This morning I woke up early to get ready for our day trip to Salamanca and it was pouring. I took my time getting ready and eating breakfast, hoping it would stop raining, but no. We hoped on the bus and it took us 2.5 hours to get to Salamanca. When we got there it had stopped raining momentarily but was windy and cold. We walked around the city for a while (much to our dismay) until we got to the Cathedral. A bunch of us needed the bathroom, but cities aren't really built to accommodate that so we had to wait. We got to go up the tower in the Cathedral (lots of spiral stairs, like Alcazar) but it was terrifying because two months ago an American man got vertigo in the stairs and then fell to his death. Needless to say, we were all very cautious. The view from the top was pretty, but nothing compared to the view from Alcazar. It was also pouring. We then walked around outside (again, to our dismay) until we got to a McDonalds on the plaza mayor. It had a huge upstairs where we could all eat the sac lunches packed by our host families. My host mom packed me THREE sandwiches (woah) which I gave to some other people who were still hungry. I ate the one with tortilla on it which was super tasty. We then had two hours to walk around but none of us wanted to! So a few of us went to get hot chocolate and churros (a big spanish thing, hot chocolate is more like liquid brownie) which hit the spot. There were some weird looking tapas at the place so I decided to ask what they were. The man working there was so nice and talked to us about tapas for like thirty minutes. A popular one was a sausage type thing made with rice (or beans or potatoes, depending), meat, and pigs blood. Very interesting, very gross looking but a big part of spanish culture. Apparently they use every part of the pig here which I think is great. They sell fried pig nose! We then killed some time and then met the group. The group then walked back to the cathedral to tour the inside. There are lots of little sections inside the church which were bought by rich people of the time. They had private mass and then eventually were buried there. Pilar then asked us if we wanted to walk around or go home, and we all wanted to go home! It took us a bit longer to get home because it was raining a lot and when we got back to Segovia it was still raining and freezing. You can see your breath! No one told me Spain was going to be like this!
But today I learned a few things. I don't like touring places via busses or tour groups. I have done a lot of it in my life and I hate it. I hate being dependent on other peoples schedules and not having a say in what we do. It is also hard to do anything (like find a place inside to eat) with a group of thirty people. I think no more touring like this after this trip! I also learned that our generation is camera crazy. I only took a few pictures today, because I realized that #1 pictures don't capture the beauty and #2 I don't enjoy the moment as much. I looked around at my classmates only to realize that the only way they saw the views today was through their camera lens. While I think it is good to remember where we were, I also think we need to stop, put the camera down and enjoy the moment. People also are always on their phones when we are at cafes, due to free wifi. No one talks to each other and I think it is really sad. We get wifi at school and at home, plus those people on facebook can wait a few hours. I guess it just makes me kind of sad. There is such a disconnection from real life, whether it be cameras or phones.
While touring the other places we are going to tour is not going to be my favorite (because it involves busses and tour groups and tour guides and whatnot), I have also realized that I have to accept being a tourist. The girls here are always so concerned about "looking american" and while at first I was like oh ya we stand out, now I'm kind of like so what? we are americans! When we tour, we are a group of thirty people and nothing we do will stop us from looking like tourists. Even just being here in Segovia, we stand out, and it is ok. However, I am looking forward to just living life here. While I don't like homework and class, it is part of a life routine, but in Segovia. This is the way I would rather see and experience a place. Now I get some time to do some homework while listening to Puri play spanish music. It is quite lovely :)
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