Hello all, (note, I have made some minor changes to the first paragraph since I first posted this entry and added wikipedia links to some of the references I make)
Sorry for not writing in a week but there really hasn't been all that much to write about. This week was mostly filled with orientation and the like-nothing too exciting except that we took our language placement tests and more or less chose our classes (with some wiggle room). I'm in Lengua Superior A, which unfortunately meets on Mondays and Wednesdays (there was another class I really wanted to take then. I'm also planning on taking Spanish Theater and Colloquial Spanish in the hopes that I'll understand what people are saying on the streets more. Its also supposed to teach you the "language of youth." I'll also be taking a few smaller courses that don't meet as often. Tuesday I had a interview with Gema, a woman who owns the second best children's book store I've ever seen. It has books in English, French, and Spanish from birth to 12+. It has all of my favorite authors and most of my favorite books (although I was disappointed to learn that although she had The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, she did not have The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, which I feel is a must for every book collection). I saw two movies: La Noche de los Girasoles (Wednesday night) and Volver (Friday evening). The first was not very enjoyable-very dark and kind of hard to follow (it jumped around a lot) but the cinematography was beautiful. The second was great! It starred Penelope Cruz and had a funny and interesting story. On Thursday, the group went to see a zarzuela. Zarzuela is the classic Spanish theater type. Its a cross between an operetta and Spanish music. The one we saw was called La Revoltosa. It was a little hard to follow because the singing was operetic and the dialogue had a lot of colloquial expressions, but the costumes were beautiful and the dancing was fun. I also went to the Reina Sofia, the modern art musuem here in Madrid on Friday. They have a special exhibit now called "Picasso: Tradicion y Vanguardia" which is the title of the class I wanted to take and now can't. I love going to the Reina Sofia because it not only has a fairly large collection of Picasso but it also has a great collection of Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. (I've included an image of one of his most famous paintings for those of you who are unfamiliar with his work. Its kind of fun.)
Yesterday we went to Segovia, a small town approximately an hour drive from Madrid. It was an adorable little town and a really great trip. We started by going to La Iglesia de la Vera Cruz (the church of the true cross) just outside of the city. The church is special because it is unlike most other churches built around the same time (most of them take the form of the cross). The Iglesia de la Vera Cruz takes the form of a dodecagon (12 sided figure for those of you who have forgotten geometry). There's a lot of mystery surround the church like who built it and why (there's some speculation that it was the Knights of Templar, like in the DaVinci Code, but they really just have no idea).
After that, we went back to the center of the city and walked over to see the Aqueduct. They told us a lot of statistics about the height and length of the aqueduct (its pretty massive) but I can't remember them. I'll just say that it's pretty impressive. Right around the base of the aqueduct they were holding a Celto-Iberic Festival to celebrate the town's heritage. According to the tour guide, these festivals are held every year and usually have different themes to them-this one talked about the methods of war in that time. We then continued our walk to go up by the amazing Gothic cathedral. Although we didn't actually go in, it was an impressive sight to see and kind of awe inspiring given it's massive size.
The coolest part of the day was by far our trip to the Segovian Alcazar, the castle that inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella's castle. It was amazing and I recommend you look at my Flickr to get the full impact of some it because I'm couldn't pick which photos I wanted to upload with this. The one I did pick is the King's Room, which was used for all sorts of official events, including feasts and the like. The people around the top are former kings (and queens!) of Castille (the region where Segovia is situated). Each person has an explanation of who s/he were and why s/he was notable. You can see part of the ceiling. The ceilings were actually one of the coolest feature of the castle because they're so intricately done and almost all of them are guilded.

After that, we went to lunch (we were starving). Every time we do a formal "lunch" they fill us up with way way too many appetizers and a lot of wine. By the time the food comes out, most people barely have room to eat it all (although some people of course do). We tried the specialty of the region, cochinillo, or suckling pig. It was kind of disturbing because some people got legs (including the feet) and others (including me) got parts with brands and hair(because the skin was left on). My piece also had a large portion of a spine, gross. After we ate the pig, we had the typical Segovian dessert which was absolutely delicious. I'm not sure what it was made of but according to some people it tasted a little like pumpkin pie and it was covered in a great Marzipan frosting. We then had some free time to walk around the city before we loaded back into the bus and headed back to Madrid.

Last night, I went out with my friends to some bars and finally to a disco, all in Chueca (the gay neighborhood). It was a lot of fun and the music was at times great and at times awful. The only part that suck was that right before I left for the night, I got burned by a cigarette. I'm not talking about my clothes, I'm talking about my skin. Fortunately it isn't a very big burn but I do have two itty-bitty blisters thanks to it. I finally went home around 4:30 after the adventure of taking the night bus (Buho). I've been fighting a cough all week and the hours spent in smokey locations really didn't help. But I did have a good time.

Os echo de menos.