Segovia and more sangria

Haven't written in a little while, but things have still been going well. Classes may not turn out to be as hard as I was thinking, but I think my travel course will be the most work.

We went on an excursion to Segovia and La Granja on Friday. It was really cool and it seemed like we saw a lot in just one day. Again, the architecture in Spain is just incredible. We got to go into castles that royal monarchs lived in, including the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, where Philip V lived during his retirement.

The Alcazar of Segovia was amazing as well. It was this huge castle with a lot of history inside. My favorite room inside the Alcazar was called La Sala de Los Reyes. There are 3-dimensional pictures/sculptures of the monarchs on the very top of the walls (by the ceiling) that go all around the entire room. They are in the order in which they ruled, starting with Pelayo of Trastamovas, and ending with Juana VII of Austria.
In the castle, there is a keep (central tower) that you can climb up. You have to go up a lot of stairs, and as you get closer to the top, the stairs are spiral and very very narrow. My friend Julia and I went up after most of the students in our program already had made it up there. We were only about half way and I was getting scared and even thought about turning back around to go down! But we kept going and it was such a cool accomplishment that we made it! We took a few group pictures of all the students on our excursion that made it to the top.

pictures from the trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NicoleDeFelice.usdtv/SegoviaExcursion?feat=directlink

In Segovia I had my first "Menu del Dia" (menu of the day). This is a popular option in Spanish restaurants for lunch that includes bread, a drink, 2 courses, and a dessert. I got tinto de verano (it's like wine with spritzer), paella (Spanish dish that consits of rice with chicken/seafood and vegetables), pollo carne (grilled chicken on the bone, which also came with french fries), and chocolate ice cream. It was a lot of food for only 11 Euros. Another interesting difference is that tipping is not very common here. At the most, people tip the waiter 10%, but it's not even required. Waiters/waitresses make more in their wages, instead of having their income rely so much on tips like how it is in the States. So waiters are not really about customer service as much.

That night we had paella in the house for dinner! I actually liked Concha's paella better than the paella I had at the restaurant. There was rice, green beans, peas, and boneless chicken in it.

Last night I went out to a club called Joy. I had fun, but I liked the one I went to last weekend-Pacha- a lot better. Joy seemed really crowded. People were constantly walking through the packed people on the dance floor and it was hard to dance. Not to mention the prices of drinks were ridiculous.

Today Rachel, Lexi, and I spent a few hours walking around Retiro Park. It is really cool. It's a HUGE park near the Prado and other museums. There's a lake with boats that you can ride! We're hoping to do that soon.

Tonight all of my roommates and I went out for the first time! We just went to a bar/restaurant near our Metro stop and drank some sangria. We were talking about how it already seems like time has been going by pretty quickly.

On Tuesday it will be 2 weeks since I've been living in Madrid!