Elmira College Spain 2013: Welcome to Spain!

After a long 7-hour flight we finally made it to Madrid, Spain! There, after going through customs and baggage claim in the airport, we took a big tour bus to Segovia, a smaller city of about 50,000 people, where we will be staying with our host families for the next 3 weeks! Around 1pm we met our families at the magnificent stone Roman Aqueduct where our group parted ways to go eat lunch and become acquainted with our new families. All of the parents seemed very excited and eager to meet us!

After spending time with the families for a few hours, we met at the aqueduct with Riccardo, our Spanish teacher and director, to receive an orientation. We proceeded to walk around the old city of Segovia to receive a small taste of its grand art, architecture, and history. We passed the "Casa de los Picos," a rectangular building with protruding triangular points that was built in the 14th century and stands today as an art/design school. Next, we saw the statue of Juan Bravo, a rebel leader in the Castilian Wars of the 15th century. Alongside of the statue is San Martín, a large church of Roman-style architecture built in the early 12th century. I've never seen a building so old!

We passed by various other old buildings and pieces of architecture, as well as some small shops and cafés, on our brief tour before arriving at the Plaza Mayor to see the giant gothic-style cathedral or "La Catedral" built in the 16th century. the Plaza Mayor also holds many shops and restaurants that make it the hotspot for tourist and social life in Segovia. Afterward, on our way to the school where we will be learning the history of Spain, we passed by a variety of bars and restaurants--one of which displayed the Spanish delicacy of young pig or "cochinillo" in the front window!

Finally, upon arrival at our school, Centro de Estudios Hispánicos de Segovia, we received a more detailed itinerary and course description for the next three weeks and also became familiar with the computer lab! To finish up the tour, we returned to the aqueducts. Instead of viewing them from the ground, we saw them from a higher location where we could see the entire city of Segovia, as well as the snow-capped mountains in the distance. The scenery was tremendously beautiful!

Despite our exhaustion from the long day of travel, our first day in Segovia turned out to be an unforgettable experience. Already, it is easy to see how different this city is from our own cities in the U.S. There is no limit to the wonderful experiences and knowledge we will gain from this trip to Segovia!