Monday February 14: It's Valentine's Day! Yay! My letter made it to the United States, which I was super excited about. It was also a girl's birthday so everyone made plans to go out for drinks that night at Oso Blanco. It was going to be a good night but during dinner while eating, I started getting really nauseous. After dinner, I felt so sick so I didn't end up going out that night with the group of girls.
Tuesday Feb. 15: I woke up VERY sick to my stomach. I went to class and after not feeling so well, I decided I needed to go to the pharmacy to get some medicine because I simply did not feel good. It's tough to be sick here...even semi sick like I was. You can go to the pharmacy and get whatever but you don't get mom. I was pretty upset and my host family thought I didn't like the food but I just simply could not eat!
Friday Feb. 18: Today was a beautiful day in Segovia and I was feeling somewhat better so Teah and I decided to go for a walk to explore some of Segovia we hadn't seen yet. We went down by the river Clamores where there's a really nice running/walking path and if I had brought running shoes, I would totally run there but I didn't. :( But we walk and try to find the Jewish cemetery. We end up walking and finding a hill where there's a spot to take pictures of Alcazar! It was absolutely breathtaking! (And exhausting to walk up there but totally worth it!) After climbing the first hill, we walk to a hill next to it which was actually where the Jewish cemetery was. It was so neat to see the crypts and body shaped holes in the ground where the Jews were buried before being kicked out of Spain in 1492. We read about the Jewish neighborhoods and decided to walk across and try to walk the burial path backwards. When we reached the door in the city wall where they would carry the bodies, there was a lot of construction so we didn't get to walk all of the way up there but where we did get to, we found bones! Just like chilling...on the ground! I thought it was the COOLEST and sort of creepiest thing ever! There was the slaughterhouse there in the Jewish neighborhood back in the day so they were probably animal bones but still! They were old and very cool to find! After our adventure, we went home for lunch and then took a nap. Then after that, we decided to seek out this study room that is specifically dedicated for studying. They are rooms funded by the government for students here since obviously students can't study in the library! So to get there we walk through the Segovia cemetery and took this dangerous footpath down the hill but we ended up exactly where we needed to be! We found the study room and it literally was a room of tables. That's it. And it was so quiet I sort of wanted to band my head against the table because I'm the type of person that needs music or background noise to do homework or else I'll go insane. So we stayed there for a while and got some homework done, ventured to hang out at the aqueduct with some other girls before going home for dinner and going to bed.
Saturday Feb. 19: This morning, a group of us walked to the Segovia Museum in the rain! The rain part was not so fun but the Segovia Museum was free and somewhat interesting. I didn't see anything fantastic but it was neat to see how the aqueduct worked and was built and different artifacts that have been dug up from cultures here from hundreds of years ago. Other than that, Saturday was a pretty chill day. We wanted to go to Cafe Colonial for internet but both of them were packed so we went to this restaurant called Las Gallinas which was sort of neat and different. We spent some time there drinking cafe con leche, eating free tapas, and watching a Real Madrid soccer game on TV with the locals! :)
Sunday Feb. 20: This morning we got up early to walk to church at the monastery. This was a long walk and we didn't know exactly how to get there. We took this side street that had green tarps up for construction or something. Obviously, this was to keep people out but there was no sign so I convinced the people I was with to continue with this road. Then we reach another green tarp. This time, there was a sign and all I read was the first sentence saying the road was cut. I found a way around the green barricade and continued walking! Then we reach an entire long line of green barricades in front of the monastery and had to squeeze between this fence and a large rock to get past. Then I turn around and see the signs that say "NO TRESPASSING" I was convinced that these signs weren't on the other barricades but the girls I'm with informed me that they were but hey, we got to church right?! So we trespassed to go to church...it was quite the adventure! So we get to the monastery and read that it has been there since the 15th century (approx. 300 or so years before our country was even founded!) I was so impressed. We were able to view the inside before mass then were let into the church for mass at 12. The church was really neat! It was freezing though because of all of the rock used to build it and the lack of heating. So we froze during mass but the Gregorian chants that they still use were pretty neat! All of the brothers at this monastery are really old and I was honestly afraid one of them might pass while we were there at mass! They were all coughing something awful! And not to mention, the presiding priest kept messing up the prayers and everyone in the church was confused as to what to say during the Profession of Faith and everything. Very interesting but listening to the homily, I learned a lot about acts of love and forgiveness! I listened carefully to get something out of it! :) After mass, to get feeling back in our frozen feet, we walked along the River Clamores again, back to the part of town where we live. After lunch, we watched 2 movies in Spanish which is always fun! Then wanted to go out to Valor for churros and chocolate but it was PACKED! So we just went to the aqueduct bar for chocolate...which wasn't nearly as good by itself! It's so thick and rich, I couldn't finish it all. But it was a pretty good day anyway, got a shower, a head start on my paper, and went to bed at a decent time.
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