Thanksgiving & Segovia

Last week was Thanksgiving. I was in Spain. Spain = not the United States. Luckily for me I didn't have a moment to sigh over missing my country because my program directors of AHA organized a Thanksgiving meal for everyone. We gathered at a cafe near our University to partake in Thanksgiving goodness. As I walked in the door of the cafe I could have sworn I'd flown overseas and returned to the land of turkey, stuffing, and American pride. The Spanish woman who owned the cafe, along with some AHA staff members, slaved in the kitchen all day to prepare this meal for us homesick kids. It was delicious. The turkey was succulent, the stuffing was fluffed, the cranberries were...well they weren't can-shaped but they were still good. They even made pumpkin pie from scratch, I think, although I've never seen pumpkins around. The food was good and the company was enjoyable. It was nothing compared to actual family, but the makeshift Spanish student family sufficed. We even went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Man, us Americans sure do know how to thrust a US tradition on a tiny Spanish cafe.

That all took place Wednesday night, which as you know was not Thanksgiving day. The actual day of Thanksgiving was spent on a bus. That bus was headed to Segovia for the weekend. This was the last AHA organized excursion. The main attraction of Segovia is the ancient Roman Aqueduct (see my fbook for pictures). That thing sure was old. Someone said it was from the first century, but I find that hard to believe. Google if you care to prove that rumor wrong. In Segovia we also saw a castle that was allegedly the castle Walt Disney based the magical kingdom off of- but apparently there are dozens of other castles that claim the same thing. Either way, it was still cool to see a castle.

Segovia was our home base, but we also explored Avila and La Granja. In Avila we saw a huge wall. It actually has a name more specific than just "wall" but I can't remember it. This thing was ginormous though. It surrounded the old territory of Avila. We got to walk on top of it. So cool. I could have crushed everything in sight for miles with my thumb and index finger.

In La Granja we went to a palace. The word "palace" was kind of deceiving. We ended up getting an hour tour of mostly super old school tapestries. There was some really neat ceiling art, but the tour guide dwelled on the tapestries. The cool part about palaces is that they usually have gardens. This palace had a magical garden. Ok, it was a regular garden, but while we were wandering through the garden area is started SNOWING. Snow! How magical! And just in time for the holiday season. Snow makes everything magical.

After a snow-kissed weekend we headed back home to face studying and a week of exams. Good news is I survived my tests, for the most part. Now I'm preparing for a four day weekend in Barcelona with the one and only Anna Fraine. Prepare yourselves- there are bound to be stories after this reunion.