You'll be the Prince and I'll be the Princess

Today was a magical day. Today was our first excursion away from Madrid. We went to the small town of Segovia. After breakfast, we all met to catch the bus for the 1 1/2 ride to Segovia. After a little snooze were were finally there. For those that are wondering, the highways in Spain... are the same, haha. When we got there it definitely looked smaller and were all excited for a breath away from the city. First we stopped at the train station for a potty break, and then Alicia took us the El Aqueducto for the beginning. We all had broken up into our groups so we could present our assigned material. the Aqueduct was beautiful and so impressive! It's considered the greatest work of civil engineering in spain. It was basically built using a simple pulley system, and you can actually see one of the original tools in the Cathedral Segovia. It is 728 meters long, there are 116 arcs, and it is 29 meters high. They don't know exactly when it was built, but probably finished around the first century. We then climbed to the top to look at the beautiful view. This view was definitely more of what you think of when you think Spain. We then headed up the small little streets to La Casa de los Picos. It was created in the 16th century, originally the "Casa del judio" or House of the Jews. However, when it changed owners, to Alfonso de la Hoz, it's name was changed as he was a Christian. It is his family's coat of arms that is above the door. It is covered in granite shaped like diamonds. Now it is the School of the Arts in Segovia. Inside, there are tiles that show different scenes of Segovia. As we made our way along the streets, there were so many beautiful buildings, with gorgeous balconies and flowers, and restaurants with incredible views. If anyone wanted to take a second honeymoon, Spain would be a beautiful place for that (or those of us who still have yet to get to the first one, haha). We tried to find a lot of the other sites in our wandering, including an old convent, but we did not know much about it. Then we went to eat lunch at Alcázar, the palace of the "Catholic Monarchs"- Ferdinand II of Aragón and Isabel of Castilla (in Segovia). They were not the only ones to live there, however, they were very influential. Spain did not exist as a country, only regions. Therefore, their marriage brought two regions together. There is also a saying for them that is "Tanto monto, monto tanto" This is basically saying that they are equal. They were both a King/Queen in their own right so they were equal rulers, where as now it is a King and his "esposa" or wife. I really liked that :). Anyways, the castle. As I have never been to Europe, nor seen a REAL castle, this was a magical day. I saw armor that true knights had worn, sat and gazed out the window of the queen, saw the table where they sat, saw the throwns of the king and queen, their bedroom, the moat protecting them, and SO much more. As I walked around in utter awe it was as though every fairy tale I had heard was suddenly true. Kings and Queens and Princes and Princesses, knights in shining armor, all truly existed! I believe it, I do! Que romantico! No? It was a beautiful feeling, and a beautiful day to discover this ancient castle. We then climbed all 152 steps to the top of the tower for the grand view of Segovia. Vale la pena. (It was worth it). After that, we headed with Alicia to the Catedral (Cathedral). This was a gothic cathedral build in the 12th century. I have never seen something so impressive in my life. The organs and the ceilings, and the stained glass, all so beautiful. It was really neat too, as one of the girls on our trip is Catholic and the other night at dinner I had asked her about some of the differences as I was just curious. It was really cool to have her with us today when she could explain what all the different rooms were for or special seats and things of that nature. There are rooms with different Saints that are basically used after mass for prayer. You are "supposed" to go for at least an hour and you can write, pray, read, basically just spending time in God's presence is what she said. I cannot remember the name for this time. What I find is really neat is confession. During the Eucharist, when Catholics take confession, they believe the body and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ. Therefore, before accepting them into their body they want to be clean. This is what confession is for. She was talking about the power of confessing your sins to an actually person, and explained some of the misconceptions about this idea. No the priest is not taking away their sins, God is just using him. Just as they honor Mary, they do not worship her, but they do honor her as the Lord used her to bring Christ to the world. I just found it very interesting and was interested how humbling confession must be, and she was explaining how true that is. It is similar with accountability partners, or if you have the strength to talk to say a minister or someone, but it takes a lot more to do that. Still, she said many Catholics don't go to confession, or go very rarely. I told her I would like to go to a mass while we are here, as I have never been, and several others did as well so I think we are going to go with her, once, hopefully. I just want to go with someone who knows what they are doing, as it will be in a foreign language and I definitely do not want to do something wrong or offend someone. Anyways, after the Cathedral, I went souvenir shopping. There were a lot of beautiful painted items and I wanted to buy so much! It's just so hard because there is so much I don't know how to limit myself. Still I had seen a lot of the stuff in Madrid so I'm still scoping. Then, as I was enjoying some ice cream with some chicas, our professor told us that if we still needed something sweet we needed to go to a pasteleria and try ponche de sajfkd;ajdk;ad (yes I do not remember the last part of the name), as it was something special only in Segovia. I, by myself, booked it to the nearest dessert shop and asked for ponche de __________ and they knew exactly what I was talking about. It was kind of a yellow/brown color and a small square. Biting into it, there was a layer outside of very sugary dough, then a layer of a yellowish cake, a layer of custard-like stuff and another layer of the cake. It was very very good, but very rich. I could not finish it so I shared it with almost all 26 of our group mates (with one spoon, gotta love it :) ). A bit worn out, we all headed to the bus and had a bit of a snooze on the way back. When we got back, our teachers realized we did not have our new metro passes, so we worked that out, and a few of us went for some "tapas" though we ended up at this place that had just little sandwich/like appetizers. On our walk over there I saw very common sight in Spain, a couple hard core making out at the cross walk. PDA is totally acceptable here. In the park, on the Metro, on the street, wherever, haha. Just in case you were wondering. Anyways, back to food, I had one with "pollo asado y salsa" or something like that. I know there was chicken in it, but I'm not sure what else. I also had a bit of my new favorite drink, Sangria. It was really good. Towards the end, my whole family on my mom's side for the most part called from NY, preparing for one our good friend's wedding showers. I'm a bit bummed that I'm missing it, but it was so great to finally hear from my family. Everyone was on speaker phone :) Love you guys! Then I headed back to the house, as we were hoping for an early dinner around 8/8:30 to go out a little later tonight. However, Madre just got home, it's around 10, so whatever. Vale! (Spaniards use the term Vale constantly. It pretty much means "OK" or "Good" or "Got it?" Lots of things. Vale?) Anyways, yes. And we are supposed to have hamburguesas again! Woo! . Hopefully there will be a bit more fun tonight, but I am definitely looking forward to El Rastro tomorrow, which is the flea market! I miss everyone a lot but Spain gets better and better! Please comment and/or send me updates on YOUR lives!