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Hola de Parque de Buen Retiro en Madrid! The adventures have continued and I now have two trips outside of Madrid checked off the ever-growing travel list. I don’t know if y’all have heard, but there are some pretty breathtaking places to check out when one is in Europe (who knew??) and I intend to get my cowboy boots in as many cities as I can! Right now, we’re taking an intensive level Spanish course to review grammar and practice speaking in order to prepare us for regular classes that start on September 22. In addition to our academic lessons, Alicia and Rosana have taught us some important Spanish norms, like not to tip more than 5% and to just pass on running with the bulls at the Festival de San Fermin if you haven’t been in training with the NFL. 

However, Rosana randomly said something last week that could permanently define my trip: “Para los jovenes, el viajar es crecer.” (“For young people, to travel is to grow.”) I wrote it in all caps and spaced out for a few minutes to reflect on this serendipitous moment. How delightful that Rosana just gave me a tangible way to epitomize what I want out of this trip – but it sounds so much better in Spanish. (I’m beginning to think everything sounds better in Spanish: chupito, guay and tiquismiquis are some of my favorite words at the moment.)

Needless to say, hearing this phrase pleased me immensely, and I thought about it several times as I surveyed the sights of Segovia last Tuesday, including el Acueducto, el Catedral de Segovia y el Alcazar. I sampled some pastries and we had our lunch in the plaza in the shade of the enormous cathedral. I had only arrived in Spain four days before, and already we were taking two-hour breaks to drink sangria on our school trip. So where do I apply for the lifelong scholarship??

The Aqueduct - I'm loving the panoramic function on my camera!

La Catedral de Segovia

Un grupo fabuloso!

El Alcanzar

I almost passed out climbing the stairs to the top.

My love for Spain grew as we checked out the sights of Madrid in the afternoons after class last week. The big highlights were the Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol y el Palacio Real, but as Rosana said, el viajar is where the growing comes in, and while we haven’t been getting out too far into Madrid, we’ve definitely improved our navigation skills in our neighborhood. (Case in point: Although MJ and I can now get to our bus stop in under 10 minutes, we randomly wandered into the strongly gay neighborhood this afternoon, la Cheuca. It looks like they have some raging bars and they had great gelato, if you’re interested.) Pool and Beer is our favorite local spot in our neighborhood, where we speak Spanish to Pedro and Mario, the bartenders, and they speak English and give us a good price. (We’re working on upping the ante to fully Spanish. Patience is a virtue.) 

Plaza Mayor

  

El Palacio Real

Only picture in the entrance of the Palacio Real before a guard screamed at us.

Pool and Beer - neither are featured in this picture, but I promise they have both. 

So not only have I adopted Rosana’s excellent expression, I’ve picked up two others: “¿Porqué no?” and “No pasa nada.” Porqué no means “Why not?” and relates immensely to us jetting off to San Sebastian last Thursday, while no pasa nada means “no big deal” and I use it in every context I can. Should we go to the beach this weekend? Why not? It will take seven hours on a bus and we’d leave tomorrow. No big deal!

In San Sebastian, I responded “¿Porqué no?” to climbing up a mountain with a gorgeous view of the city and the ocean, going to a club right on the beach and tasting mini appetizers called pintxas. And when I realized I forgot my camera battery pack and enough clothes for the weekend, I said no pasa nada! San Sebastian was the perfect way to take a vacation from my vacation.

I stole these pictures from Mary Jordan's facebook. 

Playa de San Sebastian - one of the best city beaches in Europe!

Amigos!

Back in the “real” world, our intensive class continues to be supplemented with trips to the museums, el mercado and the movies! This week will be the only 5-day week I have all semester; I’ve arranged my schedule so I only have class Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Looks like I’ll be saying porqué no to a lot of places where I can continue to viajar y crecer. Will it be hard to keep my head from exploding as I keep taking in as much of Europe as I can? Posiblemente, cariños, pero no pasa nada!

Un beso!