, my mom and Claudia took me for a walk around the city to show me my school and other hot spots. She also took me to 3 bars and got me tapas. It was very nice seeing the city through a local´s eyes. Not all the tapas were good, I had to spit one out. She understood. it was meat on bread, but rather than it being acutal meat, it was the fat of the meat. Yuck. At least I tried it. I ordered a vino tinto (the drink of Spain, suprisingly, is vino tinto, not Sangria). It´s red wine and lemon fanta. It was delicious! 11ish, I was tired and Claudia took me home. After a bit of homesickness, I went to bed.
The next
Escaleras
Stairs to my house that I walk up and down 2 or 3 times a day. At least my legs will feel great! day we had to meet at school for a tour of the city (banks, post offices, pharmacies, bars, chocolaterias, internet cafes, etc.) By an unlucky habenstance, I ended up going to 3 bars with the AHA people (all of the students studying in Spain) that ended at 3 in the morning at a discoteca called Toys that had people dressed up as devils dancing to strobe lights. Again...glad I experienced it, but I am done with Toys durning my stay in Segovia.
Sunday (yesterday), my mom had huge lunch for us children, her father, her mother and her aunt. (Lunch is called comida, the nap is called siesta. My family does siesta first, comida second). For comida, she made paella with mussels in it. YUM! Except that she gave me way to much. Such is the problem every day I´m here. Everytime we eat for any meal, fruit is always the dessert, so we had watermelon yesterday.
After that was an evening of soccer! We found a local soccer stadium in Segovia that has a view of the mountains as its background. You guys would die to see it. It was very interesting to see them play and
Soccer field
The local soccer field with a beautiful view. to see the crowd interacting. At 9 that night was the big Italy vs. Spain Eurocup soccer game! A huge screen was set up in la plaza mayor so everyone could watch together and it was packed!!! A band played at halftime and sang some songs to get the crowd pumped up. The game ended with a shoot off and Spain won! Yay!!! The crowd went crazy - screaming, jumping, lighting flares, waving flags. Definatly a sight to see.
When I returned home, my wonderful mother, bless her heart, fixed my phone drama that had been developing more and more as the days went on and now I have a phone to call my friends to meet up! Thank you Mom!!!!!
Today was my first day of classes. My first class was grammar and we just took a placement test. I hope I did okay! Second was Spanish civilization. The professor is very cool, or guay as he says in spanish. This professor, Eduardo, is the professor that goes on all of the excursions with us. He taught us about some geography and drinks: an easy first day.
Thats where I am right now so far. I´m
Early game
La Plaza Mayor during the Italy vs. Spain Eurocup game. at home for siesta which means I should be sleeping. I hope Michigan is going great for everyone (and Chicago). Talk to you soon!!!
phone
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Dad
non-member comment
Great Information and Pictures
Dearest Peanutty, Thanks for the update and the pictures. Everything looks so nice. I'm glad you've worked out the phone issues. I look forward to future updates..... Only write if you have time.. Love, Dad