Segovia

Numbers:
8 days until finals start
20 days until my mom visits
26 days until my friend April visits
38 days until I return to the U.S.

Those numbers look so small compared to the numbers that I started out with...

Yesterday, as one last hurrah before the last week of real school (and thus having to study the next two weekends for finals) my friend Caitlin and I took a little day-and-a-half trip to Segovia. It's only an hour and 15 minutes outside of Madrid, but it was nice to get away because I've been stressed out lately with the papers I've had to write and the tests that I've had to start studying for. You know, it was great to not really have to do anything other than attend class all semester, but now...now, I don't remember how to do work! It's ridiculous.

Segovia was the perfect cure for my anxiety though. It was a really joyful little city. There were multiple puppet shows in the streets, carousels, lots of small children running around and gorgeous views of the landscapes surrounding the city. There were times where I would just look out towards the mountains and I would think, "Wow, this is what I used to picture when I would think about Spain." Picturesque--that's the word I'm looking for. The city was picturesque without being overly precious (for comparison, Salamanca was overly precious). And of course we saw the aqueduct, which is what Segovia is known for. The aqueduct was built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago! It's just an amazing feat of engineering especially when you consider that it was made with no mortar--the bricks are cut so that they just fit. It was really stunning.

The aqueduct is at the top of the post and the Alcázar (this kind of cool-looking castle) is the other picture. Right by the Alcázar we found a good spot to take pictures and we were doing that when this guy gets out of a van parked near-by and says (in English), "Hi...umm, just to let you know i am going to make pee pee over here, so you might want to stand somewhere else." We moved and after a few seconds he was like, "Oh okay, I'm done now. You can come back." Caitlin politely thanked him for the information (I was too busy holding back fits of giggles), but we didn't go back over there.

Click here for more pictures.