I'm in Spain!

 I arrived in Madrid yesterday morning around 8 a.m. and met the group. We took a bus to Segovia and met our host families and got settled in. Segovia is such a charming city. It definitely has an old European feel to it; all the streets are narrow and paved with cobblestone and they wind in between the buildings, which are several stories tall. Actually, most everything here is small/narrow: the apartments, our bedroom, the doors, the cafés, the stores, and the sidewalks.

We spent yesterday walking around and getting acquainted with the city. In the center of the old part of Segovia are the remains of a Roman Aqueduct. It is so impressive to think that something built 2000 years ago is still standing!

 If you walk under the aqueduct, there is a shopping area. Here the streets are lined with stores selling different things. For example, farmacias sell medicine, bandages, etc. Panaderias sell bread. Perfumarias sell perfume, hair products, etc. Papelerias sell paper, pens, and other school supplies. There are also stores that sell shoes, clothes, stamps, electronics, socks, cell-phones, candy, and almost anything else you can think of. But rather than it all being in one store (like Wal-mart or Target in the U.S.), you have to go to a different store for each type of item. It’s convenient that these stores are right next to each other along the street, so we just walk from one to the next.

Last night after dinner (which we ate around 9 p.m.; Spaniards eat really late), several of us watched the Real Madrid v. Barcelona soccer game on TV. Unlike in the U.S., people here are VERY into soccer. It reminded me of how people in the south are about football J

This morning we went and got our class schedules and then several of us girls went and got cell phones together because you get a better deal if you buy several at one time. The cell phones here are pay as you go, rather than by contract. Also, you only pay for minutes/texts if you’re the one who makes the call or sends the text; it doesn’t cost anything to receive them. 

Tomorrow we’re going on our first group excursion to Madrid!