Glass Blowing and More Dessert

Also we got our first snow!

Last Friday, most of the other students were off traveling to various parts of the world; a few to Rome and the rest to Morocco. That meant that there were only 4 of us in class, which might have been sad, except that I think the professors all felt sorry for us. So in art class we went to a cafe and talked about everything under the sun with the professor. In grammar we did a fun little personality quiz in Spanish, which was hilarious. And for my European Union class we went to the glass factory museum in La Granja, a small town about 15 minutes away from Segovia. It was a very cool experience. We saw the tools used to make glass before as well as now. The factory is one of the oldest industrial factories in Spain, which was impressive. We also got to see an exposition of contemporary art using glass as a medium. It is incredible what people can do with glass.

Afterward we had the opportunity to visit the workshop where they make glass figures that are later sold. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. The person working would take the hot glass, on the end of a long metal pole, out of the oven and would proceed to shape the glass mass with a stack of wet newspaper (newspaper!) and blow into one end of the pole, putting a big air bubble in the glass. We watched them for about 15 minutes making what looked like vases, but I could have watched them for an eternity. It is amazing to seem them work the glass, and all as cool as cucumbers.

Today was the last day of the year long celebration of the 25th anniversary of Segovia being named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Because of this, there was a celebration in the Plaza Mayor. I went over there today with another one of the students. We got free cotton candy, making our mouths brilliantly blue, and then we waited in line to get the commemorative dessert of the 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, while waiting in line, the beautiful blue sky disappeared and we were completely soaked by a surprise attack of rain. However, it was worth it to get to try the dessert. It was like ponche segoviano but a lot more fancy. It was made up of several layers of: cake, cinnamon custard, chocolate cake, orange custard, cake, and marzipan. The cake was all soaked in a syrup made of liquor, water, sugar, and a liquid made of anise seeds. It was delicious and almost immorally sweet.

A very nice weekend in all.

Salamanca, Ávila, and Home

It is December! I can't believe that September, October, and November have already passed me by.

Streets of Salamanca

This past Monday, I went with the program on a day trip to Salamanca and Ávila. We spent most of the day in Salamanca which was fabulous because it was an incredible city. The center of the city, where the university and the oldest parts are located, was closed off to cars and had a wonderful atmosphere. I don't want to betray my Harry Potter geekiness too much, but it felt like we were in Hogsmeade. It was chillier than it had been so we were all bundled up, scurrying from old building to old building.

We visited the (gothic) Cathedral of Salamanca which was incredible. Especially living in Alaska, where everything is super new, it is hard to comprehend just how long it takes to construct a cathedral. A year, or two maybe is what we are used to, but to imagine that it took at the very least 100 years to construct a building is mind blowing. The evidence of this can be found easily in the Cathedral of Salamanca, because construction continued into the 20th century. Because of this, there are small relics of modern times: an astronaut and a lion with an ice cream cone in the facade of the building.

Astronaut sans arm

Lion enjoying ice cream

We also visited the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain and one of the oldest and still operating universities in Europe. We learned some amazing stories of professors that worked at the university.

One professor was giving a lecture about literature and pronounced "Shakespeare" in a Spanish accent, causing a student to laugh out loud at him. When asked why he was laughing, the student responded that he was laughing because the professor couldn't even speak English; how could he know anything about English literature. The professor said something to the effect of "Is that so?" and proceeded to give the rest of the class entirely in English.

Another professor taught for years and years and was an expert in theology and had translated the Bible from Latin to Spanish, I believe, and some accusations were made against him and he was arrested by the Spanish Inquisition on charges of heresy. He was held and tortured for five years. When he was finally released, he returned to the university, walked into his classroom, strode to the pulpit at the front of the room and said to the students, "As we discussed yesterday..."

We also visited Ávila before returning to Segovia. We spent very little time there, but it was incredibly fun, mostly because it started snowing. I have not seen snow since last winter and I couldn't believe how much I had been missing it. What is Thanksgiving without snow? We were all walking through the streets with our mouths wide open trying to catch snow flakes on our tongues; we probably looked ridiculous. But it was wonderful to see snow.

Snow!

It made me think about home; I am coming home in just a few weeks, and I can't believe it. It feels like I have been here forever, and simultaneously like I haven't been here very long at all.