1st Weekend in Spain.

Friday: This weekend was awesome! We had our first class on Friday that was our Art History class with one of our directors. The class seems like it's going to be great, partly because we have museum visits where we get to see the art in real life! How neat is that? I am kind of an Art History geek, noting that I have a cluster in Art History from BYU-I. I'm a fan. This class will be excellent, and I'm already noticing how much of the art I've actually already studied.

After our class, Kristie and I went to the plaza and walked around and saw all of the yummy places we will one day eat at. Note: There were a few American restaurants that got us really excited. We promised ourselves we'd try to go, at most, once per week, just so we can get a little taste of home every now and then. We ended up meeting up with our friends later for gelato that was extra tasty.

For dinner that night, Encarna made us hamberguesas. They were really tasty. The meat will always be different, no matter what type. But it tasted alright. She put cheese on them with a fried egg- this sounds odd, but it actually tasted great. Americans, let's do that!

Saturday: Best. day. ever. I went over to the temple to meet up with a good friend of mine from BYUI who is here working on the temple for a week. It was a little nerve-wrecking walking to the train and then switching onto the metro and taking another 4 transfers, but I would like you to know that I did it like a pro. (I would like to thank BART for making me feel totally comfortable on trains.) It was also my first experience navigating in Spanish, but I'm proud to say that people understood my Spanish and all went well. I met up with Mitch at the metro stop near the temple and we went off on our day-long adventure to Segovia. It was incredible.

The Alcazar of Segovia

Roman Aqueducts were breathtaking!

Catedral de Segovia

Incredible

First tapa in Spain!

A little different, but delicious!

Fun day in Segovia, this is at the top of the Castle.

Segovia is absolutely beautiful; full of history, culture, and an incredible castle. I'm excited to go back in a few weeks with my study abroad group. After eating great food, seeing awesome sights, we headed back and went into Madrid for the night. Madrid is insane at night! It felt just like I was in NYC. My favorite part about last night was seeing all of the street performers out. They are absolutely insane. From men dressed up as babies in strollers, to headless sailors, to Michael Jackson, Micky Mouse, and even dancing horses, we saw our fair share of Spanish crazies trying to earn a dime. Overall, it was a really fun day and I was lucky enough to see a good friend in such a foreign fun place.

Sunday: Today Kristie and I were late to church, but from what I can tell, the ward is great and we already have a YSA activity coming up next weekend. Today para almuerzo, we had paella. This meal is a famous Spanish dish, and I was excited to try it.  Traditional paella has shrimp, chicken, rice, peas, tomatoes, and onions. It's definitely a different dish, but it was actually pretty good. We didn't really know how to eat the shrimp so Encarna showed us how to take off its head and legs and how to suck out its stomach. Sounds sick, but it was actually pretty good.

Tonight we are heading out to our directors' house to have some American cookies and just hang out. It'll be nice to meet up with the girls from the group and get ready for this upcoming week of school.