Day two: Adventures with statues and plazas and streets and universities. But mainly statues.
Me and Melanie - my roommate, with a statue of Don Quixote!
Me in front of Alcala de Henares - the university
Our bedroom at Pilar's piso!
This morning we slept right through our alarm, but still woke up in time to get ready and go to the University for a tour. The tour guide talked really really fast, and I really didn't understand a lot of it, but the university is really cool. All together, it's actually a lot of buildings all over the place, but we toured the historical part. It was built in 1499, the fourth oldest university in Spain. In the 1800s it was converted into a textile factory, but was restored and repaired in the 1970s and is now a fully functional campus. Also, at some point in history, someone wanted to take it apart stone by stone to send to America for souvenirs/historical pieces, but the town got together and purchased the university to save it. We saw two courtyards and an inside room where they used to hold exams, but now hold the awards ceremony for some prestigious Spanish awards. It was very beautiful, with an especially pretty ceiling (see picture). The front of the university has statues of saints, and at the top is a statue representing God. (I'm sorry I don't have more specific info, but... they guy talked reaaaaaalllly fast...)
Sunday:
Last night we all - well, eight of us, two girls didn't go - went to the fair here in Alcala! It was pretty fun, just like the carnival in Utah, but Spanish. Some of the group went on a ride, I took pictures and held purses, but we all tried churros chocolates, which are basically flour/water fried in oil and covered in sort of bitterish chocolate. It was SO good, though! And really messy. There was music everywhere, and tons of people. They had the little arcade booths the same as in the US, throwing darts, shooting cans, shooting hoops, etc. Some of the people in our group did that, Lindsey shot an automatic BB gun at a target which was pretty fun to watch! They also had lots of booths with scarves and purses and various things for sale. Very cool.
Anyway, that's what I've been doing, now here are some of my impressions of Alcala and the Madrid area in general:
- The landscape, especially outside of Alcala, looks a LOT like Utah.
- It's reeeeeeeally hot. Like, really hot. And air conditioning no existe in our piso. That's okay.
- Spanish people apparently don't need to sleep as much as the rest of the world. They seem to all stay up until two in the morning.
- Everybody smokes. Apparently lung cancer hasn't been discovered over here... jk
- Grass hasn't been discovered either, apparently... that's okay though.
- All the cars are tiny! And there's nowhere to park them anyway!
- Everyone likes to interrupt each other. It makes it hard for me when I have a hard time putting together my sentences already. But it's a cultural thing I guess.
- TV seems to be a big deal, at least with Pilar. She has three, in her small piso, and it is ALWAYS on. that could just be because she lives alone, though, I'm not sure.
- They're big on saving the environment. You have to pay for a grocery bag, to encourage people to bring their own. Toilets don't use as much water. People take public transportation instead of cars a lot of times.
- There's no water fountains anywhere. I bought a water bottle to carry around with me.
- Jaywalking is apparently not a big deal in Alcala. When there's a big enough space between cars, walk wherever you want!
- Modesty has definitely not been discovered... but I was expecting that, of course! It's Europe, and it's hot, what can you expect?
Sunday:Last night we all - well, eight of us, two girls didn't go - went to the fair here in Alcala! It was pretty fun, just like the carnival in Utah, but Spanish. Some of the group went on a ride, I took pictures and held purses, but we all tried churros chocolates, which are basically flour/water fried in oil and covered in sort of bitterish chocolate. It was SO good, though! And really messy. There was music everywhere, and tons of people. They had the little arcade booths the same as in the US, throwing darts, shooting cans, shooting hoops, etc. Some of the people in our group did that, Lindsey shot an automatic BB gun at a target which was pretty fun to watch! They also had lots of booths with scarves and purses and various things for sale. Very cool.
Anyway, that's what I've been doing, now here are some of my impressions of Alcala and the Madrid area in general:
- The landscape, especially outside of Alcala, looks a LOT like Utah.
- It's reeeeeeeally hot. Like, really hot. And air conditioning no existe in our piso. That's okay.
- Spanish people apparently don't need to sleep as much as the rest of the world. They seem to all stay up until two in the morning.
- Everybody smokes. Apparently lung cancer hasn't been discovered over here... jk
- Grass hasn't been discovered either, apparently... that's okay though.
- All the cars are tiny! And there's nowhere to park them anyway!
- Everyone likes to interrupt each other. It makes it hard for me when I have a hard time putting together my sentences already. But it's a cultural thing I guess.
- TV seems to be a big deal, at least with Pilar. She has three, in her small piso, and it is ALWAYS on. that could just be because she lives alone, though, I'm not sure.
- They're big on saving the environment. You have to pay for a grocery bag, to encourage people to bring their own. Toilets don't use as much water. People take public transportation instead of cars a lot of times.
- There's no water fountains anywhere. I bought a water bottle to carry around with me.
- Jaywalking is apparently not a big deal in Alcala. When there's a big enough space between cars, walk wherever you want!
- Modesty has definitely not been discovered... but I was expecting that, of course! It's Europe, and it's hot, what can you expect?
Viva Espana!!
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