Ok, so a few days later I'm finally getting to writing the post I promised in my last one. Friday night I just ended up staying at home, and chilled on facebook and played a game, nothing too exciting. Saturday we had another excursion, this one was to three locations close to Valladolid. The first place we stopped was the city of Tordesillas. The main attraction there is this house where the kings of Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (original name, I know) back in 1494. The treaty divided what was then the known (unclaimed) world, which was good because it stopped them from starting a war or anything unpleasant like that. We actually learned about the treaty in one of my Spanish classes last semester, so it was kinda cool to actually learn about it in real life. After that we went to a castle that our university owns. It's unrestored, so it was different than the last one we visited. We got to explore it on our own, so I went on top of the tower (even though I hate the stairs, they're really steep and really small), and down to the bottom of the well (down stairs, don't worry, I didn't jump). The one picture is a picture of myself and my friend Elizabeth on top of the tower. After the castle we went to a park in town to eat lunch. By this point I really had to use the bathroom, and since the builders of the castle didn't bother to put indoor plumbing in, I had to go searching for a bar or cafe. Myself and one of the other students went walking down the road, only to find a place called "Condireria Rico-Bar," a place with my last name (see the other picture below)! What are the chances of that? After using the bathroom we felt bad just leaving, so we went and got a coke and coffee (the coffee was Alaina's, I still don't drink the stuff), and talked with the bartender. Turns out, the bar was named after him, his last name is Rico! Crazy stuff. After eating we got on the buses and went to a museum/dig of roman ruins about 20 minutes from Valladolid. Since it was Valentine's day, the staff had a little drama thing for us in a replica roman house, complete with all the guys reading a love poem to all the girls (in Spanish of course).
That day was also Paul's (a student from Eau Claire) birthday, so about 10 of us went out for his birthday. We actually went to his house first and had cake. That was my first time in someone else's house in the whole month and a half I've been over here, since Spaniards don't have people over. After that we went to a bunch of different places, and the group got split up because it's hard to do anything with a group that big.
Sunday I went to church; the normal pastor was out of town, so one of the members, Javier, spoke. After church we had our normal Sunday meal, a noodle soup, and then garbanzos with meat (and the always present bread and water). After the meal I went with my host mom and host sister to a bar near school for a coke. I did my 10 minutes of homework, and then skyped with various members my family for probably an hour and a half, so that was good.
Today we started a new class schedule; same classes, but at different times, so my group didn't have class until 10:30, and tomorrow I only have 2 classes, woo hoo! This afternoon I went to the library with my roommate and another student and picked up my library card that I applied for last week, so I now have a lovely light green library card. I don't really have anything planned for the rest of this week (like usual). This coming weekend is Carnaval, and we don't have school next Monday and Tuesday. At this point I don't have anything planned, but I might be going to Sevilla for a couple of days. If that doesn't happen, I'll probably just take a day trip over the time off. I don't mind staying in Valladolid for Carnaval, but I want to at least do some traveling. Well that's about it, I'm going to hang out with some people for one of the girl's birthday, so I should get going. Adios!
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